She leaned back like the cake might bite.
“Joining in,” Mom said. “If smashing cake into someone’s face is so beloved, you can’t possibly object.”
Emersyn’s laugh died mid-breath.
“It’s for women marrying into the family,” Emersyn snapped. “Only them.”
“Ah.” Mom tilted her head. “And did you get the same treatment at your own wedding?”
“Of course I did.”
You could hear the confidence in it.
You could also hear how thin it was, if you’d spent four years listening for the cracks, which I had.
“It’s for women marrying into the family,”
Mom turned slowly.
“Walter, you were there. Do you remember that?”
Abel’s father sat two tables over, a napkin tucked in his collar, trying to become part of the furniture.
Every head in the room swung toward him.
“Walter, you were there. Do you remember that?”
He swallowed. He looked at his wife, then at his shoes.
“No,” he said finally. “Nothing like that happened at our wedding.”
Mom had exposed Emersyn’s lie in front of two hundred people, and for a moment, I felt something close to joy.
I looked at my husband, waiting to see whose side he’d take.
He looked at his wife, then at his shoes.
Then Emersyn found her voice.
“You humiliated me! In front of my entire family!”
“Okay, okay.” Abel stepped between them, palms up, like a man calming a spooked horse. “Mom, please. Put the cake down, please. Everyone just calm down.”
I stared at him. “Why didn’t you say that when she shoved it in my face?”
“Everyone just calm down.”
His mouth opened and closed. “It.. it happened so fast, Cassie. I froze.”
“You froze.”
“Look, how about this?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You both apologize, and we get back to the reception. Okay? Just say sorry, and we’ll move on.”
Both of them. Like my mother standing up for me weighed the same as his mother smearing frosting into my eyes.
“You both apologize, and we get back to the reception.”
I felt the joy drain right out of me, and something colder moved in.
Mom set the plate down on the table.
She didn’t apologize. She didn’t even glance at Emersyn.
She just looked at me, and her voice went soft.
“Sweetheart, you don’t have to accept being treated like this. Not today, not ever.”
I felt the joy drain right out of me
Then she stepped back, hands folded, and left the whole thing in my hands.
I wiped my eyes with my wrist and made it worse.
“I need to clean up.”
“I’ll come with you,” Abel said.
“I need a few minutes alone.”
He looked relieved. At the time, I thought he was just glad the argument was over. I hadn’t yet realized how much he was keeping from me.
“I need a few minutes alone.”
The bridal suite smelled like hairspray and roses, which made the whole thing feel like a joke.
I stood at the mirror with a stack of damp towels and tried to rescue what I could.
It wasn’t the first time Emersyn had made me feel small.
I’d spent months swallowing her comments about my appearance and our wedding. What hurt most was that Abel had heard them, too.
I tried to rescue what I could.
And every single time, Abel said the same thing afterward.
I love you, but there’s nothing I can do about her.
Here’s what hit me, standing there with a ruined face. Mom had done in one minute what Abel hadn’t done in four years.
Was that really so hard?
A knock. “Cass? Can I come in?”
I love you, but there’s nothing I can do about her.
I let him.
He closed the door softly and stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking at the stained dress like it might accuse him.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “She’s got a weird sense of humor. I don’t think she realized how upsetting it would be.”
“Abel, don’t.”
“She’s got a weird sense of humor.”
“She’s spent months picking apart this wedding,” I continued. “She knows exactly how she feels about me, and so do you.”
His shoulders dropped.
“Okay. She was wrong. But the reception is falling apart, Cass. She’s threatening to leave. Half my aunts are crying. We can’t go off on our honeymoon like this. The whole trip will be awkward.”
Something about the way he said that made me pause.
“The whole trip will be awkward.”
I stared at him.
“Why? Because your mother thinks she has a right to be angry at me because she shoved cake in my face?”
“No, that’s not… it’s just…” He rubbed his forehead. “We’ll all be staying at the same resort.”
I stopped wiping my dress. The towel hung from my hand.
“All?”
“We’ll all be staying at the same resort.”
Abel looked at the door.
“Who’s all staying at our resort?”
“Mom booked a room there,” he said. “Just for the first three nights. She wanted a little vacation, and I helped her arrange it.”
I looked at my stained dress, then back at him.
“Your mother is coming on our honeymoon?”
“Mom booked a room there,”
“Not with us, exactly. She has her own room. We might have dinner together a couple of times. That’s all.”
“Why would you do that? And why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was going to. After the wedding. You were already stressed, and I didn’t want another fight.”
“So you knew I’d object.”
He didn’t answer.
“We might have dinner together a couple of times.”
“Did you give her our booking details? Help her choose the dates?”
“Yes. Cass, I thought if she had her own room, it wouldn’t matter.”
“It matters to me. You agreed to spend part of our honeymoon with her without asking me. And you were going to wait until we were married to tell me.”
For a moment I remembered the night he proposed, how carefully he’d chosen the ring and how we’d both cried when I said yes.
“Did you give her our booking details? Help her choose the dates?”
I still loved that man.
I wanted him to understand why this hurt so much.
“I’m not going on our honeymoon with your mother,” I said. “You need to tell her the plans are off.”
“She’s already paid for the room.”
“God! She can take her vacation. But we aren’t sharing dinners or excursions with her. You need to make that clear.”
“I’m not going on our honeymoon with your mother,”
He was quiet for a long moment. Then he nodded.
“I’ll talk to her.”
