Let him say his vows to a woman he could not touch.

Let him marry me in every way except the only one he actually cared about.

I hung up the phone knowing precisely what I had to do, and what I had to leave undone, and I slept, that night, better than I had slept in weeks.

I know that some people, hearing this, will wonder why I went through with the ceremony at all — why I did not simply cancel, send the guests home, spare myself the dress and the performance and the whole elaborate charade.

It is a fair question, and I have asked it of myself.