He Left His Pregnant Bride at the Altar novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Ninth of March
On March ninth, at ten in the morning, my sister zipped me into a plain ivory dress.
It fit.
It was the first dress in a year that hadn't needed letting out.
"Hold still," Nerina said.
"I am holding still."
"You're breathing."
"Nerina, I have to breathe."
She laughed behind me, and then she tied the thin blue ribbon around my left wrist, over the gold bracelet Ruggero's mother had put on me, in a knot that took her three tries.
"Something blue," she said. "I brought it this time."
"You did."
"I had a lot of practice, remembering it."
We looked at each other in the mirror.
She wore the same blue as the ribbon.
Her eyes were wet, and she wasn't pretending anything.
"I'm still working on it," she said. "All of it. But I'm here."
"I know. I counted."
The chapel stood in a park beside Lake Michigan, with twelve pews and one stained window.
A wind came off the water and rattled the door.
Tiberio waited in the vestibule in his gray suit, holding a shy, round-cheeked baby on his arm.
Rosa was a year old to the day, and she wore white shoes she had already kicked half off.
"Who's giving you away?" he asked.
"Nobody."
"That's what I told them."
"I'll walk in myself."
"Good." He gave a crooked grin. "I'll walk Rosa."
The door opened, and every head in the twelve pews turned.
The old captain sat on the groom's side, in a black suit that was too small.
Ruggero's mother sat in the front row, with a lace handkerchief, and she touched her own wrist when I passed and nodded.
My father was not there.
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