Ruby's Revenge

ChapterTwo

Four days to the wedding

Ruby

“I don’t understand why you are doing the white wedding before the traditional one.” Anita said.

I looked over my shoulder to view the full length mirror. The dress was beautiful, just like the others I had tried on. “What about this?”

She did a thumbs down. “what sort of dress do you want?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t have a lot of wedding dress knowledge”

“you should have come with Grace. She’s so fashionable”

I rolled my eyes. Grace was Henry’s younger sister by a year and she was a super model. Anita spent hours poring over her social media pages. To me , Grace was just an over pampered, fake, annoying, talentless girl. Ever since the glamor of the Meyers had gotten into my life, my best friend Anita had become obsessed with them. I just wished she could take my place. My mother walked back into the room. She’d gone out to make a call.

“Oh Ruby,, that one is so pretty.”

I gave her a weak smile “you’re right”

“and the fit is so awesome. You should get it “Anita added

“yes. I will” I murmured. I was exhausted from trying on dresses for hours. I just wanted this to be over with.

“we need to find matching shoes. It’s a whole day of shopping. So much to do in so little time. Why did you leave everything till the very last minute!” Anita gave a long suffering sigh.

I knew exactly why I’d procrastinated. But I wasn’t going to tell her why. From the look of things, my best friend would disown me if I dared told her I was having second ,third and fourth thoughts about spending the rest of my life with Henry.

“I’m going to go scout this shop for shoes” Anita said before she left the room.

“Mum, can you please help me unlace this.” I could hardly breathe in the tight corset.

She walked up to me and our eyes met in the mirror. I was the younger version of my mum in appearance. “you’ll be a beautiful and happy bride my dear”

“yes”

“I’m so happy for you”

“I know”

“ are you happy?”

“yes”

She frowned. “Ru? What is it? Has something happened?”

“ nothing has happened. You worry too much”

“you look like you’re being prepared for the slaughter house. Darling if you don’t want to go ahead with this, it’s not too late. If you don’t-“

“I love him. I will be happy with him. “it felt like a recitation. But at least, I’d convinced my mum. I couldn’t let her go around with the guilt that I was about to commit the rest of my life in return for all the things Henry had done for our family. Only one of us deserved to live with that sort of guilt, and it was me. And also, everything had already been set into motion. A lot of money would go to waste if I tried to finally speak up. There was just a lot keeping me from running. It was too late to run anyways.

There was yet another party that evening. This one was to celebrate the 25th anniversary of another of Henry’s uncle. To my great joy, I was seated between Henry and his cousin. Her husband was on her other side. She didn’t have anything to say except to catch me up on all the family gossip which I didn’t care for. I didn’t know half the people she mentioned. And I just wasn’t the sort to care about gossip.

“look at her, slut.” Anna nudged my shoulders and gestured at a red head woman sitting on the table to our right. Everybody seemed to be whispering about her. She must have been aware of it. It was so obvious and yet she didn’t look anybody in the eye. She sat straight up and wore an absent smile.

“Her name is Charlie, uncle Mike’s daughter. She left her husband. Can you imagine? She’s divorced. I can’t believe she still has the guts to show her face any where.”

“why did she leave her husband?” I asked

Ana gave me a look, like I had just asked the stupidest question on earth. “I have no idea, but a week after the wedding she left him.”

It amused me how Ana kept on referring to her as ‘girl’. Charlie was at least five years older than I was.

“look at the one in blue. The tall lady. That one gave birth to a son that looks like her driver.” Ana chuckled. “It was the biggest scandal ever.”

I held back my eye roll. These rich people and scandals. They needed to go touch grass.

“I need to use the bathroom” I said quickly, tired of listening to the incessant gossip. I turned to Henry and kissed his cheek. “where’s the bathroom?”

“that corridor there. Go through it. You can’t miss it.”

I walked as slowly as possible, hoping by the time I got back to the table, Ana would have found another victim to regale with her gossip. The bathroom was extremely clean. Of course, what did one expect from a five star hotel. I checked my f*******: feed to kill time because I wasn’t actually in need of the bathroom.

Charlie walked in while I was scrolling.

She stood at another corner and began to use her phone too.

“I’m not the only one who’s tired of being in there, hunh?” I smiled

She looked up at me in surprise. “who are you?”

“Ruby. Henry’s fiancée.”

“do you know who I am?”

“the terrible girl who left her husband?” I raised a brow.

She threw her head back and laughed

“I sat beside Ana all night.” I continued. “My ears are bleeding”

“try not to ever sit beside her elder sister Hannah. She’s like a hundred times worse.”

I laughed.

“so, when’s the wedding?” she asked “I don’t think I’ve heard about it. Not surprising though, I don’t think I’m invited”

“ it’s on Saturday.”

“you don’t look happy about it”

I forced out a laugh. “I’m happy. I love Henry”

“well, if you aren’t sure, take a page from my book and run. You shouldn’t spend the rest of your life living a mistake.”

“it’s not a mistake. I love him.”

“if you really do, then I’m happy for you”

“why did you leave your husband?”

Her expression became sad. She was quiet for so long, I thought she wasn’t going to respond. “because I realized that I married him for them more than for me. And I wish I had been wiser and bolder, I would never have gone through with the wedding”

“I’m sorry.”

“it’s fine. Do you want to exchange numbers? David got all the friends in the breakup.”

“okay” we exchanged numbers. On my way out of the bathroom, I looked over at her. “it’s my wedding after all. You’re invited.”

“thanks. Maybe I’ll be there.” She said. “But maybe it’ll be way too much trouble.”

I shrugged. “The wedding is going to be a dull affair

anyway. It’ll be in thorough need of trouble.”

She smirked.