4

Alex followed me to the door.

The night wind pulled strands of hair loose at my temple. He stopped and tucked them behind my ear.

"Mother didn't mean it the way it sounded.

"Lilith grew up in the Castellano house. It's just habit, that's why she said the three of us were family."

I didn't argue with him.

"That friend of yours who got married in New York. That was Lilith?"

Alex's step faltered.

"Yes."

"And the gift, she's the one who told you to bring it back for me?"

He nodded.

"Yeah. Lilith said some of the luck should rub off on you."

I laughed softly.

"Do you have photos from the ceremony? Let me see."

Alex's throat moved.

"There's nothing worth seeing."

"Why not?"

I tilted my head.

"Is the groom too ugly to show?"

Alex went rigid, his lips pressing thin.

He always pressed his lips together when he was guilty.

I watched him for two seconds, then laughed out loud.

"I'm kidding.

"Still, why not just tell me it was Lilith's wedding? Why make up someone running North America?"

Alex stayed silent for a few paces.

"...I didn't think it through."

He didn't think it through.

Eight years together, and I'd heard that sentence from him more times than I could count.

Our first Christmas at the Castellano house, Alex gave me a dress identical to Lilith's.

He said, "Lilith helped me pick it. I didn't think it through."

I'm allergic to lilies, and he gave me a bouquet of lilies on Valentine's Day. He said, "Flowers are flowers... I didn't think it through."

He missed my birthday, one year after another.

He told me, "I assumed you didn't care about that kind of thing. I didn't think it through."

"Valeria."

Alex suddenly took my hand.

"That red diamond you liked at the auction. I bought it."

His eyes were bright when he said it, like a man waiting to be praised.

"I told you I'd give you the best.

"Tomorrow I'll put a ring on you that belongs to no one else in the world."

I was quiet for a while, then lifted my eyes and looked straight at him.

"Alex, if you want to change your mind and call off this wedding, there's still time."

Alex's face darkened at once.

"Valeria, you're already my wife. All we're doing tomorrow is the ceremony we never had.

"You've been looking forward to this. Or are you the one having second thoughts?"

Then he pulled me against him, his chin resting on the top of my head.

"Valeria, I don't like what you just said. Take it back.

"I admit there were plenty of times I ignored how you felt. That's over now.

"I'm going to love you properly. I'm going to be with you properly."

I lowered my eyes, my voice dropping.

"All right."

The driver was already waiting at the gate.

Alex kissed my forehead.

"See you tomorrow."

I smiled and didn't answer.

The car had barely pulled away when my phone buzzed.

It was Alex.

"Thinking about standing up there with you tomorrow has my heart going and it still hasn't slowed down. It feels like when we first started dating."

"Valeria, are you looking forward to it the way I am?"

I didn't reply.

I was about to close the message screen when my best friend Angela forwarded me one of Lilith's posts.

"Valeria, what is this?? That other hand is Alex's, isn't it?? That's the cufflink you and I had made together!"

I opened it. The first photo was a shot from behind at a wedding.

The photo showed a man in a dark gray suit, with a woman on his arm and her veil falling to her waist.

The second was a close-up of their clasped hands, and the cufflink on Alex's sleeve jumped straight out at me.

The caption was a single line.

"There is always one person who will get past everything just to stand beside you."

Angela kept firing messages at me.

"What is going on?"

"Isn't your ceremony tomorrow?"

"How did he end up having a wedding with Lilith in New York?"

I calmed Angela down and told her there'd be a good show tomorrow, and only then did she finally go quiet.

I screenshotted Lilith's post and saved it.

Then I switched back to Alex's chat.

"I can't wait."

I turned off my phone and watched the streetlights slide past the window one by one.

Everything about the Castellano estate fell away behind me.

Those eight years fell away with it.

It was ten o'clock the next morning.

Alex arrived at the church in his wedding suit, bright and full of energy, with Lilith and the Castellano relatives and friends behind him.

The moment the doors opened, everyone froze.