“But Nat's only half an hour from her start time, and we can't break with tradition or it'll bring bad luck. Duane was worried she'd go hungry, so he went to get her something to eat. He told me to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't get out of the car and cause trouble for Nat.”

Just as he finished, Duane came back, a five-tiered insulated lunch carrier dangling from one hand.

My best friend, still gently blowing on the cut on my forehead, boiled over on the spot.

“Duane, you've got time to stand here keeping your old flame company for half an hour, but no time to carry Lorraine up first?”

“And you won't even let her go eat anything? What is this, house arrest?”

“Before we came, she wanted a piece of bread, and you were the one who said the food was already prepared and rushed her out the door. So this was all just to keep her starving here, so you'd have time to carry that woman up?”

Before Duane could open his mouth, Natalie poked her head out of her own car and said with a smile:

“Lorraine, don't blame Duane. He's just afraid of wasting his strength on you and then dropping me later.”

Beautifully put.

But what I'd wasted on him was far more than just strength.

Duane handed me a plastic bag. Inside were a few buns, long gone cold, obviously left over from the day before.

“The bride can't set foot on the ground herself before the ceremony. Flat ground means poor ground. It'll ruin the family's fortune.”

“Just wait nicely in the car. Have these crab-filled buns first to tide you over.”

I didn't take them.

I only looked at him, almost amused.

“Duane, we've been together five years. You don't know I'm allergic to crab?”

Duane's face shifted, and he gave two uneasy little coughs.

“I've been too busy these past few days. I forgot.”

“I'll check later whether Nat has any leftovers, and bring them to you. Her bridal suite is too far from here, she can't make the trip on an empty stomach. When I get back, I'll take you out for a big meal.”

Natalie called to him from over there in a soft voice: “Duane, are you done talking? I'm so hungry.”

Duane hurried over and lifted out the steaming pastries from the insulated carrier one by one.

Every single one was something Natalie loved.

Afraid of smudging her makeup, he even thoughtfully fed them into her mouth for her.

A laugh nearly rose in my throat at how absurd it was.

There was a time I ran a high fever and couldn't get up, and I'd coaxed him to feed me.

He'd brushed me off, called it childish.

So it turned out it wasn't that he was unwilling. It was just that the person hadn't been me.

Even the so-called food he'd prepared was prepared for Natalie. I was only fit to eat her leftovers.

The spare one had always been me.

My phone buzzed. It was my childhood sweetheart, sharing his live location. He was already on his way.

In less than half an hour, this farce would be over.

Soon the car door was pulled open again by Duane, and the cold wind slapped me full in the face.

“Lorraine, get out.”

I thought he'd had a change of heart and wanted to carry me upstairs.

Before I could ask, Duane spoke again:

“The AC in Nat's wedding car is broken, it can't put out any heat. Swap with her and go wait in that car.”

I lifted my eyes: “Didn't you say the bride can't set foot on the ground herself?”

Duane frowned:

“Special circumstances, special handling. As long as you don't go into the bridal suite, it's fine.”

My best friend wasn't having it.

“Do you even hear yourself? It's December. It's more than twenty below outside.”

“We're not the ones who broke that woman's car. Besides, doesn't she have her Canada Goose? That thing's the warmest there is.”

“It's only because you were in such a rush to get here that Lorraine didn't even get to put on a coat. You want her to wait four hours in a car with no heat? Are you trying to freeze her to death?!”

Duane pinched the bridge of his nose impatiently, a note of warning in his voice.

“Lorraine, I'll leave you a pack of hand warmers.”

“ Don't make me drag you out. It won't look good for either of us.”

My gaze settled on Natalie, who sat across from me watching the whole thing like it was theater.

The Canada Goose draped over her shoulders was the birthday present I'd bought Duane last year.

I'd worried he'd catch a cold being careless about the chill in winter.

When it was my turn, all I got was a ten-dollar pack of barely-there hand warmers.

I gathered my skirt and stepped straight down out of the car.

