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“Not now,” I said. “My mother is fine; I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, I want to see if you will try this on for me.”
I took my grandmother’s ring from my pocket and slipped it on Lauren’s ring finger.
It slid onto her finger without any difficulty.
“We can have it refitted,” I said. “You don’t have to wear it if you don’t like it.”
“It’s perfect,” Lauren said. “I love it.” Her eyes shone brighter than any diamond as she looked into my eyes, and for the first time in my life, I knew what it felt like to have everything in life that I needed. All the money, the clothes, eating in the finest restaurants and driving the fastest cars, could not give me this feeling that I had when I held Lauren in my arms. It was as if nothing else mattered. I had a sense of belonging. It had nothing to do with a property or a building or a job, instead it was a different kind of wealth and at the same time, the greatest fortune I could ever have wished for.
Epilogue
Lauren
When I told Ava we were getting married, she immediately asked, “What’s the rush? Shouldn’t you wait until after the baby’s born? At least it won’t be almost winter then? And you’ll have lost the baby fat.”
But I was becoming heavier by the day, bigger and rounder and I didn’t want to get married with a baby on my hip.
“We don’t want to wait,” I said.
“It takes forever to plan a wedding,” Ava warned, but I told her that neither of us wanted a big affair.
Matthew was keen to elope, for it to be only the two of us. But I wanted my mother to be there, as well as John, as I’d come to think of my father. There were my friends too and while I understood Matthew’s issues with his family, I wondered if he would not regret it later if he did not invite them to his wedding. His mother had come to see me after her release from the hospital, she was rather diminished in size and pride. She apologized for having offered me money to disappear and cried rather unexpectedly when she told me she had never felt such pain as when she thought she’d lost Matthew.
“You will see when you have your child,” she whispered to me. “Nothing else matters.”
When we told her about the wedding, she offered her father’s house, a stately mansion on Long Island. It was an ideal wedding venue, with romantic ivy growing along the front and extensive formal gardens that would be lovely as wedding picture backdrops. The house stood empty since Matthew’s grandfather had taken up residency in a nursing home. There were several rooms that I could offer to guests, and it did not take me long to agree to the location on the condition that she let me organize the wedding. I didn’t want a fancy society affair. Instead, I appointed my mother as wedding planner and of course, the plans were disorganized. A mix-up with the chairs meant they were not delivered a day before as they should have been. Vic ended up hiring a van and bringing the chairs himself. When my mother checked on the flowers, she realized the deposit had never been paid and the roses had not been ordered. Then two pigeons got into the main dining area, ripping the ornamental organza that had been draped over the windows.
Every time a new problem presented itself, Matthew shook his head and mumbled again about wedding venues in the Bahamas. I loved the old house though, with its ornate façade and the gardens, which we’d fixed up for the wedding. Matthew had presented me with an exquisite Vera Wang wedding gown, a strapless dress with a high waist, and magnificent silk organza skirt. It was simple but elegant, with delicate embroidery on the bodice. I didn’t even look pregnant when I had it on and I absolutely loved it.
The day of the wedding was unexpectedly pleasant with a few hours of golden sunshine in the middle of the day, which meant we could have the ceremony outdoors. My mother and Ava scrambled to find a wedding bower of flowers to put up in the garden and chairs were carried outside for the guests. Despite all the last-minute preparations, everything looked perfect. It was a fairytale wedding and everything I could ever have dreamed of.
John came all the way from Colorado with Ava and Vern. He met me in the house to walk me out.
“You look…,” he said, choking up, unable to say the words.
My mother came to check on me and when she saw me, took my hands, and kissed them.
“Oh, sweetheart, you look so beautiful.”
I smiled at her and saw her and John nod to each other rather stiffly.
But it was time to get married.
I took John’s arm and he led me out and down the stone steps to where Matthew was waiting for me. Our guests were sitting on either side of the petal-strewn path and even though everyone was smiling at me, I registered only Matthew’s face.
I didn’t care about the food or the music, about who managed to make it to the wedding or who didn’t. Matthew’s Uncle Albert and his sons were there, and he seemed quite emotional after the ceremony, hugging Matthew for a long time afterwards to congratulate him. It turned out that the board did not accept Matthew’s resignation and for a few weeks, the negotiations for his return to work affected everyone, causing much tension. But I convinced Matthew to go back, even if it was only for a few months. He agreed eventually, but only for a short while and to prepare Will to take over for him.
After the ceremony, we went inside for the reception.
There were a number of speeches, but I remembered my mother’s best of all. She looked lovely in a flowery dress that showed off her slim figure. Her hair had been cut and lightened for the occasion and Vic had only eyes for her, which was as it should be.
“Lauren and I always had a Chinese restaurant that we liked to go to,” my mother’s speech began. “Sometimes we got take aways, and other times we would sit down for our favorite dishes. When she was smaller, it was kung pao chicken, but later, of course, it had to be vegetarian.”
The audience laughed and my mother went on.
“One time, she was probably around twelve years old, I went to pay the bill. They usually had fortune cookies at the till and Lauren loved these. They didn’t have any that day, Lauren was so disappointed. But the old Chinese lady behind the till said to me in a heavy accent, not to worry. She pointed at Lauren and winked at me, saying ‘she lucky, she needs no cookie’.”
Everyone laughed again. I didn’t remember this story at all.
