The Bride Who Stopped Waiting

The night before my wedding, my twin sister, Serena Bennett, insisted on celebrating her birthday a day early. My fiancé, Adrian Cole, simply folded my birthday into hers, and then the cake came out with only Serena on it. I asked him, "Where's my name?" He leaned over the cake and pushed the candles into place, his voice easy. "We're all family. Why draw lines like that?" My parents were crowded around Serena too, and my mother said impatiently, "There, the candles are lit for you. Blow them out and stop being difficult." The next day, Adrian came to find me and brushed his hand across my forehead. "I didn't think it through yesterday. I got you a cake of your own. Come home. This one's just for you." But when I pushed the door open, what sat on the table was a cake made of dog food. Serena was holding the dog that had bitten me on my birthday, and she laughed. "Coco joined our family on this date too, so Adrian said we might as well celebrate Coco's birthday." Right in front of me, Adrian sent Serena three thousand dollars. "Fine. You win." Serena waved her phone at me. "See, I told you. All she needs is to hear you apologize, and she'll come back no matter what you put her through." With the whole room laughing, I pulled off my engagement ring and dropped it beside the dog food cake. 1 The ring hit the rim of the china plate with a bright little clink. The smile went out of Adrian's face. Serena hugged Coco, her golden retriever, and pretended to be shocked. "Nora, you're not actually mad, are you? It was just a joke." The rest of the room chimed in. "It's only a dog food cake." "Adrian already apologized. The wedding's tomorrow. Don't make a huge scene." I looked at my parents, my relatives, the friends we shared, and the fiancé I had loved for seven years. Every one of them knew this was a bet. I was the only one who didn't. Adrian picked up the ring and tried to slide it back onto my finger. I put my hand behind my back. "Don't touch me." He frowned. "Things did go too far today. I'm apologizing to you for Serena." For her. Again. All my life, when Serena smashed my trophy, it was because she was in poor health. When she cut up my school uniform, it was just sisters fooling around. When she took my job offer, it was because she needed it more. Now she had brought over the dog that bit me on my birthday just to humiliate me, and it was still nothing but a joke. "I don't accept it." I turned to leave. Adrian caught my wrist. "We have to be at the hotel by six tomorrow morning. Where else do you think you're going?" "None of your business." "We're getting married tomorrow. How is it not my business?" He said it like it was simply a fact. Coco barked at me twice, and my legs went stiff. Two years ago, Coco had lunged at me and bitten straight through my arm. Adrian knew full well I was afraid of Coco, yet he instinctively stepped in front of Serena. "Don't set Coco off." I watched him do it, and the last bit of warmth in my chest went cold. "You're worried I'll set Coco off, but you're not worried it'll bite me again." "That's not what I meant." Serena's eyes reddened, and she spoke up. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have moved my birthday up, and I shouldn't have brought Coco. "But you know how much it hurts me to watch you get married. Why hold it against me?" Adrian turned back to comfort her. "Nobody blames you." Only after that did he look at me. "Serena couldn't sleep again last night. Let her have this one." Serena was born at eleven at night. I was born at one in the morning. We were twins, and our birthdays landed a day apart. For years she said she didn't want to blow out candles alone, so my parents moved my birthday up every single year. This year she said my wedding was taking over her day. In the end, my name wasn't even on the cake. I pushed Adrian away. "Tomorrow's wedding is off." The room went quiet for a few seconds, then broke into laughter. "How long's it going to take to talk her around this time?" "One night, tops." Adrian didn't take it seriously either. "All right, cool off for a while. I'll take Serena home, then come get you." I asked him, "Do you think that no matter what you do, I'll always come back?" He didn't answer. The silence was already the answer. I left the apartment that was supposed to be our marital home and went to the bridal studio. The gown I was supposed to wear tomorrow hung at the very back. I had drafted the pattern and cut it myself, and it had taken four months to finish. I took the dress down and cut out the two names embroidered inside the train. My assistant, Chloe Hayes, came running, her face white. "Nora, what are you doing? You have to wear that tomorrow." "Starting tomorrow, it won't be a wedding dress anymore." I set the scissors back on the table. "Hang it in the window and put a price on it." "And the wedding?" "There isn't going to be one." 2 At two in the morning, Adrian called. "Where are you?" "The studio." "I'm coming to get you right now." Then Serena's voice came through on his end of the line. "Adrian, my head hurts." He asked her straight away whether she wanted to go to the hospital. I hung up. A moment later, a text came in: "Serena's in a bad way. I'm staying with her tonight." "I'll have the driver pick you up in the morning." "Be good and listen to me. Stop saying things like calling off the wedding." I didn't reply. Adrian and I had opened the studio together right after college. He handled marketing and the books. I handled design and construction. In our hardest days we were crammed into a two-hundred-square-foot room and wouldn't even run the air conditioning. He