Chapter 4

4: 4

4

"Kate!"

Oscar caught up to me and grabbed my wrist.

"What are you doing? Mom just talks tough, that's all. Give her a way out—"

I looked at him once, then turned and walked back.

Oscar thought I'd finally changed my mind, and let out a breath of relief.

The next second, I faced every guest in the courtyard.

I picked up the microphone.

"Elders of the Delgado family, I, Kate Henson, came here today to marry Oscar Delgado."

"Not to be your errand girl, and not to have them lay down rules for me."

I paused, then raised a hand and pointed at the red carpet under my feet.

"Either it goes the way I said: his parents finish laying out these fifty meters of red carpet, on their knees."

"Finish it, and the wedding goes on."

"Don't finish it, and the wedding car is still at the edge of the village. I go back the way I came."

Madge's face went livid, and she let out a cold laugh.

"You little slut, are you dreaming?"

"You marry in as a daughter-in-law, and you want me on my knees laying carpet for you? Who do you think you are, ordering me around like that!"

"Even if you want my old life today, there is no way I will ever kneel and lay carpet for you!"

I smiled.

"Everyone heard that, didn't you?"

"It wasn't me, Kate Henson, who backed out first."

"It's the Delgado family that has no sincerity. In that case, the wedding ends here."

Madge spat hard in my direction.

"You dare walk out! You step out that gate today, and not one cent of your dowry gets returned!"

Oscar stamped his foot in a panic.

"Mom! Dad! Can you two say a little less!"

Then he turned back to me, pressed his palms together, and begged.

"Kate, I'm begging you, just this one day, give me some face—"

"Oscar Delgado."

I cut him off, calling him by his full name. "From this morning until now, have you blocked a single word for me?"

He froze.

I let out a scornful laugh.

"Your mom carried that bowl over and made me drink that reeking thing, and the whole time you were just pushing me to swallow a few mouthfuls. You never once spoke up for me."

With every sentence I stepped forward.

He stepped back.

"Your face matters, but my dignity doesn't count?"

"Kate, I—"

Oscar's face went white as he stammered out some explanation, but I had no time left for his nonsense.

I walked to the wedding car, pulled the door open, and got in.

"Driver, turn around. Back to the city."

The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror.

Then he looked at the dark crowd of Delgado relatives outside the window, swallowed, and shifted into reverse.

"Don't you dare!"

Madge rushed forward and threw herself in front of the car.

"You can't leave! If you leave today, how will the Delgado family ever show our faces again!"

I rolled the window down a crack.

"That's your problem."

"Kate!"

Oscar ran up. "It was my fault. I'll apologize to you, all right? Don't go."

Eleanor Simmons, his little childhood sweetheart, came over, gloating.

"Oscar, don't stop her."

"A daughter-in-law who hasn't even married in yet really thinks she's some big shot."

"Don't stop her. Let's see who ends up looking like a fool when she rides off in the wedding car."

Oscar shot her a vicious glare.

"Shut up. Get lost."

Then he turned back and begged me, groveling.

"Come out and let's talk this through! My mom doesn't know how to talk. I'll apologize for her, okay?"

I looked at him through the window.

"Apologize with what? Oscar Delgado, you and me, it ends here."

His eyes went red, and his lips trembled for a long moment.

"...You're really that heartless?"

"The moment you decided to stand with your parents and bully me, we were already over."

I closed my eyes and rolled the window up.

The engine gunned, and the car pulled quickly away from that ruined village.

Old scenes flashed through my mind.

Oscar used to get up early to buy me a glass of milk.

Every meal, he picked the scallions and cilantro out one by one.

On rainy days, he always tilted the umbrella toward my side.

The year I decided to go for grad school, Oscar gave me all his spending money.

"Kate, you're definitely going to get in."

His hands were cracked and raw from a winter part-time job, but his eyes were bright.

"If you don't get in, I'll take care of you."

Back then he was scraping by on barely a couple hundred dollars a month, and still he held me with his whole heart in his face.

Later we graduated, and our life got better day by day.

The day I tried on wedding gowns, Oscar's eyes went red with feeling, and he said I was the most beautiful bride in the world.

"Kate, once you marry me, I swear I'll never let you suffer."

His words were still ringing in my ears.

But everything had changed now.

The car jolted, and I opened my eyes.

Outside, we were already past the small town, with the overpass ahead.

So what if the feelings we once had were good? In the end it lost to reality.

A husband's family that humiliated me on the wedding day itself.

There was no way I would marry into it.

I was just about to take out my phone to call my mom, working out how to break the news about calling off the wedding.

The car suddenly lurched forward, lost its balance, and nearly hit the guardrail at the roadside.

The driver got out, checked for a long while, then shook his head and sighed.

"Miss, someone tampered with the car!"