Author's Note: What do you think she looks like? What does China look like? What do you think her father does for a living?
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The fury on her face was what comes after the hurt. No…what comes BECAUSE of the hurt. The humiliation that followed standing in that hot ass chapel room waiting on the signal that he’d arrived…knowing it wasn’t coming fed a flame. Hotter, higher than anything she thought she’d ever experience.
“Everyone. Out.”
She got that from her father. That move of standing squarely with her shoulders back. Her head tilted slightly. Her voice calm in a pitch others recognize as a voice of authority.
And everyone knows not to question.
The room cleared. Her sorors in beautiful couture dresses she and her mother picked out in Paris. Shoes cobbled in Italy.
Earrings? Diamond pear drops.
No expense had been spared for this day. She’d put a dent in the trust her Nana left her.
She was only getting married once.
When the door closed behind the last bridesmaid she unzipped her dress and stepped out of it wearing heels, thigh highs and her bra. With a body like hers…there was no need for anything else. She stared at the floor length mirror and pulled the pins out of her hair one by one and let them fall carelessly to the floor. When she was done she shook her hair out and smiled.
No teeth…just a tilt at the corners of her lips.
No shine in her eyes.
Just the darkness that comes with rage.
She walked over to the vanity where she’d taken pictures hours earlier getting dressed for her wedding day and got her phone.
“China…come get me. I’ll be at the back of the church in five minutes.”
She slipped on the ridiculously pink dress she’d worn to the church at her mother’s insistence, grabbed her bag and walked out.
*******
China pulled up as she stepped out and she got in the car.
“Where to?” he asked.
“The condo in the city.”
He drove off as his phone started ringing. He looked in the rear view mirror. “It’s your father.”
She said nothing.
“I can’t lie to your father Danny.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
China answered the phone as he drove.
“Yes Sir.”
“She asked me to pick her up from the back of the church.”
“The condo in the city.”
“No Sir. I’d rather do as she asks if you don’t mind.”
“I understand Sir but I think this is a time when she should get to give the orders.”
There was silence as China listened.
“China, may I speak with my father please?” Danny said.
“Sir…she wants to talk to you. Hold on.” He handed the phone to Danny.
“Daddy? Fuck you.” And she lowered the window and threw the phone out.
“I owe you a phone China.”
“Might be a good thing to not have one for a while I’m thinking."
She said nothing.
“China…how could he?”
China said nothing.
He looked up again…”I don’t know Danny Girl…I don’t know.”
And he drove her to the city.
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