said that once we were married, he would change the label to my name. Six months ago, Serena quit her job and came to work at the shop. She couldn't sketch and she couldn't sew. All she did was model the gowns for photos. Then, without telling me, Adrian and Serena renamed the studio's Instagram account White Veil. I asked why it wasn't my name. He said, "She brings customers in. There's no need to keep score inside a family." And back then I actually believed him. Near dawn, while I was going through the books, Chloe suddenly said, "Nora, they're here." Serena stood in front of the display window in a bathrobe, with Adrian behind her carrying breakfast. He set the milk and a sandwich down in front of me. "The makeup artist gets here at seven thirty. Don't hold things up." But Serena had her eye on the gown, and she reached out for the skirt. "You really cut the names out?" "Don't touch it." She didn't pull her hand back. "You're wearing it today anyway. One touch isn't going to hurt." "That one's already sold." Adrian's face darkened. "Are you done? You spent four months on that dress, and now you're calling off the wedding over one joke?" I looked at him. "Give me back the ring." He touched his pocket and didn't move. Serena walked over. "Is this about the three thousand? I'll give it back to him. Happy now?" She held up her phone. Below that transfer were more than a dozen others for the same amount. [She gave up her birthday.] [She agreed to let you wear the bridesmaid dress for the promo shoot.] [She handed over the gemstones your mother gave her.] [She backed out of the class reunion.] Every single one of them had to do with me. I reached out to see the screen better, and she snatched the phone back. Adrian stepped in front of her. "It's a little bet between friends. There's no need to blow it up." "And every time the bet is on me?" "Because you're easygoing. That's the only reason anyone dares to joke around." All at once I thought back to those baffling arguments of the past few years. Serena liked the route I had planned for my graduation trip, so he made me cancel my flight. She wanted to stay in our new apartment, so he handed over the spare key. She said she felt sick on our anniversary, so he left me and watched movies with her all night. Every time I gave way, she was especially pleased. So all along, my patience had been their game. "Whose idea was it in the first place?" Adrian looked away from me. "I don't remember." Serena, though, smiled. "It was Adrian. "He said you had the softest heart, that a couple of sweet words and you'd agree to anything. He said your best quality was being sensible, which made you good marriage material." Good marriage material. Not because he loved me. Only because I was easy to manage. I packed up my laptop and stood to go. Adrian blocked my way. "What about the wedding?" "Go ahead." "How do we go ahead without a bride?" I walked straight past him. Behind me, Serena said in a lazy drawl, "Adrian, I told you she'd drag it out longer this time." "Enough!" It was the first time he had ever spoken harshly to her. It was just far too late. 3 When I got back to my parents' house, my mother, Margaret Bennett, had someone hauling the cedar hope chest out the door. She saw me and showed not a trace of guilt. "Good timing. Serena needs a cabinet, so she can use this one for now." "Grandma left that to me." "You're sisters. Why split things into yours and hers?" My father, Richard Bennett, came out of the study holding the folder with my documents in it. "Adrian says you're making noise about calling off the wedding. Your papers stay with me for now, so you don't do something rash and take off." I walked over. "Give them back." "Get through the wedding first." I pulled the folder straight out of his hands and held it against my chest. Margaret planted herself in the doorway. "Serena cried all night. She just can't bear to see you get married, so she said a few extra words to Adrian. "You've had everything since you were little. She's not healthy. What's wrong with us loving her a little more?" I laughed out loud. "What have I had?" The living room went dead quiet. I pointed at the hope chest. "Grandma left that to me, and you're handing it to her. "I got into my first-choice college. When she said she didn't want us to be apart, you forced me to turn it down and enroll somewhere else. "My first job, she wanted that too, and you made me give it up. "I bought an apartment, and she wanted to live in it. "I'm getting married, and she's even dragging my fiancé into bets about me. "You tell me. What exactly have I ever had?" Margaret was quiet for a long moment before she said, "You're stronger than she is." That line again. Because I didn't cry, I was supposed to feel no hurt. Because I could carry it, I deserved to lose it. There was a burst of hurried knocking at the door. Chloe was standing outside with a young client of ours, Dana Foster. Dana was holding a gown with a long slash cut down the side of the waist, the lace torn through. "Nora, Adrian said Serena would be handling the sewing from now on. She was taking in my waistline just now, and she cut the dress open." Margaret jumped in immediately. "Serena's only just started learning. Slips happen." Dana's face was grim. "This is my wedding, not a piece of fabric for her to practice on." That lace had taken me more than ten hours to piece together. I took the gown from her. "Give me three hours and I'll fix it for you." Dana let out a breath. Margaret got in my way. "You won't deal with your own wedding, but you'll deal with somebody else's?" "At least she respects what I make." I took my papers and went