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3
I had barely stepped down from the platform when my mother pushed through the crowd and seized my hand.
"Baby, what's going on?"
My parents were seated at the very back of the banquet hall, closest to the door.
At this wedding, they were the only two guests on the bride's side.
Our relatives back home had wanted to come, but Mrs. Weiss thought they didn't know how to behave and would embarrass the Weiss family.
Eugene had said so too. "We'll just hold a thank-you dinner back in your hometown later. Don't bring too many people."
So my parents had ridden the cheap coach seats for over ten hours, traveling alone to attend their daughter's wedding.
The dress my mother wore didn't fit right. She had taken in the waist herself, stitch by stitch.
The father-of-the-bride flower pinned to my father's chest had already been crushed out of shape in the crowd, but he wouldn't take it off.
Not until he saw Maura wearing my gown, wearing my ring.
My father walked up to Eugene.
"Take off that ring and apologize to my daughter."
Eugene's expression darkened slightly.
"It's just a bet, sir."
"Maura's only walking through the ceremony in Marilyn's place. After it's over, I'll still register the marriage with Marilyn."
My father stared at him for a few seconds.
"You marry her, but send my daughter to sign the papers?"
"Then what is my daughter to you?"
Eugene frowned.
"We've always played this way. Marilyn never used to mind."
My mother was shaking with anger.
"She doesn't mind, so that gives you the right to keep walking all over her?"
In her distress her accent thickened, and her voice climbed with it.
Mrs. Weiss's face turned cold at once.
"Keep your voice down, ma'am."
"This isn't some country market back in your village."
"Everyone here today is a client of the Weiss family. Shouting like that, are you trying to make us all a laughingstock?"
Lowered murmurs came from all around.
"Country people. No manners at all."
My mother's face flushed red in an instant.
She had come to demand justice for her daughter, and yet now she curled her fingers in tight, awkward and small, her voice dropping.
"I'm not making a scene."
"I just ache for my daughter."
My nose stung sharply.
She had done nothing wrong, and still, without thinking, she was explaining herself to the people who had humiliated her.
Eugene cut in impatiently.
"The wedding today goes to Maura first."
"Next month I'll come to your hometown and hold a thank-you dinner."
"Your relatives can all come to that. That's already more than enough face for Marilyn."
My father slowly lifted his head.
"You give her this wedding worth a fortune."
"Then throw together a few tables of cheap liquor in the countryside to send my daughter off?"
Eugene's face turned ugly.
"I've already agreed to make it up to you. What more do you want?"
Only then did Maura come over, lifting her gown, and take my mother's hand warmly.
"Auntie, does it really matter where the wedding is held?"
"You and Uncle came all this way. It wasn't easy for you."
She pointed to the party favors in the corner.
"Take a few extra boxes of the wedding candy home later, hand them out to the neighbors. Then the trip won't have been for nothing."
My mother snatched her hand back as if burned.
My father ripped the red flower off his chest and slammed it down hard on the table.
"Our family is poor."
"But we're not so poor we'd trade our daughter's wedding for a few boxes of candy!"
Maura's eyes reddened instantly.
"Uncle, I only meant well."
Eugene moved in front of her without a second thought.
"Enough."
"Maura's done nothing but think of you two. Don't be so ungrateful."
My father looked at him steadily.
"You knelt in front of us once. You said you'd never let Marilyn suffer."
Eugene looked away from him.
My father didn't ask again.
He turned and wiped the tears from my face, his voice suddenly much older.
"Marilyn, your dad misjudged this man."
"We're not going through with this marriage. Your mom and I are taking you home."
My tears finally fell.
A hall full of guests were all pressing me to swallow it.
Only my parents, humiliated until they couldn't lift their heads, still stood between me and all of it.
I took off my veil and held a hand in each of mine.
"Okay."
"Let's go home."
Behind me, Eugene let out a cold laugh.
"Since she insists on leaving, let's make another bet."
Maura perked up at once.
"I bet Marilyn won't last three days before she brings Uncle and Auntie back to apologize."
Eugene watched my retreating back, his tone certain.
"It won't take three days."
"She'll cave this afternoon and beg me to sign the papers with her."
Maura smiled and asked, "And the stakes?"
"If she doesn't apologize to me today, the wedding house on the South Side is yours."
"Deal."
The two of them laughed behind me.
Even now, they still treated whether I stayed or left as some ridiculous bet.
I didn't look back.
As we walked out of the hotel, my father asked carefully,
"Baby, you really won't regret this?"
I glanced at the welcome board, at Eugene's and Maura's names written side by side.
Then I gripped my parents' hands tighter.
"My only regret is that I didn't see them clearly until today."
And that wasn't all. I was going to give Eugene a very special gift.
He liked bets so much. I wanted to see whether he could afford to lose this one.