"Duane, I'm not getting in that car, and I'm not marrying you either."

Duane froze for a second, then let out a scornful snort.

"Lorraine, stop this nonsense."

"You're a leftover old maid with no job, no family, no background. I'm the only one who'll overlook all that. If you don't marry me, who do you think would want you?"

I looked at the contempt in his eyes, and my heart filled with disappointment.

Yet he was the one who'd said his woman didn't need to go out and earn money.

People would mock him for being useless, he'd said, so he wouldn't let me work.

"I'm not making a scene."

Duane opened his mouth to say more, but Natalie cut in from her seat.

"Duane, if Lori doesn't want to, just let it go. I'll get out and run around a bit to warm up."

And with that, she made a show of climbing out.

Duane immediately called out in a panic, "Nat, don't move, I'll carry you!"

Then he turned, his face cold as he looked at me.

"Looks like I've spoiled you rotten. On a day this happy you've got to go looking for trouble. Don't want to marry me? Suit yourself."

"This place is a good ten miles from your house and cabs don't come out here easy. If you're not afraid of freezing to death, then stand right here. Either way, the wedding car is getting switched!"

He ran over and lifted Natalie onto his back.

As he carried her toward this car, he spoke with a doting, helpless tenderness.

"Silly girl, would I ever let you freeze with me here?"

"You're the bride today. Your feet can't touch the ground. It means you'll never be wronged after the wedding, never have to toil or suffer."

A bitter mockery rose in my chest.

The same feet-off-the-ground rule, and for me it was about not dragging bad luck into the bridal room and ruining his fortune after the wedding.

For Natalie, it was nothing but pure tenderness.

And even so, he thought he'd spoiled me rotten.

As they passed by me, Natalie suddenly cried out, looking at me with wounded eyes.

"Lori, just because you don't want to switch cars, you didn't have to pinch me, did you? That really hurt."

Duane quickly settled her into the car, then turned and shoved me hard to the ground.

"Lorraine, what is wrong with you?"

"I'm the one who asked to switch cars. If you've got a problem, take it out on me. Do you really have to cause trouble on the most important day of Nat's life?!"

My best friend rushed to help me up. The fabric at my elbow had torn open, snow seeping in through the gash.

I held back my friend, who was about to charge over and hit him, and spoke coldly.

"There are four or five cameras right here. Go to the property office and pull the footage right now, see whether I touched her or not."

"It's obvious you hurt yourself—"

Duane thought I was making excuses, and it only made him angrier.

But the moment Natalie heard the cameras mentioned, her expression turned a little uneasy, and she tugged at his hand and gave it a shake.

"Duane, it's early in the morning, no need to bother the property office."

"Maybe it was the crystals on my embroidered gown that scraped me. You know how delicate my skin is. I might have misjudged Lori."

"Ugh, it's supposed to be a lucky day, and yet everything keeps going wrong. I don't even know if I've crossed paths with something foul."

When she said "something foul," she let her eyes land deliberately on me.

Duane nodded and said nothing more, though the look on his face when he glanced at me was still grim.

I truly couldn't stand being there any longer, so I just pulled my friend toward the gate of the complex to wait.

We hadn't waited three minutes before Duane came chasing after us.

He grabbed my wrist, his tone anxious.

"Lori, thank goodness you didn't leave."

At that, my friend shot me a startled, knowing glance.

I knew what she wanted to say, but I no longer dared to hope for anything from Duane.

And sure enough, the next second he said:

"Nat's bridesmaid can read fortunes. She says your birth chart is too strong, your bad luck too heavy, and it clashes with Nat's, which is why nothing's been going right for her."

"Now Nat's got a splitting headache because of you. The only way she'll get better is if we break the curse on you, so you're coming back with me, right now!"

Duane dragged me back to the entrance of the building.

I saw that everyone had pulled on disposable gloves, a basin of blood-red, soaked rice at their feet.

They stared at me like I was filth.

And Natalie sat in the car, brows knit tight, massaging her temples, as if her head really were splitting open.

