“Nathan! Wait! Let me explain!” Vanessa shrieked.
She gathered the heavy skirts of her wedding gown and hurried after him.
But she caught her foot in the delicate fabric.
She stumbled and fell to her knees among scattered rose petals.
Her sobs echoed through the ballroom.
Nathan did not turn around.
His parents followed him toward the exit.
They looked furious and deeply humiliated.
Before leaving, they directed looks of unmistakable anger toward my parents.
Other guests began departing.
Conversations dropped to whispers.
People collected their coats and quietly disappeared through the ballroom doors.
The musicians had already stopped playing.
Within ten minutes, the magnificent celebration had become an almost empty room.
The white orchids that had seemed so beautiful earlier now resembled funeral flowers.
Outside the enormous windows, Chicago continued shining beneath the night sky.
The city was indifferent to the collapse of my family’s carefully manufactured prestige.
