3: 3

3

Lucille's eyes went red.

"Mr. Harding, I didn't mean anything by it. Why is Ella upset again?"

Cedric's face soured.

"Ella, can you stop being so up and down all the time?"

"Lucille was just complimenting your parents. Do you have to be this touchy?"

The bitterness and fury churning in me were almost more than I could hold down.

"Cedric, you gave my parents the freebies that came with the dog's clothes."

"You sat the dog and your secretary at the head of the table. You think we're not good enough for it?"

Cedric lifted his hand and checked his watch, frowning.

"I never said that. Can you stop blowing everything out of proportion?"

"I dropped everything at work to come out here. Not to watch you throw a fit."

Something knotted in my chest and I couldn't speak.

Mom stood up, took my hand, her voice pleading.

"Ella, don't say any more."

"Your dad and I are fine, really, we're fine."

She turned and gave Cedric a smile.

"Cedric, thank you for making time to have dinner with your uncle and me."

"Ella's been spoiled by us. Don't be angry with her."

Then she looked at Lucille. "Young lady, thank you for the gift. We love it."

She reached up, took off the necklace, and slipped it into her bag.

Then she sat down, lifted the teacup in front of her, her hand trembling and would not stop.

Tea spilled over the rim, onto the brand-new dress she'd worn.

My dad kept his head down and said nothing.

I fought with everything I had to hold back the tears.

The waiter brought the food. Every dish was seafood and raw sashimi.

One of my parents is allergic to seafood, the other has gout.

When they didn't pick up their chopsticks, Lucille's eyes welled up as if she'd been wronged.

"Why are your parents so fussy? I went out of my way to book the best restaurant in Chicago. They're so hard to please."

Cedric didn't make a sound. He just bent over Lucille's plate, peeling shrimp for her.

When I stepped out to the restroom, Cedric followed me out, his tone ugly.

"Ella, what's going on with you and your parents? Are you deliberately trying to embarrass Lucille?"

"She pulled a lot of strings to book this place. Can't you show a little sense?"

"A whole family ganging up on one young girl. Have you no shame?"

I glared at him.

"Cedric, who exactly is ganging up on whom?"

"My parents can't eat seafood. How many times have I told you that?"

He simply didn't care.

A flicker of guilt crossed Cedric's eyes.

"All right, Lucille didn't do it on purpose."

"Take your parents out for another meal later. Just order whatever they like."

By the time dinner ended, it was pouring outside.

Lucille climbed into the passenger seat like she'd done it a hundred times.

Her dog jumped into the back.

"Ella, sorry about this. My dog has an anxiety thing. He doesn't like strangers near him."

"Why don't you catch a ride?"

Cedric saw nothing wrong with any of it.

"Lucille just got her nails done today. If they get wet, it costs a few thousand to redo them."

"Ella, it's easy to get an Uber."

Then he hit the gas, and the water his tires kicked up sprayed straight into us.

The dress and suit my parents had bought specially were streaked with filth, the two of them a wretched mess.

The rain came down harder. We stood at the restaurant entrance for forty minutes and couldn't get a single ride.

Mom's carefully styled hair collapsed into a wet clump, plastered to her face.

She crouched down and used her sleeve to wipe the mud off my dad's trouser legs.

"It's fine, it's fine, it'll wipe clean."

Somehow the pearl necklace had broken, and the beads scattered across the ground.

Mom knelt in the rain, picking them up one by one.

Tears blurred my eyes, and I stepped forward and pulled her to her feet.

"Leave them. We don't want them."

"And this marriage, I'm not going through with it either."

The real estate agent called.

"Ms. Pruitt, you mentioned wanting to sell the place. I happen to have a buyer, in a hurry to buy, and the price is one you'd accept. Are you sure you want to sell?"

I looked back at my parents' aged faces.

They had emptied every last bit of their savings to buy me that home.

They had ridden a train for more than thirty hours, hearts full, wanting to witness their daughter's happiness.

They had worn their finest clothes, and been made a joke of.

I gripped the phone and gave a firm nod.

"I'm sure."

4: 4

4

When I got home, Cedric wasn't back yet.

My phone suddenly buzzed like mad. A notification from the security app.

