Prologue

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

My jaw ticked, my irritation obvious. "Stop it," I hissed under my breath. "Quit asking me that."

"Dude, I'm just trying to help you out," Troy insisted under his breath. "Instead of looking at all that tits and ass last night, you freaked out, saying that you couldn't do this."

"I know what I said," I snapped, keeping my voice low.

"And you said it all fucking night long, ignoring the entire bachelor party," he reminded me. "That's not cold feet, Raddix. That's something different."

I looked over at my best friend, wondering where in the hell my brother was. "Does it matter?" My eyes darted around at all the people seated inside the church. "No matter what I said last night, I am not about to humiliate Madison in front of all our family and friends."

Troy let out a rude snort. "Yeah, because that's way worse than marrying her when you're not sure if you really want to. I mean, who doesn't want to be divorced five years later, fighting over custody of the kids."

"Can you just shut up?" I hissed.

"She'll understand-"

"Oh, yeah," I scoffed. "I can totally see her understanding how I let things get this far. Not only does that make me an asshole, but it also makes me a goddamn coward." Turning from Troy, I looked around the church. "Where in the fuck is Caspian?"

"Not sure," he answered noncommittally. "Probably banging one of the bridesmaids somewhere."

I looked down at my feet, taking in a deep breath. I loved Madison with all my fucking heart, so it wasn't a question of love. Honestly, I had no idea why I'd been feeling so unsure about marrying her last night. I couldn't remember a time when I hadn't loved her as deeply as I did, and I couldn't see the rest of my life without her in it. Still, I was only thirty, had just started my own company, and I felt the pressures of providing the perfect life for her like a goddamn anvil on my chest.

Maybe it really was just cold feet.

Murmurs and gasps had my head jerking back up to see what was going on. With my luck, Caspian might really be screwing one of the bridesmaids, someone had caught them, and she was probably married just to top this fucking day off.

However, it wasn't anything like that at all.

My breath caught in my throat as I noticed Madison making her way out of the side door that'd been assigned to the bridal party. Her mother, sister, and best friend were walking behind her, but they were just blurs in the background.

Fuck, I'd never seen anything so goddamn beautiful.

Snapping myself out of my thoughts, it quickly dawned on me that something must be wrong, because I wasn't supposed to see Madison until she started walking down the aisle towards me. Those were the rules, right?

Quickly meeting her halfway, I immediately noticed the tears in her whiskey-colored gaze, and panic seized my heart. "Baby, what's wrong?"

Madison didn't say a word as I watched her pull off her engagement ring, then reach out, take my hand, securing it safely in my palm.

What the fuck?

I could feel dread crawling up my spine, wrapping itself around my throat. "Mad, what are you doing?" The church was as quiet as a tomb, so everyone could hear me, but I didn't care about that right now. All I cared about was why my bride-to-be had just taken off her engagement ring.

With her brown eyes shining painfully, she said, "I guess you forgot that you were mic'ed up for the videographer."

I started shaking my head in a panic. "No," I rushed out, feeling like I might have a heart attack on the spot. "No, no, no, no…don't do this, baby. God, please…Mad, don't do this-"

"Now there won't be any fighting over custody of the kids later," she said, her tears finally falling, and I could feel my knees actually fucking buckle.

"Madison-" She turned to leave, but I quickly reached out, grabbing her arm. "Mad-"

Wrenching her arm out of my hold, she hissed, "Do not touch me, Raddix."

Rather than cause a scene, I let her go, wondering what in the fuck I was going to do now.