At the traditional wedding ceremony, Otto Sanchez spoke the solemn vow of one man and one woman for life, and pressed the gilt-lettered marriage vows into my hands, his face flushed with feeling.
But where the bride's name should have been, it read: Lena Quinn.
Not my name, Denise Henson.
It was the "Lena" of his girl friend, Lena Quinn.
I froze for a moment, then asked Otto,
"Did your hand slip? You wrote my name wrong."
Lena, in a gown even more striking than mine, couldn't hide the satisfaction in her eyes.
"Otto, honestly. I only said it as a joke, a bet. How did you actually write Denise's name as mine?"
Otto showed not the slightest panic or guilt. Instead he reached over and ruffled Lena's hair, doting on her, and said with a smile,
"A bet's a bet, and when I promise something I follow through. I don't want to be a man who breaks his word."
Lena caught him by the ear and tugged him aside, laughing at me;
"Hang on, Denise. Let me give this thoughtless brat a proper telling-off for you."
At that, my family's faces went dark in an instant,
especially my eight brothers.
1
The wedding stalled. The hall's red silk drapes made my face look all the paler.
Otto, being scolded by Lena, was still grinning and begging her off, but his face went cold the moment he came back to me.
"So I got one word wrong. It's our big day, don't be so precious about it and ruin everyone's mood."
My nose stung, and my voice came out small.
"You made a bet with our wedding?"
Otto paid no attention at all to the way my parents' faces were slowly draining of color, his tone full of complaint.
"What's the big deal? You're the one I'm marrying, aren't you? No need to make such a fuss and pull a face over it."
Tears welled and swam in my eyes.
"You think using my wedding, my marriage vows, to pay off a bet you made with another woman is nothing?"
"Trampling my dignity so the two of you can have your fun, and I'm the one being difficult?"
My questions shamed him into anger, and his voice turned cold and hard.
"It IS nothing! Lena and I have twenty-some years of friendship, we're purely friends!"
"You're the one making this into an ugly scene. That means you don't trust me, you don't know any better!"
Right on cue, Lena's eyes reddened, and she lowered them, her voice catching.
"Oh, this is all my fault. I never should have made that bet with Otto. Denise, don't be angry, blame me if you have to, just please don't let it spoil your wedding..."
Otto cut her off flatly.
"It's not your fault, it has nothing to do with you. You don't need to apologize to her."
He pulled out a fountain pen and roughly scratched out the "Le" on the vows, then scrawled a careless "De" beside it.
He tossed the pen down and looked at me.
"There. Satisfied now?"
My second and third brothers sat in the VIP section, fists clenched white, about to rise, but my eldest brother held them back.
Aiden Henson took out his phone and made a call.
I slowly lifted my eyes to Otto, the softness in them fading bit by bit.
"Otto, marriage vows are a promise for a lifetime. They aren't scrap paper you can scribble over as you please."
"You didn't get one word wrong. You got my name wrong. That's serious."
His brow knotted, and his voice grew more impatient.
"Denise, can't you be a little more grown-up? It's one typo. Do you have to blow it up like this?"
"I'm the head of a listed company now. I'm marrying you in style. What more do you have to complain about?"
Lena put on a gentle voice to smooth things over.
"Denise, don't read too much into it. Otto and I are purely friends. He already promised me just now that he won't fool around anymore."
"So don't keep dwelling on it and nitpicking."
Watching the two of them play off each other, I suddenly remembered all the details I'd deliberately made myself forget.
Our marriage home always kept a room for Lena. Otto always prepared her the same gifts he gave me on every holiday. One phone call from Lena and she could pull him away in a heartbeat...
Five years together, and we'd almost never had a single whole holiday to ourselves.
Otto always said;
"Denise, stop treating her like a woman. If anything was ever going to happen between us, it would have happened long ago. I wouldn't have waited around for you to show up."
I believed him. Believed him for five years.
The air over the wedding grew heavy, whispers breaking out on every side.
My uncle stepped forward first, his face like ice.
"What do you mean, a bet's a bet? You think this is playing house? Treating our Denise's marriage like a game?"
Another uncle said in a low, hard voice,
"The marriage vows bind you for life. Getting the name wrong is no small matter. You can't wave it off as just fooling around. Otto, you owe Denise an explanation."
Mom and Dad took my hand, eyes red, hearts breaking for me.
"Denise, what are you really thinking, deep down? Whatever you decide, we're behind you."
In an instant, my eight brothers lined up in a row behind me, faces livid, glaring at Otto.
I couldn't bear to leave Otto, because Otto looked so much like him.
So much that only by looking at Otto's face each day could I fall asleep in peace.
I tore up that marriage document with the wrong name on it.
"Otto, write a new one. Then the wedding continues."
