Justin Fletcher gripped the heavy wedding invitation between his fingers and smiled with the kind of malice usually reserved for a courtroom victory. It was not the expression of a man excited to see his family or celebrate his cousin Paige, whose name was embossed in gold across the expensive cardstock.
He was sitting in his car outside a coffee shop in a busy part of Phoenix, watching the heat waves shimmer off the asphalt of the parking lot. One hand rested on the steering wheel while the other held the invitation up against the harsh Arizona sunlight.
Justin did not notice the delivery truck blocking the lane or the tourists arguing over a map near a dusty palm tree. He was busy picturing his ex wife, Cassidy, and he was imagining her exactly as he needed her to be for his plan to work.
He wanted her to look exhausted and defeated so that everyone would see that leaving her had been his best executive decision. He pictured her arriving at the wedding in a simple dress with their twin boys clinging to her hands while her hair remained unstyled from a lack of time.
In his mind, he had already scripted the entire evening to highlight his own success. He would stand near the entrance in his tailored suit while his expensive watch caught the light every time he reached for a drink.
He planned to let her see him laughing with someone important before he even acknowledged her presence. He wanted her to feel the vast distance between his new life and the one they had shared in their old house.
He might even mention a promotion he had not actually received at Kendrick Logistics yet. He was a regional sales representative with a talent for sounding like a vice president, and he loved the sound of his own lies.
The truth had become an obstacle for Justin, so he had spent months building a much more convenient version of reality. He told his relatives that Cassidy had been impossible to please and that she had never supported his grand ambitions.
He claimed she was small minded and that she had used motherhood as an excuse to stop putting in any effort. He even told his mother, Gillian, that he sold their family home because Cassidy had mismanaged their bank accounts into a crisis.