“Thomas,” he said, “I’m marrying into this family in three days.

I think I was pulled in a long time ago.”

So I let myself be talked partway toward it, but I set a condition, because I needed the thing to have limits, needed it not to become a spectacle for its own sake.

“If we do this,” I said, “it is not a stunt.

It is not revenge.

We do not go looking for a scene.” “I know,” Samantha said.

“I’ll only use it if she lies.