My Last Gift Was Their Wedding

He snatched the fruit knife off the table and drove it straight into Uncle Gerald's back.

Terrified of what might happen next, Josephine threw herself at Uncle Gerald, who was trying to chase after us.

She clung to his waist with everything she had, not a moment of hesitation in her voice. "Bess, get Joseph out of here, hurry! Someone's going to get hurt!"

I dragged Joseph away with all my strength as he tried to lunge back and finish what he'd started.

I thought that if I separated him from his rage, nothing more would go wrong.

I thought the tragedy had ended right there.

But I never imagined the tragedy was only just beginning.

The uncle I had respected and loved since childhood.

The refined, gentle uncle I'd known all my life. Under the drug, he assaulted Josephine.

By the time we got back to the villa with the police, I saw the one memory I have wished, every day since, that I could erase.

Josephine lay on the wooden floor, her face drained of color.

Her clothes were torn away, blood streaming from one ear where Uncle Gerald had struck her.

There were bite marks on her face.

She was rushed to the hospital.

But an assault is not foreplay.

The damage to her body was so severe that she would never be able to bear children for the rest of her life.

When Josephine's mother found out, she flew at me and slapped me hard across the face. "Why was it Josephine? Why wasn't it you!"

"This is all your fault. You're nothing but a curse."

Guilt swallowed me whole, vast as the sky, and in a daze I walked up to the roof of the hospital.

I told myself I had to atone to Josephine.

But Josephine dragged me back from the edge of that roof, crying as she screamed, "If you die, what happens to me and Joseph?"

"I'm begging you. Don't die."

I smiled and nodded, while quietly hiding a fruit knife up my sleeve.

All of this was for me. I would make Uncle Gerald atone to Josephine.

I pushed open the door of the villa, and everything was horribly quiet.

Uncle Gerald was dead. He had slit his wrists and was lying in the bathtub.

He had written a suicide note, and a letter of forgiveness.

My eighteenth year, the bright spring of my youth, came to its sudden end just like that.

When I jolted awake from the nightmare, I realized Joseph hadn't come home all night.

I opened the video app, and Josephine's burner account had pushed another clip to me.

This one was two hands intertwined on a bed, and the backdrop was the wedding bed I had chosen with my own hands.

The caption read: I'm sorry, Bess. This is the last time we let ourselves go.

I gave a helpless little smile. Josephine, you silly girl.

That bridal suite was meant to be the third wedding gift I was leaving for them.

Why be in such a rush?

And then the pain of being betrayed twice over, by my dearest friend and the man I loved, came crashing back over my heart.

I rushed into the bathroom and stood retching over the sink, and when I lifted my head I realized my face was already streaked with tears.

At the height of the pain, I started to hallucinate.

In the mirror was Josephine, young and full of life, tilting her clean, fair little face up at me. "I want a mermaid gown in satin, I want a wedding buried in champagne roses, I want... do you remember all of it?"

I smiled in a daze and nodded at the empty air. "I remember all of it. I remember everything, Josephine."

Happy wedding day, Josephine, Joseph.

The sound of a key turning came from the door. I wiped at my tears in a clumsy rush and walked out.

Joseph came in with one arm steadying Josephine and my pill bottle in the other hand.

When their eyes landed on my red, swollen eyes, both of them flickered with shock and a stab of pity for a single instant.

Then Joseph's brow knotted hard. "How long are you going to keep up this childish nonsense? In Josephine's condition, was I supposed to just not go get her?"

He hurled the pill bottle down at my feet. "Can you stop playing the victim for attention? Haven't we sacrificed enough for you already?"

I bent down and picked up the bottle, calm as I said, "Fine. Thank you."

Maybe I was too calm. For a moment, Joseph just looked lost.