"I'm not doing this."
Her mother dropped the flower bouquet from her hand, mouth agape. "Honey, you--"
"No, wait. Hear me out." Lilia sat down on the chair she had been sitting on for hours to have her make up finished and looked up at her reflection in the mirror. "Alec deserves better," she said, locking her eyes with her mother's reflection, "I love him more than anything, but he deserves much more."
Samantha came up to stand next to her mother, looking more beautiful than ever in her pastel pink bridesmaid dress. Lilia even suspected that her best friend was looking prettier than her in her own wedding.
"I said the same thing when I married Mark, remember?" Samantha said, planting her hands on her hips. "And after half an hour, I was kissing him at the alter. Now get up, we both know you're getting married."
"It's not the same," Lilia shook her head, sliding her hands up and down the soft folds of the big, white gown she had been wearing. "You had wedding jitters. I'm serious here."
"I was serious there as well."
"You don't really understand me." Lowering her eyes, Lilia tried to blink away the tears that were threatening to spill and ruin her makeup and whispered, "Alec is marrying me by defying his family. He's making so many sacrifices; I don't think I'll ever be able to repay him."
"Listen here," Samantha walked up next to her and crouched down, placing gentle hands over Lilia's own, "Alec doesn't regret doing that, you know it. He loves you, Lia. He loves you enough to leave his family. If you turn your back on him now, you're gonna break his heart. All his sacrifices will go in vain. Do you want that? Do you want him to regret ever loving you?"
Lilia didn't. She wanted this day to happen more than everything else. She wanted Alec as her husband. She wanted to be his wife. She wanted to live in the small house they had bought that day. She wanted to become Alec's family, now that he didn't really have one.
She wanted to spend every day and night with Alec. She wanted to wake up in the middle of the night and find him next to her. She wanted to kiss him goodnight evrythng time; not the hurried one, but slow and sensual, like they had all the time in the world.
She wanted so many things with him. Lilia wondered if marrying Alec would be a selfish thing to do. She had taken away his family from him. Well, she didn't actually take away, but she was the reason he left them.
Her mother's voice broke her out of her trance. "Look at me. You are Alec's only source of happiness, Lia. He threw away everything for you. You don't wanna take away his happiness, do you?"
They we're right, Lilia realized.
She might not have enough, not be enough, but she knew everything about Alec. She could give him all the love she'd ever give to anyone. She could always tell when he was sad or happy, and she always knew what lifted up his mood. They might not have enough money to live like a royal, but they'd be the king and queen of their own world. They could create happiness for themselves out of nothing.
"C'mon," standing up, Lilia faced her mirror and took a deep breathe, then said to her reflection, "let's do this."
Samantha nodded, her eyes bright with happiness. "We believe in you."
Carefully wiping away some tears with a tissue, Lilia's mother sniffled and cleared her throat. "I promised not to cry."
Right then, Maya, Lilia's cousin and also one of the bridesmaids, poked her head inside the room and smiled at her. "Hey, it's time."