“Before we leave this reception. And I need you to back me up if she starts on me again. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” he said. “Of course.”
I wanted to believe him. But there was a difference between promising me something behind a closed door and saying it to his mother’s face.
“I’ll talk to her.”
I’d planned this day for fourteen months, and I wasn’t going to hide in the bridal suite while Emersyn celebrated driving me away.
I picked up my bouquet.
We were about to find out whether Abel understood that difference.
***
We walked back in together, my hair mostly clean, my dress marked with stains.
We were about to find out whether Abel understood that difference.
The music had started again.
Mom met us at the edge of the dance floor and squeezed my arm.
“Thank you,” I told her. “For what you did. But I’ve got this part.”
She studied my face, then nodded.
“That’s my girl.”
Emersyn was at a table across the room with three relatives.
“I’ve got this part.”
Abel spotted her, then stopped beside me.
“Are you going to speak to her?” I asked.
“I will. Just give me a minute.”
Before he could move, Emersyn came toward us.
“I hope you’re happy,” she said. “You and your mother made me look like a fool.”
“Are you going to speak to her?”
“You shoved cake in my face,” I said. “I’m not apologizing for what Mom did.”
Emersyn turned to Abel.
“Are you going to let her speak to me that way?”
He raised his hands. “Mom, please. Cass has had a rough night.”
I waited. He looked at me instead of his mother.
“Abel,” I said quietly. “Tell her what we discussed.”
“I’m not apologizing for what Mom did.”
Emersyn narrowed her eyes.
“What did you discuss?”
“The honeymoon,” I said. “Abel told me about your booking.”
For the first time that night, her smile faltered. Then she looked at her son.
“Well? Tell her it’s settled. I’ve already booked the restaurants.”
“Abel told me about your booking.”
“Mom,” Abel began, “Cass and I need some time alone on the trip.”
“I have my own room. I’m not sleeping between you.” She gave a sharp laugh. “A few dinners won’t kill anyone.”
“Cass, uh… Cass doesn’t like that idea,” Abel mumbled.
Emersyn’s face hardened. “So that’s what this is. She’s trying to turn you against your own family, Abel. First she humiliates me at your wedding, and now she wants to dictate when you can see your mother.”
“I have my own room. I’m not sleeping between you.”
“I never asked him to stop seeing you,” I said. “I asked him to stop making plans for both of us behind my back.”
“Abel?” Emersyn held out her hands. “You helped me arrange this. Are you really going to cancel everything because she says so?”
He glanced at me. “What if we compromise? One dinner, maybe, instead of several?”
I felt my stomach drop.
“I never asked him to stop seeing you,”
In the bridal suite he’d promised to talk to her.
Now he was bargaining with me instead.
“This isn’t about the number of dinners,” I said. “It’s about you agreeing to something that affects us both without telling me. It’s about you bowing to what your mother wants, even if I suffer for it.”
“Please,” he murmured. “Not in front of everyone.”
“It’s about you bowing to what your mother wants, even if I suffer for it.”
Emersyn folded her arms and stared at Abel.
“If you cancel my plans, then you’re choosing her over your own mother. I won’t live with that humiliation. And I’ll stop speaking to you. I mean it.”
Abel flinched.
I waited for him to say something. Anything.
“I won’t live with that humiliation.”
Because if he couldn’t stand up for me now, with our wedding guests watching and our vows barely hours old, when would he?
Somewhere behind me, the music stopped.
“Cass, please…” Abel turned to me. “She’s my mother. It’s just a few dinners.”
Emersyn stood next to him with her arms folded. Waiting.
She looked so sure that I’d fold.
“She’s my mother. It’s just a few dinners.”
“I love you,” he said to me, low and wretched. “Please. Just give me some time to sort this out with her privately.”
I stopped arguing.
It was strange how quiet it felt inside me, like a room after the furniture is gone.
I looked down at my left hand. The ring he’d slid onto my finger only hours before caught the chandelier light.
She looked so sure that I’d fold.
I twisted it off.
Then I took his hand, set the ring in his palm, and closed his fingers around it.
“Cass.” He stared at his fist. “What are you doing? We can fix this. I’ll fix this.”
“I spent four years believing you’d stand up for me eventually,” I said. “I can’t start our marriage by taking one more promise that you’ll deal with her later.”
“What are you doing? We can fix this. I’ll fix this.”
“You’re being dramatic!” Emersyn’s voice cracked across the room. “You’re manipulating him! Destroying a marriage over a joke!”
I didn’t turn.
A week ago, I’d have spent an hour composing a reply. Now her opinion was just background noise, like rain on a window.
“Please don’t leave,” Abel whispered.
“You’re manipulating him!”
“I love you,” I told him, and it was true, which was the worst part. “But love isn’t enough if you can’t be honest with me or treat our decisions like they belong to both of us.”
Then I turned to Mom.
She’d been standing a few feet away this whole time, hands clasped, not saying a word. She’d kept her promise.
She’d let me do it myself.
Then I turned to Mom.
“Are you sure?” she asked, quietly.
“Yes.”
She took my hand. Her palm was warm and a little rough.
Together we crossed the dance floor, past the cake with its missing slice, past two hundred silent faces.
“Are you sure?”
“Cassie!” Abel called behind me, cracked and desperate.
I didn’t turn around.
The doors opened onto cool night air.
I walked out in my stained wedding dress, my mother’s hand in mine, and behind us, Abel stood alone in the light with a ring in his fist.
Abel called behind me, cracked and desperate.
