My sister kissed my husband in front of thirty people at her own anniversary party and called it a joke. Her husband had a wrapped present in his hands and an envelope she had never opened.

My sister kissed my husband at her anniversary party and called it “a joke” — what her husband did next made them come crawling back.

Ten years married to Ellis. Two children. I would have put my hand in a fire for that man.

And my younger sister had been flirting with him since about 2017.

 

“How did you find one like Ellis?” Romy would say, smiling. “I’m so jealous. I wish I had a husband like yours.”

It made me uncomfortable, and then it made me tired, and then it was just Romy.

When she married Tobin Cade I was relieved. He is a good man and he adored her, and I thought: right. That’s that sorted.

 

For their first anniversary we drove over to Harrow Rise to celebrate with them.

And as we sat down to dinner, Ellis pulled out Romy’s chair.

“If I’d met you first,” she said, “I might have gone for a different husband.”