Daisy was still crying softly.
Evan bent his head to soothe her.
"It's fine. I'll handle it."
All at once I felt so tired.
If his way of handling it was to make my parents swallow their humiliation and see this thing through to the end.
To make me choke down my anger.
Then this wedding could end right here.
Before I could say a word, the emcee spoke up with a smile. "And now, we invite the bride and groom to serve tea to both sets of parents."
The staff had already half-nudged, half-escorted my parents up onto the stage.
The red stamp marks still weren't fully wiped off their faces.
The foundation was smeared into clumps, and the sweat at their temples had washed the color into streaks, making them look even more wretched.
Onstage, the Gilberts were seated front and center.
The lights were bright, and their chair backs were draped in festive red silk.
My parents had been placed off to the side.
Two low stools hauled over at the last minute, without so much as a red cushion.
When my father sat down, his knees nearly hit the corner of the table.
He drew his legs back awkwardly.
At some point Daisy had followed us up again.
She held a tray, smiling all sweetness.
"Jill, let me help you pass the tea."
I looked at her coldly. "No need."
Her eyes reddened at once.
Evan's brow furrowed.
"She only wants to help."
"Don't go embarrassing people up on this stage."
I looked at him.
And suddenly I remembered six months ago, when Evan took me to try on wedding gowns.
Daisy had tagged along.
One line from her, "This one's too plain, it doesn't suit a man of Mr. Gilbert's standing," and Evan had the clerk take away the very gown I loved.
I told him I'd spent months choosing that dress.
Evan just smiled.
"Daisy has good taste. Listen to her, you won't go wrong."
Later it was the same with the bouquet.
I wanted white lisianthus.
Daisy said red roses were livelier.
So Evan had them switched to red roses.
He said, "Daisy loves dressing up, she has good taste, she knows about these things."
But I was the one getting married.
So it turned out that from that moment on.
My wedding had already stopped being my wedding.
And now, even my parents' dignity wasn't theirs to keep.
Daisy passed the teacup over.
The tea was poured too full.
The steam stung my eyes.
I was just reaching to take it when her hand suddenly jerked.
Scalding tea splashed across the back of my father's hand.
His shoulder flinched hard from the pain as he scrambled to steady the cup.
"It's fine, it's fine."
"Don't spill it, don't hold up the children's tea."
My eyes flooded red in an instant.
Daisy clapped a hand over her mouth, dramatic.
"Oh, sir, I'm so sorry."
"I thought you'd be able to hold it steady."
"Are you maybe just too nervous?"
A few low chuckles rose from the crowd below.
Someone said under their breath,
"First time these country folk have seen anything like this, I bet."
"So out of their depth, aren't they."
My mother heard it.
The color drained from her face, but she still reached out to wipe the tea from the back of my father's hand.
"It didn't burn you, did it?"
My father shook his head. "I'm fine."
But the back of his hand had already gone red across a wide patch.
Those hands. I'd watched them my whole life.
Rough, broad, laced with tiny cracks.
When I was in college, money was tight at home.
He was afraid I'd feel small in front of my classmates.
Every month he wired me an extra five hundred dollars.
While he himself ate the cheapest boxed lunches on the construction site.
Once I came home and caught him crouched at the roadside, gnawing on a plain roll.
When he saw me, he hurriedly hid the roll behind his back.
And said with a smile, "I already ate."
Those hands that had held up half my life for me.
Now blistered raw from the scalding tea.
And still he was saying he was fine.
I couldn't hold back another second. I reached out and took his arm.
"Dad, let me take you to put something on that burn."
My mother fumbled through her purse and pulled out two cash gift envelopes.
I knew there wasn't much money inside.
But it was every last bit of dignity they could offer.
For this wedding, my mom had gone to the bank a month ahead to exchange for crisp new bills.
She'd pressed them flat inside a thick book, one by one, saying that was how they'd look nice when you handed them over.
She'd even tucked the envelopes under her pillow for days.
Afraid the corners might curl.
The day she showed me, her smile had been a little shy.
"Sweetheart, your dad and I can't give much."
"But every bill is clean and brand new."
"You take these, for good luck."
But just as the envelopes were being handed over, Daisy suddenly leaned in for a look.
"Sir, ma'am, isn't this envelope a little thin?"
Daisy blinked, then, as if something had just come to her, her smile went even lighter.
"Though I suppose it's no surprise."
"I heard that to marry into the Gilbert family, Jill sold the old house back home."
"Sir, ma'am, don't tell me you put every penny into Jill's dowry?"
"But this envelope doesn't exactly look like much, does it?"
My parents' faces went white in an instant.
Down in the crowd, people were murmuring, one ugly remark after another drifting our way.
I closed my eyes.
That old house was the last fallback my parents had left me.
In the old part of the city, in a great location.
Year after year, rumors of redevelopment had come and gone, and people had long been offering big money to buy it.
But my parents had never been willing to let it go.
They'd said, "We're keeping the house."
"If you're ever mistreated one day, at least you'll have somewhere to come home to."
But half a month ago, Evan's company ran into a cash-flow crisis.
He couldn't sleep, night after night.
I saw it, and quietly talked my parents into selling that house.
I wired the money into Evan's company as emergency funds.
Now, though, it seemed there'd been no need.
I took out my phone and messaged the finance department, telling her to transfer the money back to me at once.
In the few seconds my head was down, my father was already reaching frantically into his pocket.
"There's more, there's more."
"We put a little something aside too."
He drew a small, crumpled stack of cash from his inner pocket.
It was the money he'd scraped together for me on the trip, going without water, going without meals, tucked away as his last reserve.
I finally broke. I pressed my hand down over his.
"Dad, don't."
"You don't owe anyone a thing."
Daisy blinked, as if my voice had startled her.
"Jill, I didn't mean anything by it."
"I just thought, with the Gilberts throwing such a grand wedding, the bride's side ought to keep up appearances too."
"I only worried people might laugh at your parents."
Evan's face finally darkened.
"Daisy, that's enough."
Daisy lowered her head at once.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Gilbert."
"I said the wrong thing again."
Evan sighed, his voice softening.
"No one blames you."
Then he looked at me.
"Jill."
"The ceremony's almost over."
"Don't keep dragging this out."
I stared at him, dazed.
The Evan Gilbert who, five years ago at my family's dinner table, had stepped in to spare my father.
He seemed to have truly died at some moment I never knew.
The man standing in front of me now.
His heart was already full of Daisy.
And I had nearly brought a man like this into the rest of my life.
Down in the crowd, the guests were still whispering.
My mother tugged gently, carefully, at my sleeve.
“Sweetheart, let it go.”
“Your dad and I are really fine.”
“Don't ruin your wedding over us.”
I looked at the red stamp still smeared on her face.
At the back of my father's hand, scalded red.
At the two of them, mocked in front of everyone, still fighting to hold their dignity together for my sake.
The last bit of hesitation in my heart finally shattered.
Slowly, I drew my hand back out of Evan's grip.
I picked up the teacup from the tray.
Everyone assumed I was going to continue with the tea ceremony.
Even Evan visibly let out a breath.
But in the next second.
I smashed the cup against the floor.
My voice was ice.
“This wedding is off.”
