THE DRESS
883 Words
The wedding dress was finished on a Tuesday.
I'd been working on it for weeks—the ivory silk, the simple lines, the delicate embroidery along the hem that Vanessa had requested at her first fitting. It was the most beautiful dress I'd ever made.
It was also the most painful.
Every stitch felt like a goodbye. Every pin felt like a promise I wasn't sure I could keep. I'd designed this dress for my sister's wedding to my husband, and now, with everything that had happened, I didn't know if the wedding would even happen.
But the dress was finished.
And Vanessa deserved to see it.
---
I called her that afternoon.
"The dress is ready," I said. "Do you want to come try it on?"
There was a pause. Then: "I'll be there in an hour."
---
Vanessa arrived alone.
No Daniel. No bridesmaids. No mother. Just her, in jeans and a sweater, her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. She looked tired. She looked like someone who hadn't slept in days.
"Where is it?" she asked.
I led her to the back of the studio.
The dress hung on a mannequin, illuminated by soft lights. The ivory silk glowed. The embroidery sparkled. It was the kind of dress that made you believe in fairytales, even when you knew better.
Vanessa stopped walking.
"Oh," she whispered. "Oh, Maya."
"Do you like it?"
"It's..." She pressed her hand to her chest. "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
I helped her into the dress.
The silk slid over her shoulders. The fabric draped across her hips. The hem brushed the floor like water. Vanessa stood in front of the mirror, her hands at her sides, her eyes wide.
"I feel like a princess," she said.
"That was the goal."
She turned. Looked at herself from every angle. Then she looked at me.
"Are you going to tell me not to marry him?"
I met her eyes.
"No," I said. "That's not my choice to make."
"But you think I shouldn't."
"I think you deserve to know the truth before you decide." I stepped closer. "You know about the contract. You know about the other women. You know about Sabrina Cole. If you still want to marry him after all of that..."
"What?"
"Then I'll stand beside you. Because you're my sister. And that's what sisters do."
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
"I don't know what I want anymore," she said. "I thought I loved him. I thought he loved me. But now I don't know if any of it was real."
"Some of it was real."
"How do you know?"
"Because I saw the way he looked at you. At the fitting. At the dinner." I touched her arm. "Daniel is capable of terrible things. But I think he loved you. Or at least, he thought he did."
Vanessa wiped her eyes. "That doesn't make it better."
"No. It doesn't."
She looked at herself in the mirror again. At the dress I'd made for her. At the woman she was becoming.
"What would you do?" she asked. "If you were me?"
I thought about it.
"I would call off the wedding," I said. "I would take some time to figure out who I was without him. And then I would decide."
"That's what you did."
"Yes." I smiled. "It took me five years. But yes."
Vanessa was quiet for a long moment.
Then she said, "Can I keep the dress?"
"It's yours."
"I mean... even if I don't marry him. Can I keep it?"
I looked at her. At my sister, who had spent twenty-six years pretending I didn't exist. Who was now standing in front of me, wearing a dress I'd made with my own hands, asking if she could keep it even if she didn't need it anymore.
"It's yours," I said again. "No matter what."
---
Vanessa left an hour later.
She took the dress with her—carefully packed, lovingly folded, tucked into a garment bag I'd used a hundred times before. She hugged me at the door, longer than usual, tighter than usual.
"Thank you," she said.
"For the dress?"
"For everything." She pulled back. "For not giving up on me."
I watched her walk to her car. Watched her drive away.
Then I went back inside and sat at my desk and stared at the empty space where the dress had been.
Lena appeared in the doorway.
"She's not going to marry him," Lena said.
"I don't know that."
"Yes you do." Lena crossed the room. Sat across from me. "Vanessa is not going to marry Daniel Sterling. You saved her, Maya."
"I didn't save anyone."
"You showed her the truth. That's the same thing."
I looked at Lena. At my best friend, who had been with me since the beginning. Who had never given up on me, even when I'd given up on myself.
"What if I'm wrong?" I asked.
"About what?"
"About everything. About Daniel. About the void clause. About Julian." I leaned back in my chair. "What if I've been so focused on revenge that I can't see what's right in front of me?"
Lena smiled.
"Then you figure it out," she said. "That's what you do. You figure it out."
- Writer
