Chapter 1 - My Mother Said Don’t
My mother stood up in the front row of my wedding and whispered, “Don’t.”
My hand was already on the zipper.
Behind me, an enormous screen waited to show nearly three hundred guests exactly what she and my sister had done.
Beside me, Ethan tightened his grip on my other hand.
“Olivia,” he said quietly. “Talk to me.”
Two hours earlier, my wedding dress had disappeared.
My mother had smiled.
That smile was the reason we were here.
Not because I hated the replacement, although I did. Not because its blush-pink skirt swallowed half the bridal suite or because the crystal-covered bodice felt like armor somebody else had ordered me to wear.
Because she had looked at the empty garment bag and enjoyed knowing I had no choice.
Or so she thought.
Eight months earlier, I had walked into Rosa’s atelier with sketches folded in my purse.
Ivory satin. Clean lines. A fitted waist. Nothing stiff, nothing sparkling, nothing that required three people to help me use a bathroom.
“I want to feel like myself,” I told her.
Rosa smiled.
“That should be the easiest request a bride makes.”
My mother disagreed.
At the final fitting, Diane stood behind me and tugged at the waist.
“It’s a little plain.”
“Plain is elegant.”
“Elegant is forgettable.”
I had laughed because arguing in a fitting room felt childish.
Now, standing at the altar, I understood how much damage I had excused because fighting back might look bad.
Ethan watched my face.
The officiant lowered his book.
In the front row, my younger sister, Brooke, gripped her bouquet so tightly that a stem snapped.
My mother took one step into the aisle.
“Olivia. We can discuss this privately.”
That almost made me laugh.
Privacy had never protected me.
It had protected the version of our family she wanted other people to believe.
“You chose this dress,” I said.
Her eyes shifted toward the production booth.
Nora stood beside the technician with one hand resting on a flash drive.
“Please,” my mother said.
It was the first time all day she had sounded uncertain.
I looked at Ethan.
“I’m still marrying you,” I whispered. “If you still want to marry me after this.”
His expression changed.
“Of course I do.”
I took one breath.
Then another.
May you like
“Let them see it,” I told my mother.
And I pulled the zipper down.
