I was living beside a hero, and I did not know it, and I cried myself to sleep hating him for a goodness I could not yet see.

Chapter 8 — Maid of Honor

The very next morning, I forced a bright smile onto my face, and I sat down beside my sister, and I helped her build a wedding inspiration board.

I want that on the record, because it is the thing I am least ashamed of from that whole period.

Whatever I felt in the dark of my own room, I did not let one drop of it touch Gemma.

She had waited her whole life for someone to look at her the way Gabriel did, and she had it, and I was not going to let my own broken daydream cast even the smallest shadow over the biggest joy of her life.