A Mafia's Rose

Rose’s POV

“Standing before God and these witnesses, I joyfully proclaim you husband and wife. You may now seal your vows with a kiss.”

My sister squealed like a little girl who had been handed a packet of sweets and jumped on her new husband. They shared an intimate, almost eccentric moment as their lips crushed and twisted, and a large number of the guests cheered and raised their glasses.

The reception took off immediately after the priest pronounced them husband and wife, at the same location as the white wedding… oddly. That didn’t matter so much, though, because the wedding hall was mighty big; it could accommodate four times the guests that were present, and it was so generously and lavishly decorated. The harpists started playing immediately, and the new couple took to the dance floor, the center of the massive hall.

I sat down, melting into the crowd and trying to wear a small smile for as long as possible. It appeared no one here knew I was Anastasia’s sister, and I hoped by the end of the day that no one would. When I received the invite for the wedding some weeks back, I was both shocked and… hurt.

I hadn’t heard from my sister for a very long time. We both had to leave home, then started off as waitresses at this bar just a little beyond Santa Rosa, California. The pay at the bar was barely enough to live a decent life, but the manager let us sleep on the floor after we closed for the day, so shelter was covered. After a month of working, Anastasia abandoned me and ran away. There was no note, no warning, nothing.

It had been some years now since she left. I could still remember the day the invite arrived at the bar; it was Christmas Eve. Florence, my co-worker, ran into the bar clutching the bag of tree ornaments the manager had asked her to buy at the market and a white envelope.

She dropped the bag of ornaments on the table and hurried over to me with the envelope. She literally shoved it at me, an excited grin plastered all over her face.

“A letter arrived, Rose. There’s a letter from your sister!”

I dropped the mug I was holding on the table and spun around to face Florence. My heart started racing. I wasn’t sure if I was so alarmed because of excitement or fear. It had been so many years since I heard from her. What if this letter was sent to inform me of…

“Won’t you read it?! Take it!” Florence grabbed my hands and put the letter in it.

Even I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to see what was written in it. I tore the envelope, my heart in my mouth, my stomach hurting from the nervousness that consumed my entire being. I opened it and scanned the contents, waiting for the word that I dreaded and was almost sure I was going to see… death.

But to my surprise, the first word my eyes caught was “wedding.” Anastasia was getting married, and she wanted me to attend. Inside the envelope, there was a bank card and an extra small note. The small note was some sort of guide or direction to the wedding venue, which was in another country entirely. The note also said the card had money in it for my transportation, and a pin was written at the bottom of the note.

I didn’t notice Florence was standing behind me the whole time; she grabbed my shoulders, and that jerked me back to reality.

“Oh my goodness, I am so happy for her!” Florence gushed. “We have to pick a dress for you from the market. I’m sure we can get the manager to give us an hour…”

“I’m not going,” I whispered.

I couldn’t describe the flood of emotions that engulfed me at that point. On one side, I was so happy she was okay. I feared the worst had happened to my sister when she left, and every day since eight years ago, I lived with that fear. On another side, I also imagined she had actually abandoned me for good.

She was very secretive during the last few days before she finally left, so I was convinced she was planning her movements the whole time. She made hushed phone calls and barely conversed with me during the time. And now she has sent a letter asking me to attend a wedding out of the blue. What about eight years ago when she left without a word?

At that moment, one of the waiters at the wedding came over and offered me a glass of wine. I took it from him and smiled in gratitude. I downed the entire glass in one go. I used the back of my hands to wipe any drops of the sweet, burning liquid that had mistakenly trickled down my jaw.

I looked up to see Ana and her new husband spinning across the room, laughing to themselves while others stood around and watched and smiled and bopped their head in approval as they spun around.

She looked beautiful and so happy. She was almost unrecognizable. No formal introduction had been made yet between myself and her new husband or anyone else, in fact. I arrived in Germany this morning. I treated myself to my first flight experience with the bank card I found in the envelope. The letter Anastasia sent also had the date and time that the wedding was meant to take place, but she said in the letter that she would be expecting me some weeks earlier.

She had no right to expect anything from me, and God knows if it weren’t for Florence constantly threatening to make my life miserable if I didn’t attend the wedding, I wouldn’t even be here in the first place.

Eight years had passed since she ran away and left me to fend for myself, just after we had to leave our home. She was my older sister and the only one I could call family. She was the only one I could trust after our own people maltreated us and drove us out of our home. She had said to me that she would always be by my side and look out for me, and she broke that promise for eight years.