Page 30 of The Marriage Narrative
ZINNIA:…What should I do?
FIONA:What do you mean?
GRACE:LEAVE HIM. NOW. ZINNIA I SWEAR TO GOD
FIONA:Don’t you want to leave?
ZINNIA:I don’t know
ZINNIA:We didn’t even really talk about everything. Something else is going on. I need to know the truth because we’ll still be married even if I go home
GRACE:NOT FOR LONG. SOMETIMES HUSBANDS JUST DIE. IT USED TO HAPPEN ALL THE TIME.
FIONA:Grace.
ZINNIA:Maybe I should sleep on it? Write down some questions to ask him in the morning?
ZINNIA:Make the escape plan now and use it tomorrow if everything is still shitty?
ZINNIA:I’ll need an offensive plan if I don’t leave. A beat them at their own game kind of plan.
FIONA:You should come home
FIONA:Stop convincing yourself to stay
ZINNIA:I just need a plan I’ll feel better with a plan
ZINNIA:This is the worst wedding night ever lmao
ZINNIA:Is there a record for world’s shortest marriage lol
ZINNIA:Please help me
GRACE:I warned you too.
ZINNIA:I know you did I’m sorry
ZINNIA:I’m ready to listen now
GRACE:Here’s what we’re going to do.
Chapter 9
Jordan
Zinnia was nevergoing to trust himorhis family now and it was all his fault. She was right. He was wrong. End of story.
He spent the entire night agonizing over every last second of their prelude-to-divorce conversation. Standing in the hall, desperate to knock on her door. Slinking back to his room, hoping she’d come to him. Waiting for her to appear with her suitcase and a goodbye. Eventually, he gave up and sat near the front door, ready to beg on his knees for her to stay.
Nobody had ever accused him of not being overdramatic.
By morning, Jordan’s stomach wouldn’t stop churning with nausea because he justknewZinnia was going to leave him. When someone rang their doorbell, he groaned in abject agony—he wasn’treadyto face the day and all the terrible consequences it had planned for him.
He’d expected Mabel, but it was his mom standing on the porch with a pastry gift basket. “Happy housewarming, honey.” Seeing her smile eased some of the weight pressing down on his soul. “Weren’t you wearing those clothes yesterday?”
He looked down at himself—barely wrinkled but entirely disheveled. “It’s, uh, been a long night.”
“I see.”
