He kept shouting, and I fought with everything in me to keep my body from shaking.
Jude's voice came light and careless.
"Your mother had it coming anyway."
"Digging up that much wild medicinal herb, wrecking the ecosystem. That's what she gets."
What she gets?
Those words burrowed straight into my heart like the snow-worms back home, the kind that drink your blood and eat you alive.
The pain stopped my breath.
My mother was born in the northern highlands. She loved every blade of grass, every tree there, more than anyone.
If it hadn't been for Jude's mother, who deliberately made things hard for me and demanded I find those herbs for her.
How could my mother ever have dug them up, knowing it was against the law?
If it hadn't been for me, for the so-called happiness Jude and I were supposed to have.
How could my mother have fallen on that slope and broken her leg?
"Aisha, are you even listening to me?!"
"Tell your father and mother to dig up a few more bags of those herbs and send them over!"
"It's not like your parents know the law anyway. A couple of backward criminals!"
Blanche's sneering voice cut into my ear. I raised my hand and slapped her across the face.
The next second, Jude caught my wrist and flung it back hard.
I lost my footing and slammed my head against the sharp corner of the cabinet by the entryway.
Everything went black. I felt something wet trickling from my forehead.
Hand pressed to the wound, I lifted my head slowly.
Jude's eyes froze. Without thinking, he bent to look for the first-aid kit.
A gentle, automatic comfort slipped out of his mouth.
"Aisha, don't be scared—"
But he came back to himself fast.
His brows drew tight.
"Aisha, hurting yourself doesn't work on me anymore."
"I'll say it again. You want to marry me? Then wait for my divorce!"
"You're only good enough to be my second wife."
Every word delivered, Jude hauled me up off the floor.
"Move! We're going to the hospital so you can apologize to Blanche's mother!"
I bit down on the pain and let myself be dragged out of the complex.
The strange stares of passersby followed me, and I struggled hard.
Then, out of nowhere, I heard someone mutter a jeer.
"That woman's the mistress!"
"She got slapped at the hospital today. I've even got it on video!"
The word mistress.
It stabbed clean through my heart. I opened my mouth to argue.
And then I heard Blanche talking to the people watching.
"You're not seeing things, she really is the mistress!"
"See the way she looks?"
"She's from the northern highlands. From now on, when you see those highland people, keep your distance!"
"Or one day you'll get cheated on and never see it coming!"
Blanche's words were thick with prejudice, planted to lead people on.
I shook all over with fury and rushed at her, slapping her across the face.
The blow stunned her, and she shoved me hard.
I was at the top of a full flight of stairs. I couldn't keep my balance, and in my panic I grabbed tight at the hem of Jude's shirt.
Jude stopped.
The next second, Blanche burst into tears and fainted to the floor.
Jude's body lurched a step forward.
My only hold was gone, and I went tumbling down the stairs.
Hands clamped over my head, I felt like my body was being pulled apart with the pain.
I don't know how long it lasted before I finally stopped rolling and lay still on the concrete.
When I woke again, I was lying in a hospital bed.
I braced myself up and walked out of the room, and heard a nurse shrieking with excitement.
"Dr. Henson and Dr. Delgado make such a perfect match!"
"Look, this is the livestream of their wedding. I'm so jealous of the coworkers who took the day off to go in person."
The nurse's words came into my ears one by one, and my phone suddenly rang.
"Aisha, are you awake?"
"If you're awake, come to the wedding. I have something to say to you."
Jude's voice carried through the noisy wedding music.
I looked at the plane ticket on my phone, three hours left before it boarded, and spoke calmly.
"Jude, do you know that once a girl from our northern highlands puts on her wedding gown, she has to marry within seven days?"
"I'm not waiting for your divorce anymore."
"What did you say?"
On the other end, I heard Jude go still and confused.
He thought I was joking.
He said it again.
"Aisha, what did you just say about marrying within seven days?"
I didn't answer him. I only said one more thing.
"Jude, I'm going back to the northern highlands to get married. I'll never set foot in New York again as long as I live."
"……"
At the lively wedding, Jude gripped his phone, his eyes full of disbelief.
The emcee's voice rose and rang beside him, and he didn't take in a word of it.
He called the inpatient ward in a panic.
"Aisha, she's still at the hospital, right?"
The nurse was still watching the wedding livestream, and the sudden call left her stunned.
"Aisha? That highland mistress?"
"She left over ten minutes ago—"
The nurse hadn't finished her sentence.
Jude tore down off the stage like a man gone mad.