That camera had been left behind by the previous owner, running on its own, completely separate from the smart-home system.

On the feed, Lucille Fox came out of the bathroom wearing my pajamas.

She looped her arms around Cedric's neck.

"Mr. Harding, do you really feel nothing for me at all?"

Cedric stood there rigid, the hand at his side clenched into a tight fist, like he was holding something back.

"Mr. Harding, my only regret is bad timing. I met you too late."

"In three days you'll have your wedding, and there will never be anything between us."

"I just wanted to ask, could you grant me one last wish, and be my first man?"

"That way I'd never forget you for the rest of my life."

Lucille talked and talked until she was sobbing.

Cedric carefully wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.

Then he stood up and rushed to the door, about to leave.

"Lucille, Ella and I have seven years together. I promised I wouldn't betray her."

"You, you'll meet someone better later on."

Lucille wrapped her arms around him from behind, crying.

"There won't be. There'll never be anyone better than you."

"Back when my dad had cancer, you didn't say a word, you took back the bride price and the deposit on the house and gave it all to me. Can you honestly say I'm not in your heart?"

I froze where I stood, my nails nearly gouging through my palms.

So it wasn't his father who'd had cancer. It was Lucille's.

And I was the fool who'd been worrying he didn't have enough money.

"If you won't agree, I'll jump off this balcony tonight."

She ran to the balcony, teetering on the edge in the storm.

Cedric panicked.

He rushed over and pulled her into his arms.

Then he lowered his head and kissed her hard on the mouth.

The two of them kissed frantically, tearing at each other's clothes, and fell together onto my wedding bed.

I grabbed my phone and called like a woman gone mad.

Again and again.

On the feed, Cedric glanced at his phone, then held down the power button with no expression at all.

Listening to the cold shutdown tone in my ear, my heart died completely too.

That bed was one we'd picked out together.

The sheets on it were ones I'd chosen so carefully.

In the wedding photo on the wall, I was laughing so happily, like an idiot.

Watching Cedric lose himself on that screen,

I crouched on the floor as my stomach heaved.

I rushed to the toilet and threw up until the world spun.

But nothing came out.

Only tears, falling one by one into the toilet.

Disgusting. So disgusting.

For the next three days, they stayed in my wedding house and never went out.

Going at it day and night.

The camera faithfully recorded everything.

During that time, Cedric sent me one message.

"I'm away on a business trip these few days. Keep an eye on the wedding arrangements."

"The wedding in three days, I'll be there on time."

"Ella, I love you."

I don't know what he was feeling when he sent that I love you.

Guilt trying to make up for it, or the thrill of pulling one over on me.

I didn't care anymore.

Those three days, I wasn't idle either.

I handed all the property documents to the agent and signed the contract face to face with the buyer.

"All the smart-home devices in the house, I'll throw in for free."

"I only have one request."

The buyer was a media reporter, and she talked straight.

"I'm getting such a good deal here, whatever you want, I'll agree to it."

I leaned in close to her ear and murmured.

She said through her teeth, "Ella, don't you worry. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's cheating men and their mistresses."

"I'll get it done for you, clean and neat."

Day four, my wedding day.

I put on the wedding dress I'd prepared long ago.

The woman in the mirror was beautiful, her makeup flawless, her eyes hollow.

My mother pushed the door open, a bowl of dumplings in her hands.

"Ella, eat something."

I looked at the dumplings in the bowl, each one plump and round, made by my mother through the night.

"Mom, aren't you angry with me?"

She paused, then smiled.

"Angry about what? Angry that you've finally learned to care about yourself?"

She reached out and smoothed the loose hair at my forehead.

"Ella, the thing I regret most in this life is teaching you to be the good girl. The good ones are always the ones who lose out."

The tears came all at once.

I found the wedding host.

"Change the order of things today. Once everyone's here, play the video first, then hold the ceremony."

When all of that was done, I walked out of the hotel and got into a taxi.

Mom and Dad sat quietly in the back seat in their clean clothes.

"Airport, please."

The car pulled away, and I watched the balloon arch with "Cedric & Ella, Happy Wedding" shrink and vanish in the rearview mirror.

Cedric, I hope you'll like the gift I've left you.