Adeline Carter's POV

As soon also step through the doors of the house I hear calamity.

I look up at Matéo, who looks relatively calm.

Sofia comes bustling towards us.

"Where have you been?!" She asks hurriedly.

She looks ready to attack.

"At coll-"

"You!" She says pointing at her son.

"Go and find your father, you have got to to go tux shopping!" She orders.

His eyes widen and he looks at me.

He looks a little shook.

"Bye" I say, smile at him.

He pouts and I kiss him quickly before sending him off.

As soon as he goes, Sofia grabs my hand and leads me to the kitchen.

"I've already contacted your friends, your mother and Grace and Maria and they will meet us there" she says sitting me down and force feeding me some apple slices.

"Where are we going?" I ask, mouth full of apple.

She stops and turns around to face me.

"You need a wedding dress! We are going dress shopping!" She exclaims.

Then it hits me.

I'm getting married next week.

                         ***

We are at the dress shop. Belle, James, Grace and Maria are all buzzing about it and my mom is already crying.

My brother and my dad have gone with Alejandro and Matéo to choose the tux.

I've tried on several dresses but none of them are 'the one'.

And then suddenly, a dress from across the shop catches my eye.

It's...

Beautiful!

It's a long lace off the shoulder sleeveless mermaid dress.

My mom and Sofia catch me looking at it and Sofia calls one of the girls over and tells her to get the dress.

The girl quickly does as she is told and walks me to the dressing room for the hundredth time today, in order to help me try it on.

I walk out of the changing room and to where they are all sitting.

They're all suddenly quiet.

"Do I look ok?" I ask, feeling extremely self conscious.

I look at Belle and James, who smile and nod happily.

I turn around to look at my self in the mirror and gasp.

I look... Stunning!

"We'll take it!" Sofia declared.

I smile at her.

"Thank you so much!" I tell her.

I almost feel like crying!

The girl nods and walks me to the dressing room and helps me out of the dress. 

I change into my normal clothes once again and walk out to see everyone chatting about excitedly.

When they see me, they all gather around and smother me into a group hug.

Then the tears start.

I've never felt so much love all at once before.
***

The next week goes by in a flash.

Cake trying, dress fittings, decor preparation for the wedding and the reception, getting the bridesmaids outfits, sorting out hair and makeup, just everything!

And now it's the day before our wedding!

I'm not allowed to see Matéo until I meet him at the altar tomorrow morning.

Apparently it's bad luck, or some superstitious shit like that.

Yes, morning!

Which means, that I have to wake up early in order to get ready.

I haven't really seen him much anyway.

He's been working with the business extremely hard and wakes up early and returns home late...

Anyway!

Grace, Belle, Maria and James are all huddled up with me on my bed gossiping about Matéo.

"Oh my gosh, remember when he got his shoe stuck on the the Lorenzo family's roof, because he threw it at their daughter!?" Maria asks.

We all laugh about it until our stomach's hurt.

"He threw a shoe at someone?" I ask, tears of laughter streaming down my face as I imagine a 10 year old Matéo throwing a shoe at someone.

The thought makes me laugh even harder.

"Yes, she tried to kiss him and started to chase him around, so he threw his shoe at her and claimed to not want to get cooties!" Grace says.

James then takes this as his cue to start embarrassing me!

"Oh my God, remember when you decided to talk to that boy, Sean for the first time and you spilt a whole popsicle on his brand new pair of white shoes?!" He asks, shrieking with laughter.

I mentally and physically cringe as James retells the embarrassing story of the first time I spoke to a boy properly when I was in the 9th grade.

I even wore my brand new pair of jeans and a hella tight top in order to try and impress him.

Yuck.

We spend the rest of the night going over more embarrassing stories and Belle even pulls out some of my old baby photos!

I'll discuss this with my mother, later!

I'm suddenly about to tell everyone one of James' embarrassing stories for payback, when I hear a knock at my bedroom door.

I wear a bathrobe and open the door to see my father standing there.

"Could we speak... In private?" He asks, glancing at my friends behind me.

I see a trace of guilt in his face but it disappeared as quickly as it came.

Is he okay?

I step out of my room and close the door behind me.

He walks down the stairs and I follow him into the kitchen.

I sit on a stool and he sits opposite to me.

"I'm going to cut straight to the point" he says.

I nod.

"I will not be able to attend the wedding tomorrow" he states simply.

He has no emotions in his voice and his words make my heart sink.

"What do you mean?" I ask him. My voice breaks a little.

"I will be attending a business meeting tomorrow in Tokyo and I will be on a plane this evening" he says.

What the fuck?

A meeting?!

That is his excuse?!

"So, a meeting is more important than your daughter?!" I fume.

"You are the one who started this! You dragged me into this. You!" I seethe.

How could he be so selfish?

Is he trying to detach himself?

Cause this is not it.

This is not like him.

"Look, sweetheart. This whole thing... was very rushed. I know. And I know that no amount of explanation will make you trust me." He says.

"But?" I ask, setting a cup of tea in front of him.

"But it's for the best. And no matter how I act, I'm proud of you. You're stronger than I thought." he says, taking my hand.

I pull my hand away.

He's acting all fatherly again and it's confusing me.

What does he want?

"Dad, you really can't make it?" I ask sadness taking over.

He shakes his head no.

I nod and stand up.

"I should go." I say.

"Ade" he sighs.

"Please don't" I say.

It's always formal with him, so I'm not surprised that this is just another business transaction for him.

He lets me go and I feel tears cloud my vision, as I go up the stairs.

I walk to my brother's room and enter without knocking.

He looks up from his book and takes off his glasses.

"Ade?" He asks surprised.

"You're walking me down the isle tomorrow" I tell him.

He frowns.

"But what about-" He asks and stops.

His face clouds over and he beckons me over.

I sit on his bed and he hugs me, letting me sob into his chest.

I cry so hard that I can't even cry anymore.

When I'm done, I dry my face and go back to my friends, despite my brother telling me not to.

On the way, I hear the front door close.

I walk into the room and immediately, start to cry again.

In an instant, they all rush around me, demanding to know what happened.

I tell them everything and they remain silent.

When I'm done, they usher me to my bed and hug me till the tears are reduced to a sniffle.

They tell me that everything will be ok and then try to cheer me up as much as possible.

I love them all so much.

---------------------------------------------
Hey all!

What did you think?

Tell me in the comments and don't forget to vote.

~ xo.