Chapter 3

Four:

I didn't argue.

I just stared at the fire pit that looked like it had gone cold long ago, playing the part of a woman who wanted to step across but didn't dare.

After a few seconds of hesitation, I threw my head back and started to wail.

"Nobody told me beforehand that I'd have to cross a fire pit. If they had, I never would have worn something this heavy and cumbersome."

"And you all keep saying this is an old family rule, but when Alfred came home for other weddings, how come there was never any old rule then?"

"So is this actually a real custom, or is it because you see I'm an orphan, so you're bullying me on purpose, backing me into a corner?"

I cried like my whole world was ending.

The villagers had come to watch a show. Seeing me, the bride, get bullied was one kind of show, but watching the Edwards family squirm, watching me put them on the back foot, was another kind entirely, and a much better one.

So they all started smoothing things over, chiming in that crossing the fire pit was voluntary, that nobody should be forced into that kind of feudal nonsense.

Just as I was about to ride that momentum and refuse the whole thing.

Julia Pruitt lost it. She forgot all about sweet-talking me and jabbed a finger right in my face.

"Carissa Mason, why won't anything get through to you?"

"You're a cursed jinx, that's what you are. You already got your whole family killed. You won't cross the fire pit today, so what, you want to jinx Uncle and Auntie and Alfred to death too?"

Her losing her temper was exactly what I'd been waiting for.

So I turned and slapped her across the face.

I put my weight behind it, and Julia wasn't braced for it, so that one slap knocked her straight to the ground.

She sat there stunned for a moment, and when it finally registered, the tears came pouring out.

"Alfred, how could she hit me?"

"Everything I do is for the good of the Edwards family."

Alfred's heart went out to her. Never mind that this was our wedding day, he rushed over, pulled Julia up, and tucked her against him.

"Carissa Mason, what is wrong with you today? Have you really been possessed by something?"

Five:

I knew what Alfred was doing. He wanted to use this "possessed" excuse to force me across the fire pit.

I only let out a cold snort.

"Funny, that's exactly what I'd like to ask you."

"My parents died saving people. Everyone calls them heroes. So how did that turn into me jinxing them to death in Julia's mouth?"

"She has that little respect for my parents, standing here on my wedding day calling me a cursed jinx, and I'm not even allowed to hit her?"

"And one more thing."

I gave neither of them a chance to react, pointing at the two of them pressed so close together.

"You won't stand up for me, your wife. Instead you shield Julia. So does that mean in your heart, Julia matters more to you than your own wife?"

"Have the two of you had something going on all along?"

"So today I cross the fire pit, and tomorrow you tell me there's a custom about taking a second wife?"

"You'd better make this crystal clear to me. Otherwise I'm not crossing any fire pit, and I don't want you as a husband either. I'll go file for divorce right now, and the grounds will be your infidelity!"

The moment I finished.

Alfred let go of Julia at once.

"No, it's not like that."

"Rissa, you've really got the wrong idea. Julia's like a little sister to me. I just panicked back there and wasn't thinking straight."

Grant Edwards and Anna Harding forgot all about their grudge over the marrying-in arrangement too, both talking over each other, begging me not to be angry, not to bring up divorce on my wedding day.

I didn't argue with that either.

My cold laugh only got louder.

"Right. Panic makes you forget who your own wife is, makes you throw your arms around her and turn on me. So how am I supposed to trust that you won't 'panic' again later?"

"The way I see it, when a normal man sees his wife being humiliated, the first thing he does is go after the one doing the harm, not turn on his own wife."

"You want me to cross a fire pit for you, to do something this dangerous, and you can't even manage to protect me."

"Tell me, Alfred. What gives you the right?"