When the doors opened and guests saw who was holding my arm… My father, sitting in the back, went pale. The steel jaws of the pruning shears snapped shut.
I held the severed stem of the imported orchid, tracing the bruised white petals with my thumb. My sister Isabella had sent it last week. It was expensive, beautiful, and dying fast because it had no roots.
“It is just about being sensitive right now, Penny,” my father said. His voice echoed from the speaker phone resting on my potting bench. Tiny and hollow.
Izzy is hitting a rough patch with Preston. Seeing you so happy, getting everything you want. It is rubbing salt in the wound.
I cannot walk you down the aisle and leave her sitting in the pew feeling overshadowed. 3 days, 72 hours before I was supposed to stand at the altar and Hector Ramirez was dropping out. Not for a medical emergency, not for a delayed flight.
He was abandoning me because my happiness was an inconvenience to his favorite daughter. Your dad is right, sweetie. My mother’s voice drifted through the phone, muffled, likely arranging her own vase of cut flowers on the kitchen island.
Just walk alone. It is a very modern thing to do anyway. It is not a big deal.
Most people believe family will automatically stand by you when it counts. They are wrong. Sometimes the people who share your blood are just waiting for the right moment to let you fall.
If you have ever watched your own achievements get pushed aside so someone else could wear a crown they did not earn, take a second to hit subscribe. Drop your age in the comments and let me know where you are watching from tonight. This is Cherry Vengeance and trust me, you will want to stay for this one.
I set the dead orchid on the dirt covered table. I did not yell. I did not ask them how they could justify ruining my wedding to spare a grown woman’s ego.
The tears I might have shed a decade ago had dried up long ago, replaced by a cold clinical clarity. My mind flashed back to a middle school gymnasium. I was 12 years old, standing proudly next to a poster board detailing the root systems of native Montana flora.
A blue first place ribbon hung from the corner. Next to me sat two empty metal folding chairs. My parents had skipped the state science finals because Isabella had a preliminary try out for the junior varsity cheer squad.
The pattern was not new. Only the stakes had changed. Okay, I said.
My voice was level. I understand. My father let out a loud breath of relief.
Oh, thank goodness. You are always the practical one, Penny. We will sit in the back, make a quiet exit.
We have to help Izzy set up her anniversary party later that evening anyway. See you Sunday, I replied and ended the call. I picked up my phone.
