Unholy Matrimony (Unedited)

23

N.

"Please stop crying Miss." The woman tasked with doing my makeup for what was supposed to be a joyous occasion for most girls sighed exasperated, not that I could blame her.
She had did my makeup three times over already but I could pull myself together long enough for me to put the suffocating dress on.

I sniffed, nodding as I dapped the tissue into the corner of my eye. My hair had been straightened, pulled and yanked until there wasn't a trace of my curls left.
Beneath my robe my usual ebony skin was red and blotchy from ragged breathing and I felt fatigue with lack of sleep as my stomach knotted with nerves.

My father had even invited my aunt and grandparents but I was locked off, getting pulled and pinned into the perfect bride while tears streaked down my face with a vengeance.
"Oh Niña bonita." My aunts voice floated over my shuddered breaths and I barely had time to duck my head and swipe at the fallen tears. "Give is a moment." She flicked her wrist towards the girl who rolled her eyes, clattering her makeup brushed onto the vanity.
"I'll give you three minutes but I must finish in time for you to be married." I squeezed my eyes shut as her steps slipped away, my nails pinching into the skull of my palm as I clenched my fist.
"The nerve." I watched her dark brown eyes narrow into slits as the girl shut the door behind her firmly.

Esmeralda was actually my mothers cousin, but she was almost a decade older and my mother had always referred to her as tía, so I did too.
Most of my aunts and most of what was left of my mothers direct family kept themselves at a respectful distance since my mothers death, Esmeralda having been the wind beneath my mothers wings long ago didn't let my father intimidate her in the slightest.

I don't know how she did it but she'd always hold her head eye in his presence and my father seemed to watch his words with her.

Shallow breaths falling past my lips as I tried not to sob.

I wasn't sure what had happened to the deal with Aziel, wasn't sure if he had stepped away from it or my father withdrew it. I just knew there was never anymore late night calls, he had disappeared entirely as if I conjured him up with my own imagination.

"Oh sweet heart, 'tears from the depth of some divine despair' I'd say." Her thumbs rub eye my eyes as she cradled my face, her forehead resting on mine as she crouches in her dress.

Her words make me smile as the poetry warms my blood like a drug. "Whose that by?" I sniffle eye brows crinkle as I wrack my brain for the familiar words. Happy to have my mind wandering on something else.

My aunt smiles softly, my mother and her would've been the same age. On the days I'm not thinking of my mother, I remember life before my father isolated us. Esmeralda was around almost as much as my nanny and she'd often appear when my mother would disappear.

"Alfred Tennyson's Tears, idle tears." She bummed as she tilted my chin up by her finger and I sniff, wanting more than anything for the world to open up and swallow me whole. "Whose daughter are you?"

"Maribel Sofia Delgado's" I say with resolution.

"What's your name?" She smirks.

"Nalani Valentina Delgado." Conviction fills my tone now.

"Sí, your mother didn't name you after strength by mistake. Remember who you are and don't let him take you away from us like he did her." She squeezes my cold hands now, palming my cheek.
Tears dry now she kisses my forehead and I feel the weight in my lungs lighten, or maybe it shifts. But it's a little easier to breath again.

"I must finish now, Don is expecting to walk you down the isle in four minutes." My aunt huffs with annoyance but stays to hold my hand as the woman fixes my makeup again.
The brush tickles over my face and I hold back a sneeze that's squeezed out of me as my aunt stays to help me with my dress as well.

"Do you want her to pass out before her brother can give the arras to the priest? Loosen it." I was grateful for my aunts presence as she nudged the helper aside to do my corset and I let out a low breath.

I could hear the church filling with people, I'm assuming mostly Angelo's family because hell would probably freeze over before my father allowed the brides side of the church full.

Four minutes felt like four seconds before my fathers knocked once on the door before walking in. His suit freshly tailored and he had obviously been to get a haircut.

"Esmeralda, the guest as finding their seats. Join them." I swallowed thickly as the woman scattered out the room and my aunt blatantly rolled her eyes before placing another kiss on my forehead before straightening my veil once more and pulling it out. My world clouded in a white sheer.

"Don't forget to take the stick out of your ass for your daughters wedding Brian." She snapped and from here I could see the tick in my fathers jaw.

"Hija, come now. It's time." My stomach knotted as he jerked my forward out the door. Tucking my hand though his arm as I grabbed onto the bouquet, squeezing the stems in my palms wishing they had left the thorns so I could focus on the stinging pain instead of the dooming feeling sloshing around the pit of my stomach.

As suspected the bridges side of the church was empty. Esmeralda my only aunt in attendance versus what I was told by a guard, a few distance cousins, mostly made men with their wives I hadn't seen since before my mother died.

The wedding, priest, exchange of vows and rings blurred past me like a bad dream and when I woke up, I was trapped between the arms of Angelo, my beautiful moss agate ring was replaced with a silver band encrusted in diamonds that glinted a dark future for me.