He used to drive over ten miles after being awake for more than twenty hours straight, just to buy me a bowl of my favorite shaved ice.
For my birthday, he held his breath underwater for a full five minutes to set up a surprise, then appeared out of nowhere the moment my face fell.
When I was deployed with Doctors Without Borders and a communications failure cut us off for a month, he lost his mind. He pulled every string he had to get a plane ticket, risking his life to reach me.
On that battlefield where no one knew if tomorrow would come before death did, I said yes to his proposal.
I never imagined that the wedding I'd dreamed of would turn out to be nothing more than a cruel joke.
"Sis, I was only teasing Carter. I never thought he'd actually agree to put on a show with you. But once I saw how determined he was, I realized just how much he loves me."
"Sorry you're so upset about it."
As she spoke, Nora held out a glass of wine. When I didn't take it, she grabbed my hand and forced it around the glass.
The next second.
The glass slipped and shattered on the floor. Shards flew toward Nora.
Carter shoved me aside and rushed straight to her.
The moment he saw blood trickling from a cut on Nora's leg, his face darkened.
"Amanda! If you have a problem, take it up with me!"
"So what Nora said wasn't nice. She's just innocent and kind-hearted. Would it kill you to be the bigger person?"
A sharp ache pierced through my chest.
"The bigger person?"
"Carter Gilbert, you are the last person in this room who gets to ask that of me."
From the moment this all began, Carter's friends hadn't said a word.
Not until I finished that sentence.
Their excitement was instant, voices dripping with mockery.
"Amanda, if you hadn't spent every waking minute controlling Carter—telling him what he couldn't eat, refusing to let him go out with us—he never would've fallen for someone as sweet and caring as Nora."
"Bet you're regretting it now that he's dumped you, huh? Why don't you get on your knees and beg him to take you back? Who knows, maybe he'll change his mind!"
Laughter and jeers erupted across the room.
A year ago, when Carter and I returned from Doctors Without Borders, I'd shed my usual reserve and made a real effort to fit into his social circle. I'd even broken the Henson family's rule against living together before marriage and moved into the Gilbert residence.