Chapter 14 - THE NEXT WEDDING
Two years later, Sofia attended another wedding.
Her friend Maya’s.
Same hotel chain.
Different ballroom.
For ten minutes Sofia almost left.
Chandeliers.
White flowers.
Crystal glasses.
A cream dress on an older woman across the room.
Memory arrived through decoration.
Adrian sat beside Sofia.
He noticed her hands trembling.
“Want to go?”
Sofia looked at him.
“No.”
“Want me to threaten anyone?”
She laughed.
“No.”
“Disappointing.”
Then the bride walked in.
Everyone stood.
Sofia cried.
Not from fear.
From grief for the wedding she did not get.
That mattered too.
Survival stories sometimes rush toward empowerment so quickly they skip mourning.
Sofia mourned:
the dress,
the vows,
the first dance,
the man she thought Javier was,
the family she thought she was joining.
Then Adrian held out his hand.
“Dance?”
Sofia stared.
“You hate dancing.”
“Yes.”
“So why?”
“Because you didn’t get your father-daughter dance.”
Her throat closed.
At her own wedding she had refused it publicly to preserve privacy.
Now, at someone else’s reception, nobody cared who Adrian Reyes was.
He was simply a man with terrible rhythm.
Sofia took his hand.
They danced badly.
Maya laughed from across the floor.
Sofia laughed too.
May you like
Nothing was reclaimed perfectly.
It did not need to be.
