3: 3
The next morning at work, I messaged the wedding venue coordinator and canceled every booking.
Then I unlinked the house's water, power, and gas from my phone.
I wasn't going to touch the house they lived in. Call it repayment for all those years of raising me.
But the wedding and the household bills, I wasn't paying for any of it anymore.
I'd barely finished when Millicent called.
Her voice was frantic.
"Blanche, Mom's got altitude sickness, she's in the hospital!"
"The doctor says she probably won't make it, hurry up and get here!"
Then she hung up.
The sun was on me, and it still felt cold.
I remembered my last car accident, my mother beside me, gripping my hand and crying until her eyes were swollen red.
I rushed straight to the airport.
My phone was on airplane mode, and the whole way there I kept thinking.
What if I turned it back on to bad news about her.
And if not, how fast could I get her transferred to a bigger hospital.
I even made a list of doctor friends on my phone.
So I could reach out for help the second I landed.
But when I got to the hospital entrance, Millicent's call came through again.
"Blanche, Mom's much better, she's been discharged. Come to the wedding venue."
I pushed down the doubt in my chest.
And still I went.
The spot I'd chosen myself, beneath the snow-capped mountains, in a bed of pink roses.
Millicent was wearing the wedding dress I'd had custom-made, her arm looped through Rodney's.
My parents sat in the family seats, watching them with a look of contentment.
For a moment every drop of blood in me ran cold.
When my father saw me, he said nothing. My mother let out a scoff and turned her face away.
I gripped my bag and walked toward Rodney, one step at a time.
"You checked the location on my phone?"
He'd installed that tracker last year, after I was followed, because he was afraid something would happen to me.
If not for today, I'd have almost forgotten it existed.
"Otherwise how would Millicent know the exact moment I reached the hospital?"
"You played me, along with them?"
Before Rodney could answer.
Millicent grabbed my hand, her eyes red.
"Blanche, I know you've had a falling-out with Mom and Dad and Rodney."
"I only wanted things to ease up between you."
"The wedding's the day after tomorrow. I just wanted to see our family happy together."
Her eyes were innocent, her voice pleading.
But I still pulled my arm free of her grip and stepped back.
"Out of everyone here, you're the only one who isn't family."
Her tears spilled over at once.
Even her crying made you want to pity her.
My mother shoved me aside, and my father glared at me, brows drawn tight.
Rodney was angry too.
"Blanche, that was out of line."
"Apologize to Milly, now!"
It came to me suddenly, the videos I'd seen online of people up north guarding a lost child, three of them standing in a triangle.
Ready to rush forward and protect the kid at any second.
Now the three people closest to me were standing exactly like that.
Braced against me.
But this time my heart didn't hurt.
I just turned and walked.
"Blanche!" my mother called.
My steps paused.
"Before you go, settle the balance!"
"They said you never paid the remainder. Were you waiting for us to cover it for you?"
"How can you be so calculating?"
I turned back, and the last thread of hope in me faded.
"Calculating? I bought the house, I paid the bills, and every month I transfer you eight thousand for living expenses."
"And Millicent? She sits at home living off you two, and you call me calculating?"
"Enough!" my father roared.
I knew him. He always sat back and watched the fight play out.
Only when my mother was losing would he step in.
"We raised you all these years. You owe us your gratitude!"
I clenched my fists.
"Fine. Keep that house for your retirement, then. Call it buying out all those years of raising me."
With that I turned around again.
Rodney's voice shook a little.
"Blanche, you're not going through with the wedding tomorrow?"
I met his eyes.
"Rodney, from the day you had her rehearse in my place, I never planned to go through with it."
"Let's end it here!"
As I left, the staff stopped them about the unpaid balance.
No matter how they called after me, I didn't look back.
