Chapter Twenty-One
The table had fallen silent after that declaration. Burke's mother was spearing her carrots with sharp jabbing motions. She was picturing Cristina's face. Cristina knew it. Burke's dad had attempted to start a conversation among the men about sports, but that had failed when his wife glared at him. Her own mother was staring at her in utter disbelief, fork poised above her meal.
What was the big deal? Well, she knew what the big deal was. Her mother, ever since she was a little girl, had waited anxiously for the day Cristina would get married…the day she could become mother of the bridezilla and spread terror among wedding planners and decorators. She remembered when her mother had asked her about it when she was a little kid, setting up Barbie dolls with Ken in little altars. She remembered saying no and knocking the display apart. Even then she had hated the wedding atmosphere. Her mother had to know how she felt. She could not have expected Cristina to suddenly become the daughter she wanted. She wasn't girly. It was as simple as that.
She quietly excused herself, desperate to escape this deafening silence. Inside the rest room, Cristina stared at herself in the mirror, noticing how tired she looked. The happiness had drained from her face because of his [Imama[/I. She closed her eyes and leaned forward, her forehead almost touching the mirror. When she opened her eyes again, there she was. The Face of Evil.
"You are selfish." Cristina stayed silent, continuing to watch her in the mirror.
"You are selfish and you don't deserve him. Yet he insists on marrying you, and I will honor that, but a wedding with a few witnesses…that's horrible." She paused. "I will give my son the wedding he deserves even if it must be with you." Cristina still refused to turn around. Something about the mirror changed the harshness in her voice, the venom that spewed forth.
" Preston deserves a large wedding, a grand wedding, and I will not let you take that away from him." Taking away something from Burke?
"No," she whispered, knowing it was barely audible.
"What did you say, Cristina?"
Cristina pulled herself away from the sink and headed for the door. She knew she was going to regret this but she turned around and said, "I'm not taking anything away from him because he wants me, Mrs. Burke." The look on her face made it worth it.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I am returning to the table."