All Chapters of The Wrong Match That Got It Right : Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

I heard her before I saw them.That sound. Low and slow and satisfied. Coming through the gap in the bedroom door like it owned the whole house.I already knew what it meant. My body knew before my brain caught up. My hand went cold on the door handle and my stomach dropped straight through the floor but I pushed it open anyway because some part of me needed to see it with my own eyes before I let myself believe it.I saw it with my own eyes.Derek was on his back on the white duvet I had ordered online. The one I spent twenty minutes reading reviews for. The woman straddling him had dark hair hanging loose around her face and her hands flat on his chest and she was moving on top of him slow and deliberate, rolling her hips, her head dropped back, her lips parted. His hands were gripping her waist so hard his knuckles had gone pale. His eyes were closed and he was breathing hard and making a sound I recognised and I hated that I recognised it.She leaned down and kissed him. Slow and

He talked like every word cost him something and he wasn't going to waste a single one.No padding. No sorry this is strange or I know it's a lot. Just clean and direct the way he had been since the moment he sat down across from me."I run a company called Ashford Holdings Group. Private acquisitions, investments, property. We've been building toward a deal for two years, a three hundred million acquisition, and we are this close to closing it."He held two fingers an inch apart."The partner on the other side is old money and very traditional. He has one condition before he puts his name on anything. His lawyers have said it twice now in formal meetings.""What condition," I said."He wants to know he is doing business with a man who has what he calls a settled life." He looked at me. "He means a wife. He has said this word out loud. Wife.""That's insane," I said."It's old fashioned. But it's real and it's not going away.""So you need a fake wife.""I need a wife who shows up to

The cab felt like it was moving through water.I sat in the back with my phone in both hands and watched the city go past and told myself he was stable. The nurse said stable. Stable is okay. Stable means he is still there.Nadia had tried to come with me. I told her to stay. I needed her to do one thing first and that thing was call the venue, call Derek's mother, call whoever needed to be called, and tell them the wedding was postponed. Not cancelled. Postponed. We would figure out the language later. Right now I just needed the day cleared before it became a catastrophe with a seating chart.She had grabbed my arm before I got out the door. She said: are you sure about this. About the other thing.I said: I'm sure about Walter. Everything else I'm figuring out as I go.She let me go.The hospital was white and loud and smelled the way hospitals always smelled, like someone was working very hard to make you forget what happened in places like this. I went straight to Walter's floor.

The courthouse smelled like old carpet and photocopier ink.I had imagined my wedding day a lot of different ways over the years. A garden somewhere. Late afternoon light. Walter in the front row trying not to cry and failing completely. I had imagined the dress and the flowers and the moment you turn and see the person waiting for you at the end and your whole chest does that thing it does when something is exactly right.I had not imagined this hallway.Fluorescent lights. A row of plastic chairs bolted to the wall. A noticeboard covered in laminated signs about filing deadlines and court fees. A man in a grey cardigan behind a desk who looked like he had seen everything that had ever happened in this building and felt nothing about any of it.Nadia was gripping my arm with both hands.She had not said much since we got out of the car. She had done the thing she did when she was holding herself together by sheer force of will which was press her lips very flat and breathe through he

Derek found out at 6pm.Marcus from the fourth floor. Jacket already on, bag over his shoulder, phone held out like he was doing Derek a favour. He said: "Hey, saw something online. Is it true? Sloane got married today?"Derek looked up from his screen."To Caden Ashford?"The name landed like something thrown hard across the room.Derek took the phone. Looked at the photo. Grainy, taken from a distance outside a courthouse. Sloane in a dark coat. A tall man beside her, face half turned, but the height and the build and the way he stood told Derek everything he needed to know.He handed the phone back.He said: "Get out of my office Marcus."Marcus got out.Derek sat there. Hands flat on the desk. Eyes on his screen but not seeing it. The photo was still in his head, burning itself into the back of his eyes the way images do when your brain decides this is important, this is something you are going to keep whether you want to or not.She got married.She actually got married.Not just