My fiancé, Anthony, hung up on me to go watch the parade floats with his girl buddy.
The doctor's face was tight with sympathy.
"This is a threatened miscarriage. If you'd been brought in even half an hour sooner, we could have saved the baby."
Suffocating despair closed over me.
I called Anthony over and over.
Not until night fell did I finally have someone at my side, my parents, who had come from hundreds of miles away, not Anthony, who was only three miles off at the amusement park, keeping Isabel company.
That day something in me went dead, and I went home with my mom and dad.
Something occurred to me, and I opened the chat thread with the cousin I was closest to.
Before the wedding party set out, she'd texted me.
【Hey, is the ceremony about to start?】
A few minutes later.
【Don't be too upset. I know Aunt and Uncle wouldn't let us come to the wedding, but honestly, they've been having regrets.】
【I really believe things between you can smooth over.】
She'd sent me a video.
Looking at my mom and dad on the thumbnail, I couldn't work up the nerve to open it.
Now, with a shaking finger, I pressed play.
On the sofa at my aunt's place, my parents' eyes were already red.
Mom kept wiping at her tears.
"Why does that girl have to be so stubborn? We told her that man was no good."
"Who plays around with another woman while his own fiancée is having a miscarriage?"
"And then what? He kneels in the snow all night, kneels himself right into the hospital, spits out some hollow little vow, and she goes soft on him."
Dad gripped his teacup and said nothing.
Mom, furious, smacked his arm.
"And you, why did you have to say such harsh things? Telling her if she dared marry him, she was no daughter of yours."
"Well, now look. Our girl's actually gone."
Watching the new white in my parents' hair, my tears fell one by one.
Dad was quiet for a long while,
then took a bank card out of his wallet and handed it to my cousin.
"Effie Bishop, take this to your cousin when you get the chance."
"There's a five-hundred-thousand-dollar dowry in there. Don't let her be treated badly by her husband's family."
A whole day of held-back feeling broke loose.
I buried my face and couldn't stop the sobs, crying until my throat went hoarse.
There was only one thought in my head.
I want to go home.
I didn't bother straightening anything, just grabbed my things and stuffed them into the suitcase.
I couldn't even wait for the early train the next morning, so I paid two thousand for a long-distance cab straight home.
The moment I clicked the suitcase shut, Anthony called.
"Why aren't you answering my messages?"
I didn't respond.
He clicked his tongue, but didn't press it, his tone offhand.
"Things got a little out of hand. A good bit of the banquet hall décor got wrecked."
"I had the hotel set up a small hall on short notice. We'll just run our program in there."
The main hall was ten thousand square feet, the small one a thousand.
The ones there to sample a wedding got the main hall. The real bride got the small one.
In Anthony's mouth it was as easy as switching parking spots.
But I couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.
I answered flatly:"Fine."
Not hearing the complaint he'd expected, Anthony paused.
Once it sank in, he let out a breath of relief.
"Now that's more like it."
"The hotel's already setting up, and I just had someone custom-make an identical wedding cake."
Something crossed his mind, and his voice dropped lower, edged with a bit of tenderness.
"Trudy, you're about to become my wife."
"The wedding starts at nine. Make sure you're there on time."
The call ended.
I slid the diamond ring off my finger and dropped it on the hotel nightstand.
Then I turned, and got into the cab home.
