"My wedding to Michael will be the wedding of the century," Evie declared. "I called to let you know that it is okay with me if you marry Lucio. I felt nothing for him when he took myhand."
Amy bowed her head. "I haven’tdecided."
"You will marry him, sis, and I'm going to give the best maid-of-honor speech." Her declarative tone deepened. "He shouldn't get to treat people likeus..."
"Calm down." If her sister intended to use her own wedding as a vindictive strike, then there was no way Amy would go through with it. And why was a part of her considering the idea? Because she’d never gotten over her crush? Amy sighed. "Look, you and he were high school, but he wasyours."
"Now he's your fiancé." Evie spoke with an undercurrent of resentment, like all those times her mother had said "good job" to Amy's grades, and made Evie say thesame.
The harrumph sound her sister made brought her back to the conversation. She punched the pillow into shape. "I haven't saidyes."
"We both know you will." Her sister's voice cracked with emotion. "Go for it. My wedding to Michael will be full of people who love me. Yours will be full ofstrangers."
Without another word, she hung up the phone. Amy heard the click but said, "Wait,Evie!"
The silence in return was enough. Amy hung her head and disconnected. Why did her sister have to make her feel as if she would always be second to perfectEvie?
Lucio was handsome but Amy had always figured it would be better to marry a nerdy, average-looking man than someone out-of-this-world gorgeous. The word physics rang in her ear but she shook it out—Lucio was smart, too, and could carry on an interesting conversation. Her skin still burned from Evie'sjudgment.
As her parents didn't call, she asked for advice from her American neighbor, Suzie. She texted,'My parents set meup.'
'With a guy or ajob?'
'A man they want me tomarry.'
'How awful was their choice? Ugly? Fat? Missingteeth?'
'None. He's gorgeous and I had a huge crush on him in high school, but he never noticed me. Now he thinks we're gettingmarried.'
'Married? So he assumes too much toofast.'
'My parents told him to marry me. It's for acontract.'
'So he marries you and gets a contract with yourparents?'
'No my parents get a contract to build in hisland.'
'Land. So he's rich andhandsome?'
'Yeah.'
'I expect an invite to thewedding.'
'But my sister is in love withhim.'
'All the more reason to marry this rich and handsome man. Your sister doesn't have to geteverything.'
Amy scrolled up the screen and realized she hadn't said no, that she implied that she’d marry thisman.
Why couldn't she even be firm with herfriends?
Her spine stiffened as she imagined Evie pea green with envy at Amy and Lucio’s wedding—then she shook the image off. She wouldn’t get married to spite hersister.
Back in high school, she told her mom that Evie interfered with her crush, but their mother insisted Evie was just being smart and marrying a prince was a good thing. No one had cared if Amy was miserable when Evie made her take all those romantic pictures of her andLucio.
Her parents knew she went to her room and cried for hours, but no one said a word to Evie, ever. And who was it that sat at their mom’s bedside in the hospital? Amy. Her mother only perked up when Evie cameover.
If she married Lucio, she’d have everything except love that probably didn’t exist for her. The plus was a chance to be next to a man she’d always wanted that her sister oncestole.
