The Wife Before

by Shanora Williams

But like I said, a woman scorned is no joke. She had a mission, and that mission was to save up enough money for us to have a cushion and for her children to go to college. She’d accomplished that mission too, but it didn’t come without repercussions.

She had a stroke when she was forty-nine. Passed away at fifty-two. She’s been gone for seven years now but the emotion of that loss still lingers.

A job is a job and money is only an object. Sure, it’s nice to have money, but people—Americans especially—have become so numb to working. They get up at the same time every day, slave away for hours, mentally drain themselves, and for what? All so some rich, corporate man can sit in his big mansion and watch the numbers climb in his bank account?

Why kill myself over a check that wouldn’t even last a week?

“Yeah, Mira.” Kell pressed his lips, and his eyebrows drew together as he sat back against the back of the chair. I knew that look, and had a feeling that whatever he was about to say next wasn’t going to be good. “And do you know that he killed her?”

Here’s the thing about me—I have a bad habit of not thinking things through. I can be both impulsive and impatient and I get overly excited about the smallest things, so imagine what it’s like when a big event or opportunity turns up in my life. Because of this little personality quirk of mine, I don’t always make the best decisions. Therefore, when Roland asked me to marry him five months after moving in with him, I said yes.