"I've brought Lorraine. So how exactly do we break it?" Duane asked.

At that, the other bridesmaid spoke up at once:

"First, we pelt her with sticky rice soaked in black dog's blood. The harder the better. Only that will scatter the bad luck off her, so she'll never curse Nat again."

I hadn't even processed it.

Duane's groomsmen, along with Natalie's two remaining bridesmaids, grabbed fistfuls of rice and hurled it straight at my head and face.

My best friend tried to shield me, but they shoved her aside, pinned her down, and clamped a hand over her mouth.

They closed in around me. The hair I'd so carefully styled was knocked loose, and rice was dumped down my collar.

My neck and face stung as if pricked by a thousand needles, the rank stench of dog's blood clinging to me.

Shielding my face with one arm, I screamed at Duane:

"Duane, have you lost your mind? You actually believe this garbage?!"

He stood at the car door, letting Natalie lean against his waist while he rubbed her temples for her.

He didn't forget to give me a shrug.

"Better to believe it than not. I can't gamble with Nat's health."

"Besides, you really are the jinx who got your parents killed, aren't you?"

I froze, forgetting even to fight back.

My parents had died when I was very small, killed while saving a stranger.

Afterward I was sent to the children's home, and growing up I endured every kind of scorn and disgust.

Even in college, there were still people who couldn't stand the sight of me, who scrawled on the campus walls that I was the jinx who'd gotten my parents killed.

It was Duane who used his admin status to delete the posts, who blasted that behavior as gutless and low.

I thought he was different from the rest.

Turned out he was just someone who hadn't yet reached the point where I was worth driving a knife into my heart.

Now, that moment had come.

Only after the entire basin of rice was gone did the bridesmaid clap her hands.

"All right. Now all that's left is for Lorraine to kneel and kowtow ninety-nine times to Nat. Nine means forever."

"That means she, the source of all this misfortune, will submit to Nat forever, and the bad luck she's heaped onto Nat won't dare act up again. It'll vanish for good."

Plenty of residents from the complex had already been drawn out to watch the spectacle.

At those words, two of the older women couldn't bear it.

"Ninety-nine kowtows is way too many. On cold, hard brick like that, won't her head be split and bleeding by the time she's done?"

"Exactly. The poor girl looks pitiful enough. Enough's enough, don't go getting someone killed. We still have to live here."

Seeing Duane waver, Natalie's eyes reddened on the spot.

"Duane, my friend just told me, if this bad luck isn't completely cleared away, I, I might not make it through tonight... Do you really want my wedding day to become the day I die?"

"It's less than ten minutes until we're supposed to leave. I don't care if I die, but then we'd never see each other again..."

Duane was instantly frantic. "Don't talk nonsense."

He looked at me, a trace of pleading in his eyes:

"Lori, be good. Just finish these ninety-nine kowtows, and I'll let you go upstairs into the bridal suite. You won't have to freeze out here anymore."

"Wait for me to come back, and we'll go on with the wedding, all right?"

I couldn't stop the cold laugh that came out of me.

"Duane, stop dreaming."

"I'll kneel to heaven, to the earth, to my parents. I will never kneel to a cheating little tramp."

Duane's face went stone-cold.

"Lorraine, you brought this on yourself. We're short on time, and since you won't do it willingly, I'll just have someone give you a hand."

He shot a glance at his groomsmen and his friends.

They moved to force me down, to make me kowtow to Natalie.

But before a single hand touched me, all of them went flying.

They hit the ground, howling.

Several broad-shouldered bodyguards had appeared out of nowhere, ringing me in a tight wall.

The next second, a warm coat settled over my shoulders.

It was my childhood sweetheart, Samuel Gilbert, cupping my face with heartache and guilt in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Lori. Traffic was bad. I got here late."

I shook my head. "You came. That's not late."

He dropped to one knee in front of me, offering his broad back.

Samuel turned his head toward me, his voice gentle.

"Lori, climb on. I'll carry you home, to our home."