The word that the makeup artist would arrive soon lifted the whole room.
My mother smoothed the creases in her red wedding dress, pulled herself together, and started reworking the plan.
"Nora waits for the real artist. Harper, Chloe, bear with me a little—I'll get two backup artists over here right now to do the rest of us."
Harper jumped in at once.
"Don't worry, Marina, we're easy. It's Nora's big day. We'll keep it looking the way it should."
Chloe gave my shoulder a comforting squeeze.
My father said nothing. He only clenched his fists and looked at me with such pain that the tears started spilling down my face again.
He'd named me Nora, held me like something precious for twenty-seven years, and never once let me so much as pick up a fallen bottle.
When friends teased him—a doctoral advisor at a top university giving his daughter such a plain, ordinary name—he only smiled.
"What do any of you know. I want everyone to see the name and understand instantly: my daughter is my most treasured girl, my little princess."
But the little princess he'd cherished for twenty-seven years, who had never once been wronged, was wronged to the fullest on her wedding day, at the hands of the man who was supposed to be her husband.
And for the sake of his daughter's face, he couldn't blow it all up at this moment and make things worse. He could only grind his teeth and stay silent.
The clock ticked on. Another dozen-odd minutes slid past, and the black night began to pale at the edges.
Mom pulled every string she had and rushed in two makeup artists to start on the others.
The frozen air in the room finally began to loosen.
Guy called again.
One of the aunts there to see the bride off teased,
"Answer it, quick. He's calling to apologize—maybe the artist's almost there."
"You two lovebirds, be sweet. It's a happy day, work it out nicely."
I twisted my mouth, and yet I still picked up with a flicker of hope.
"Baby, don't get mad, just hear me out. There's really no way Judith can make it over in time now, so why not have her do Ada's mom's makeup while she's close by? It adds some class to our wedding, too."
"I've already contacted another artist near your place to head over. That's faster. Let's not hold up the wedding."
It was a bucket of cold water straight over my head. My ears rang, and I nearly missed what he'd said.
The talking in the room cut off in an instant. Every hand stopped mid-motion.
Harper and Chloe stepped in at once, one on each side, steadying my back.
My voice came out hoarse.
"Guy, do you even want to marry me?"
He pressed down his impatience.
"Baby, of course I do. It's just a makeup artist, anyone can do it. Be reasonable. I only want to get this sorted out fast."
I raised my voice.
"Even now, you still think this is about a makeup artist?"
"This is my face! They're grinding me into the dirt! My own wedding, the artist I hired with my own money, and instead of doing the bride's makeup she's being sent by you to do some nobody adopted sister and the adopted sister's mother! Who exactly are you marrying?"
"Seven years together. Everything you asked me to give up, I gave up. But my own wedding—do you want me to hand that over to someone else, too?"
Hearing me scream it out like something torn from my chest,
for a moment Guy wavered,
then he remembered what his mother had told him.
"A marriage is either the east wind bearing down on the west or the west bearing down on the east! Nora's family is well-off. If you don't get a grip on her early, you're the one who'll suffer down the line!"
He hardened his heart.
"There's less than two hours until the pickup! You don't want our wedding turning into a joke, do you?"
"Stop making a scene. Just make do and get your makeup done. Once the wedding's over, whatever you want as compensation, I'll agree to it!"