downstairs with Chloe. Adrian's car was parked out front. He had already changed into his suit, and there were shadows under his eyes. "The limo will be here in half an hour. You're going to work now?" "Yes." "Every guest is waiting. You can't humiliate both families like this." "When all of you were humiliating me for fun, did anyone care about my dignity?" He was quiet for a moment, then took out the ring. "No more games. Serena's agreed to move out after the wedding. "Just come to the hotel with me today, all right?" His voice dropped low. He used to coax me like this, and I always softened. It wasn't that he had never loved me. It was that whenever Serena and I were in the same room, he never once chose me. I asked, "What if she needs you again in the middle of the ceremony?" "She won't." "And if she does?" He took my hand. "Today nobody matters more than you." A second later, his phone rang. Serena had sent a photo of a scratch on her wrist, shallow enough that it had barely broken the skin. "I'm not coming to the wedding. I don't want to ruin her day just by being there." Adrian's hand let go of mine at once. "I'll go check on her. Ten minutes and I'm back." I nodded. "Go." He blinked at me. "Wait for me here." I carried the gown toward the studio. I didn't look back once. 4 It took me two and a half hours to repair the gown. Dana put it on, and her eyes reddened in front of the mirror. "Thank you. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do." "Go get married." After she left, Chloe shut the door and handed me her phone. "Somebody sent this to the studio account anonymously." On the screen was a screenshot of a group chat. The group was called The Nora Bennett Endurance Challenge. It had been created three years ago. In it were Serena, Adrian, the friends we shared, and even my own cousin. They had placed bets on every single time I backed down. How many days until I cooled off. Whether I would give up the new apartment. How long I would take to forgive Adrian after he missed our anniversary. The newest bet had the biggest pot. "On the wedding day, Adrian leaves with Serena. Does she still wait?" Adrian had put in six thousand dollars. "She will. She won't throw away seven years, and she won't let her parents lose face." Serena had replied, "I say she'll not only wait, she'll come up with excuses for you." "If I win, I get the master bedroom in the new apartment for a month." Adrian had answered with one word. "Done." Chloe's eyes were red with anger. "Send the screenshots out and let every single guest see them!" I copied the images over to my phone. "What time is it?" "Eleven forty." The ceremony had been set to start at eleven eighteen. The hotel had already called more than a dozen times. The last call was from my mother: "Where have you run off to? Adrian said Serena was upset, so he went to get her. Why can't either of you make this easy?" "He still isn't back?" "Serena's locked herself in her room and he's trying to talk her out." Margaret lowered her voice. "Serena can't bear to part with you. Have a little more patience with her." I hung up and changed into the plainest white dress in the studio. No gown. No veil. And no ring. By the time I reached the hotel, the ballroom was in chaos. My parents pulled me into a side room. Richard looked grim. "Where's Adrian?" "With Serena." Margaret frowned. "He can't focus on the wedding until Serena calms down. Go up onstage first and have the officiant stall for a while." I looked at the two of them. "Do you know about that group chat?" Both their faces changed in the same instant. And then I understood. They had known all along. Margaret caught my hand. "It's young people fooling around, that's all. We had no part in it. Serena hates to lose. Let her win a few times, and once she's happy she'll stop competing with you." "So you watched them make sport of me, and you kept telling me to give way." Richard shoved the microphone into my hand. "Everyone here today is family or a friend. Whatever this is, we'll deal with it at home. Get through the ceremony first." I took the microphone and walked out onto the stage. Hundreds of eyes turned toward me at once. The officiant asked under his breath, "When is the groom getting here?" I dialed Adrian and put him on speaker. "Nora, I was just about to call you. Serena's locked herself in. I can't walk away from that. Go up and wait for me, half an hour at most." The ballroom went slowly quiet. I asked, "Adrian, do you remember what day this is?" "Our wedding. Of course I remember." "Then do you remember putting six thousand dollars down in that group chat, betting that I would wait for you?" The line went dead silent. It was a few seconds before he asked, "You saw the chat? "It was only a joke. Today's bet wasn't even my idea." "But you put money on it." "I'll come back and explain. Don't make a scene in front of the guests. It's bad for the studio." Even at that moment, the thing he cared about wasn't me. I raised my eyes to the room below. One by one, the people who had joined those bets dropped their heads. My cousin was hunched in the last row, not daring to look at me. I sent the screenshots to the group chat shared by both families and all the guests. Phone alerts went off across the hall, one after another. "You all thought I would wait, because I cared about my parents' reputation, because I cared about seven years together, because I couldn't let go of the studio we built. "You bet on whether he could talk me around." I looked at my parents, white-faced in the crowd, and at the empty groom's seat beside the stage. "Here are the results. "You lost. "Because I'm not coming back."