Chapter 4

I sat in the dressing room without moving.

Marjorie went to check on the banquet hall and came clattering back a few minutes later.

Her small face was flushed red with anger.

"This is beyond insane! Matthew's mother keeps introducing Roberta as her daughter-in-law!"

She held out her phone and played the video.

Matthew had Roberta on his arm, going table to table, toasting the guests with a bright smile.

Roberta wore the bride's corsage.

Phyllis told everyone she met that this was her daughter-in-law, and Matthew smiled and let it stand.

When someone tried to push a drink on Roberta, he stepped in and took it for her.

The groomsmen played along, calling her the bride, and Roberta answered them, crisp and sweet.

I covered my face, sick with it.

When my mom learned the family I was marrying into all held stable jobs at a major corporation, and that they still firmly chose me, she cried tears of pure happiness.

Terrified of being a drag on me, she carried the freshest dozens of pounds of fruit from her stall to them every single day, just hoping they'd treat me a little better.

She told me not to fight back, to swallow more, to keep in mind how good Matthew had been to me.

When the marriage talks started, so afraid of shortchanging Matthew, she insisted I ask for no bride-gift money, and quietly took out the retirement savings she'd built up selling fruit from dawn to dark to buy Matthew a Mercedes E300, so he could show his face with dignity at work.

What all that heart bought us was every bit of it trampled. I was called a woman fated for a second marriage, and she was called a lone-star curse.

I understood things early. In our hardest days, my mom saved our only pack of instant noodles for me to eat and drank cold water to fill her own stomach.

From then on I swore I would never let my mom grieve.

So I listened to her, held on to the goodness Matthew once had, gave way step after step, until now there was nothing left to give.

Smeared as a woman fated for a second marriage. My ring taken. My groom taken. Everything that belonged to the bride, taken.

If that was how it was, then I'm sorry, Mom. A man like this had already left me no reason to keep giving way.

My phone rang mid-thought, and I pulled myself together and answered.

My mom, always so careful about how she looked, appeared on the screen.

A few strands of her graying hair had fallen loose across her forehead, and her eyes were red-rimmed.

"Sweetheart, someone sent me the wedding video."

"This is my fault. I only taught you to give, taught you to hold your tongue. I never taught you that some animals don't deserve a scrap of our giving or our patience!"

"Wait for me. I'm coming to take my baby girl home right now!"

The call ended, and I finally broke and cried until I couldn't stop.

Baby girl was the pet name my mom gave me when I was small.

"Don't cry, baby, Mama's here." That one line had carried me through countless bitter and happy days since I was a child.

Her shoulders were thin and slight, yet she had always held up the whole sky for me without wavering.

Matthew finished his round of toasts and came back with Roberta tucked against him, flushed with triumph.

Seeing me sobbing, he assumed I'd finally learned to be afraid.

He came over and gently wiped away my tears.

"Stop crying. As long as you know you were wrong, go apologize, and Mom and Dad will forgive you."

"Someone should be apologizing." I threw his hand off. "And I really have had enough."

My phone buzzed with a message. "I'm here, at the door."

I didn't hesitate any longer. I gathered up the skirt of my wedding dress and strode toward the banquet hall.

The great doors of the hall swung slowly open, and a group of people appeared in the doorway.

The noisy hall went silent in an instant.

The crowd quickly, of its own accord, parted to make a path.

The coworkers from the major corporation who'd come to Leon and Phyllis's celebration turned envious eyes on them.

Seeing who had arrived, Leon and Phyllis were startled at first.

Then, as if they'd tasted some magic fruit, they perked up and hurried forward, faces bright with delight.

And in the few minutes that followed, the color drained fast from their faces...

……