Just before the wedding started, Wallis Fox's male assistant said he'd help fix my parents' hair and makeup.
Then he turned around and stamped two bright-red meat-inspection stamps on their faces.
"Inspection cleared. Premium-grade pork."
Rupert Weiss held up the meat-inspection stamp, laughing so hard his shoulders shook.
"Sir, ma'am, this makes it more festive."
"You two look like fat hogs just picked out of the market."
The whole room burst out laughing.
My mother froze where she stood, fumbling to wipe the red mark off her face.
But the foundation smeared, and her whole face only looked worse.
She forced a smile at me.
"Carter Matthews, I'm fine. It'll wipe right off."
My father kept his head down too, his fingertips smoothing the hem of his suit jacket over and over.
It was the suit he'd bought new for the wedding, and already the cuff was smudged with a patch of hair gel and foundation.
He gave a careful, apologetic smile. "A wedding should be lively, right?"
I was shaking with rage. I started forward.
But Wallis stepped in front of Rupert first.
"Rupert was just trying to lighten the mood."
"Your parents already said it's fine. Don't blow this out of proportion."
My parents looked a mess, yet they kept shaking their heads at me, afraid of embarrassing me.
Afraid, too, that they'd ruin my wedding.
In that moment, I suddenly smiled.
My parents couldn't bear to put me in a hard spot.
But Wallis could bear to let them be mocked in front of everyone.
If that was how it was.
Then I wasn't going through with this wedding.
……
Rupert stood behind Wallis, and his smile quickly faded.
"Carter, don't be angry."
"I really wasn't trying to humiliate them."
He dropped his voice low, and it sounded like a sincere apology.
"I just saw them sitting in the waiting room the whole time, not knowing what to do with their hands."
"I was afraid they were too nervous, that they'd embarrass themselves up on the stage during the tea ceremony."
"So I only wanted to get them to laugh a little."
As he spoke, he lowered his eyes.
"I didn't think you'd mind this much."
The laughter around the room slowly died down.
But the way the guests looked at my parents still carried a slight, mocking contempt they hadn't quite pulled back.
My father stood with his head bowed.
That new suit wasn't actually expensive.
He'd saved for a long time before buying it at the mall in our small town.
The sleeves ran a little long, and the shoulders didn't quite fit.
But before we came, he'd tried it on in front of the mirror again and again.
And he'd asked me carefully, "Carter, if I go to your wedding like this, will I embarrass you?"
I'd smiled then and fixed his tie for him.
"How could you?"
"Today you'll be the most respectable father in the whole place."
But now he stood in front of a room full of guests.
A meat-inspection stamp on his face.
His cuff smudged with a mess of foundation and hair gel.
He was the one who'd been humiliated, and still he was afraid of being a burden to me.
"Carter, it's really fine."
"Don't fight with Wallis."
My mother nodded quickly too.
Her face was very pale, but she kept forcing a smile.
"Assistant Weiss is young, he likes to joke around."
"He meant well, helping us get dressed up."
"See, everyone had a laugh, and the wedding's livelier for it."
Watching them force those smiles, I felt something press down hard on my chest.
But Rupert seemed to take my mother's words as backing.
He let out a soft sigh and said quietly,
"Even your mother says it's fine."
"Carter, if you really make a scene over something this small, wouldn't that just embarrass them more?"
Wallis frowned at me.
"Did you hear that?"
"Your parents have better sense than you do."
I stared at her, stunned.
