Chapter 6. You are Mine, Adelaide

"It's time, miss," says one of the maids, entering Adelaide's room. The young girl nods with a heavy knot in her stomach. She is still in disbelief. The woman in the mirror seems like someone else, certainly not herself. She looks beautiful and radiant this morning.

Mercedes opens the drawer and takes out a perfume bottle to apply to her neck and wrist. The fragrance was her late mother Amaranta's, and no one has a perfume with the same scent because it was custom-made by a native from their village just for her. Mercedes cherished the perfume bottles like treasure after her mother passed away and gave them to Adelaide when she turned fifteen.

The young girl closes her eyes and inhales that scent that reminds her so much of her mother, whom she never knew because she died the day she was born. It's as if her mother is with her now, and that gives her the courage for what lies ahead.

She looks at herself one last time in the mirror while turning around to admire her dress. It's so exqu