At Lavinia Hinton’s ninth wedding, her childhood sweetheart, broken by mental illness, once again caused chaos. He pressed a knife to my mother’s neck, laughing wildly.
“Lavinia, you can’t marry him! Either agree that the groom is me, or I’ll kill her!”
Lavinia looked at him with eyes full of sorrow. She tore off her bridal veil, tossed it to the ground, and pleaded helplessly. “Phineas Sanford, you see it too. It’s not that I don’t want you, but I can’t go against Cedric. I promised his mother I would never send him to a mental hospital.”
The guests drank their wine, whispering, mocking, and throwing scornful glances my way. My fists clenched, loosened, and clenched again. In the end, I pulled off the wedding ring and threw it at Lavinia.
“I wish you a happy marriage and a long life together.”
Lavinia, I truly let go this time and gave you what you wanted.
——
The wedding that should have been mine turned me instead into a guest, drinking wine and becoming the crowd’s joke. Lavinia told me to take off the groom’s suit and hand it to Cedric Marcellus.
The demand itself was humiliating, yet I had no choice; my mother’s life was still in Cedric’s hands.
Under countless eyes filled with mockery, scorn, and whispers calling me a cuckold, I removed the suit piece by piece.
“He’s really useless, a shame to men.”
“Trash, can’t live without a woman, huh?”
Those words rang in my ears, leaving my heart heavy and weak.
Lavinia once saved my mother’s life, and I swore I would marry only her. I waited for her, even when she abandoned our weddings again and again. But this time, I would not wait any longer.
She bent down to pick up the suit from the ground, guilt clouding her face.
“Phineas, don’t worry. Once I calm Cedric down, we’ll hold the wedding again.”
“Just bear with it this time. You know, when he falls ill, he’s like a child. Let’s treat today’s wedding as nothing but a farce.”
My mother looked at me with endless sorrow. The knife against her neck cut into her skin, leaving a thin line of blood.
“Phineas, don’t take off anymore…”
I pulled off my pants and threw them at Lavinia. “Is that enough?”
I said this while staring at Cedric, who looked back at me with eyes clear as if he were sane, a faint smile on his lips.
“As long as I’m here, don’t even think of marrying her. She’s mine.”
Before I could speak, Lavinia smiled at him gently and coaxed, “Hmm, I’m yours, forever yours. Come, put on the groom’s suit.”
Only then did Cedric look satisfied. When he turned his eyes back to me, they carried open provocation.
My fists clenched so tight the sound of bones cracked. I had once told Lavinia that, since he was sick, why not send him to Greenville for treatment?
She said she couldn’t rest assured leaving Cedric alone inside. He had no family left, pitiful enough, and instead she blamed me for lacking compassion, for being petty.
Every time we quarreled, the topic always circled back to Cedric.
I was exhausted, unwilling to keep entangling with them. If she loved taking care of him, then she could take care of him forever.
But the crowd burst into laughter, pointing at us, whispering and mocking as if watching a play.
My mother couldn’t stop crying from guilt, while Cedric still refused to let her go.
Just then, a group of doctors in white coats rushed in from outside. “We heard there’s a mentally ill person here trying to kill someone?”
No one knew who had called the police or alerted the mental hospital staff.
