Summary

In the Prologue, the first-person narrator follows the woman for whom her husband, Richard has left her. The narrator comments that the woman does not understand the ruin that the narrator has set in motion for her life or what is in store for her if she continues seeing Richard.

In Chapter 1, Nellie woke in fright, believing that someone was standing at the foot of her bed, wearing her wedding dress. She grabbed for the bat beside her bed before she realized there was actually no one there. After a certain incident during college, the insomnia from which she had suffered as a child had gotten worse. She saw a counselor but those sessions did not help.

As Nellie looked at the wedding dress it seemed fancier than it had seemed in the bridal boutique but it was too late to...