Calling in Backup
I did the only thing I could think to do: I called my sister, Maya.
For the first 15 seconds, I couldn’t speak. I just sobbed into the phone.
“Tam,” she said, her voice going sharp and steady. “What happened?”
“Jake is marrying Maddie,” I whispered. “The contract. The texts. All of it.”
Maya didn’t gasp. She didn’t say, “No, that can’t be right.”
She just said: “I’m coming over.”
When she arrived, I handed her the iPad and Emily’s email. She sat on the couch and scrolled in total silence — the dangerous kind, where you know someone is already ten moves ahead.
Finally, she closed the case and looked at me.
“We’re not blowing up tonight,” she said. “We’re going to handle this the smart way.”
In that moment, something inside me shifted. I wasn’t just a sobbing, blindsided bride.
