3

When I got back to my parents' house, my mother, Margaret Bennett, had someone hauling the cedar hope chest out the door.

She saw me and showed not a trace of guilt. "Good timing. Serena needs a cabinet, so she can use this one for now."

"Grandma left that to me."

"You're sisters. Why split things into yours and hers?"

My father, Richard Bennett, came out of the study holding the folder with my documents in it. "Adrian says you're making noise about calling off the wedding. Your papers stay with me for now, so you don't do something rash and take off."

I walked over. "Give them back."

"Get through the wedding first."

I pulled the folder straight out of his hands and held it against my chest.

Margaret planted herself in the doorway. "Serena cried all night. She just can't bear to see you get married, so she said a few extra words to Adrian.

"You've had everything since you were little. She's not healthy. What's wrong with us loving her a little more?"

I laughed out loud. "What have I had?"

The living room went dead quiet.

I pointed at the hope chest. "Grandma left that to me, and you're handing it to her.

"I got into my first-choice college. When she said she didn't want us to be apart, you forced me to turn it down and enroll somewhere else.

"My first job, she wanted that too, and you made me give it up.

"I bought an apartment, and she wanted to live in it.

"I'm getting married, and she's even dragging my fiancé into bets about me.

"You tell me. What exactly have I ever had?"

Margaret was quiet for a long moment before she said, "You're stronger than she is."

That line again.

Because I didn't cry, I was supposed to feel no hurt.

Because I could carry it, I deserved to lose it.

There was a burst of hurried knocking at the door.

Chloe was standing outside with a young client of ours, Dana Foster.

Dana was holding a gown with a long slash cut down the side of the waist, the lace torn through.

"Nora, Adrian said Serena would be handling the sewing from now on. She was taking in my waistline just now, and she cut the dress open."

Margaret jumped in immediately. "Serena's only just started learning. Slips happen."

Dana's face was grim. "This is my wedding, not a piece of fabric for her to practice on."

That lace had taken me more than ten hours to piece together.

I took the gown from her. "Give me three hours and I'll fix it for you."

Dana let out a breath.

Margaret got in my way. "You won't deal with your own wedding, but you'll deal with somebody else's?"

"At least she respects what I make."

I took my papers and went downstairs with Chloe.

Adrian's car was parked out front.

He had already changed into his suit, and there were shadows under his eyes. "The limo will be here in half an hour. You're going to work now?"

"Yes."

"Every guest is waiting. You can't humiliate both families like this."

"When all of you were humiliating me for fun, did anyone care about my dignity?"

He was quiet for a moment, then took out the ring. "No more games. Serena's agreed to move out after the wedding.

"Just come to the hotel with me today, all right?"

His voice dropped low.

He used to coax me like this, and I always softened.

It wasn't that he had never loved me.

It was that whenever Serena and I were in the same room, he never once chose me.

I asked, "What if she needs you again in the middle of the ceremony?"

"She won't."

"And if she does?"

He took my hand. "Today nobody matters more than you."

A second later, his phone rang.

Serena had sent a photo of a scratch on her wrist, shallow enough that it had barely broken the skin.

"I'm not coming to the wedding. I don't want to ruin her day just by being there."

Adrian's hand let go of mine at once. "I'll go check on her. Ten minutes and I'm back."

I nodded.

"Go."

He blinked at me. "Wait for me here."

I carried the gown toward the studio.

I didn't look back once.