Chapter 1

I picked up my bag from the bench and pushed the door open. The sensor chimed once.

No one called after me.

I looked back. Nina was still spinning in front of the mirror. The white gown caught the light. Henry stood behind her, adjusting the straps at her back. The photographer raised his camera. "Yes, that angle." The shutter clicked five or six times in a row.

I turned and walked out.

When I got into the car, my phone buzzed. A message from Henry: "Where did you go? We are about to pick the flowers. I will come find you in a minute."

I stared at the screen. He was asking where I was, but he was already moving on to the next thing.

"Whatever Nina picks is fine," I typed back.

"Alright. I will let her decide."

I put the phone down. The car was quiet. Quiet enough to hear my own breathing. One breath after another. Counting how many times I had been forgotten. How many times I had been pushed aside.

Before I put the phone down, messages started coming in. The photographer was uploading photos to the family wedding group. I opened one. The light fell on Nina and Henry like a bridal magazine cover.

When I was a child, playing wedding games, I used to envy the girl who got to be the bride. When I met Henry, I thought I would finally get to be one. I poured myself into this wedding. I was careful about everything. It felt like the only proof that I deserved to be the center of something.

I did not expect to end up outside the frame again.

I brought Nina because she was the closest person to me. And a wedding dress fitting was serious. There could only be one bride in the photos. I was the bride.

Nothing could go wrong. But it did.

My phone lit up and dimmed, lit up and dimmed. Messages poured into the group. I did not reply. No one noticed.

I drove back to my apartment. A sticky note on the fridge said "7 days until the wedding." I peeled it off, crumpled it, and threw it away.

The next morning, I opened my phone. The wedding group chat had over ninety-nine messages.

Nina had sent a voice message. I played it.

"Sister, I changed the venue for you. The original one was too far. The family elders would have trouble getting there. I found a better one, right next to the Moretti estate. The Morettis appreciate convenience. We cannot let them think the Bellandis do not know how to handle things."

Henry replied with a text: "The old one was not convenient."

The old venue was the one I had spent two months choosing. Henry and Nina both knew that. They still decided it was too far.

Nina typed again: "My sister does not usually handle these things. Let me and Henry take care of the details."

Henry replied with one word: "Yes."

I stared at that word and did not move. Messages kept coming. No one noticed I had not said anything.

This wedding had no room for my voice.

I opened my private chat with Henry. The last message was from the day of the dress fitting. I said I was nervous. He replied, "You look beautiful in anything." He never asked why I left early. He never sent a single message asking if I was okay. He only wrote in the group last night: "Why did you leave early? Nervous?"

No one answered. The matter passed. Nina posted a photo with a caption: "Dress fitting done. Venue confirmed." Then they moved on to menu, seating, and security arrangements.

I realized I was not just unnecessary. Unnecessary at least meant I had once existed. I felt like I had never been there at all.

While I was packing, Nina video-called me. I answered. Someone was doing her makeup on screen.

"Sis, you never decided on a makeup artist. I hired a team for you. I am having them try it on me first."

I looked at Nina through the screen and wanted to say something. I wanted to tell her I had already asked a friend to do my makeup. I wanted to ask her if any decision made on my behalf had ever been run by me. But it felt pointless.

I had asked. I had spoken up. I had pushed back. None of it worked.

They always said the same thing: "You are the older sister. You must yield. A Bellandi woman cannot be small-minded."

When Henry first pursued me, he said he liked how quiet I was. I thought he loved me for who I was. But after Nina came back, he changed. He started saying a woman should be more outgoing, more assertive, more capable of holding up a family's reputation.

One day I finally said, "Can you stop being so close to Nina?"

I had always been protective of my sister. He should have known I was not being unreasonable. He just smiled and ruffled my hair. "She is your sister. When you marry me, you will be the Donna of the Moretti family. A Donna needs grace. You cannot let people say the Bellandis' daughter cannot even tolerate her own sibling."

A Donna needs grace. Those words sat on my chest like a stone. They forgot I was only two years older than her. I could also get tired. I also wanted someone to ask me what I liked, or whether I was tired.