“Did you tell him you saw him?”

“Yes. He said it’s none of my business, we’re not married yet, and he’s still a free man. And if I bug him about it, he’ll cancel the wedding. He said that’s why my ring is so big, so I keep my mouth shut and stay off his back.” It was a horrible thing to say, and Victoria was shocked. It confirmed who she already thought Harry was, and worse.

“You can’t marry him, Gracie. You can’t marry a man who treats you like that. And he’ll cheat on you again.” Collin had the drift by then, and sat down on the couch next to Victoria with a worried look. He hadn’t met her younger sister, but he felt sorry for her already. She was just a kid.

“I don’t know what to do,” Gracie said, sounding like a lost child.

“Cancel the wedding. You have no other choice. You can’t marry a guy who’s already cheating on you now, sleeping around, and tells you to keep your mouth shut because he gave you a big ring. He doesn’t respect you.” Or himself apparently, Victoria thought to herself. And Collin was nodding approval of what she said. The guy sounded like a creep. He wouldn’t have wanted his sister marrying him either.

“I don’t want to cancel the wedding,” Gracie sobbed. “I love him.”

“You can’t let him treat you like that. Look, why don’t you come to New York for a few days? We’ll talk. Did you tell Dad?”

“Yes. He said men do that sometimes, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“That’s bullshit. Some men do. Decent men don’t if they love their wives. I guess it can happen, but not like that, with some bimbo two months before your wedding. That’s not a good sign.”

“I know.” She sounded devastated and lost.

“I’ll get a ticket. I want you to come tomorrow.” It was too late that night.

“Okay.” Gracie sounded docile between hiccups, and was still crying when she hung up. Immediately after, Victoria called the airline, booked a ticket, and texted Gracie the information. She was willing to take a few days off school if she had to, to spend time with her sister. This was important. She couldn’t marry Harry. There was no question about that. And Collin agreed with her when she told him what had happened.

“This is only the beginning. If he’s already cheating on her now, he’ll never stop. He probably has all along, and she just didn’t know it,” Collin said, and Victoria agreed. He’d had plenty of opportunity, with his family, on trips to Europe, on bachelor party weekends. Collin was right, if Harry was a cheater, Gracie was in for a miserable life. They were still talking about it when they went to bed that night.

The next day Victoria waited till a decent hour to call her between classes. Gracie had just gotten up, after crying most of the night. She said Harry hadn’t called, and the last time she had talked to him, he had again threatened to cancel the wedding, as though Gracie had done something wrong by calling him on his behavior and telling him what she’d seen.

“Let him,” Victoria said harshly. She hoped he would.

“I don’t want him to cancel it,” Gracie said, weeping again, and Victoria was panicked. She couldn’t marry this man. He hadn’t even apologized for what he’d done, and showed no remorse, all of which were terrible signs. He was a badly behaved rich boy who did what he wanted, and was threatening his future wife instead of prostrating himself at her feet, begging her forgiveness, which would have been a start, and maybe still not enough. It wouldn’t have been for Victoria.

“Just get on the plane. We’ll talk about it here. Tell Mom and Dad you want to visit me. Besides, I want you to meet Collin.” She had told her all about him, although this didn’t seem like a good time for them to meet.

“What if he gets madder because I go to New York?” She sounded panicked.

“Gracie, are you nuts? What if he gets madder? He cheated on you. You’re the one who’s supposed to be mad. Not him.”

“He said I was sneaking around, spying on him.”

“Were you?”

“No, I was going to see Heather to show her my dress sketches,” she explained again.

“Exactly, so he’s full of shit. And a cheater. Come to New York.” She reminded her of the flight time, and Gracie had ample time to make it.

“Okay. I’ll come. I’ll see you later,” she said, sounding nervous, but she wasn’t crying. Victoria had put her on a noon flight out of L.A., and it was due to land at JFK at eight P.M. New York time. Victoria was planning to go to the airport to get her. She was going to take a seven o’clock shuttle, which she had already booked. Her cell phone rang at six P.M., while she was at her apartment, getting organized for Gracie, and changing her sheets.

It was Gracie on the phone, and Victoria was confused. “Where are you? Are you calling from the plane, or did you land early?”

“I’m in L.A.” She sounded upset and guilty. “Harry just left. He said he’ll forgive me and he won’t cancel the wedding if I drop this whole thing, and don’t do it again.” She sounded like a robot, and Victoria felt nuts.

“Do what again? Get cheated on? What is he talking about? What are you not supposed to do again?” Her voice was shaking out of anger and concern for her sister. Harry was turning the tables on Gracie and blaming her, when he was so blatantly at fault, not her sister.

“Spy on him, and accuse him of things.” She was crying, but Victoria couldn’t hear it. “He says I don’t know what I’m talking about, and all he did was kiss her, and it’s none of my fucking business anyway.”

“Is this who you want to marry?” Victoria was shouting. She was alone in the apartment and at her wits’ end.

“Yes,” Gracie said sadly, and then started to sob. “I do. I don’t want to lose him. I love him.”

“You’re never going to have him, except in name, if he’s already cheating on you. That’s not enough. He’s blackmailing you into silence, Grace. He’s telling you that if you call him on his shit, even if he’s wrong, he’ll abandon you. He’s an asshole!” Gracie just cried harder.

“I don’t care. I love him!” She was suddenly angry at her sister, instead of her future husband, for making her face the truth, which was too frightening for her to deal with. “He says he won’t cheat on me when we’re married.”

“Do you believe him?”

“Yes! He wouldn’t lie to me.”

“He just did,” Victoria pointed out in a tone of despair. “He was out with another woman two nights ago. You saw him. And he didn’t go home. You told me so yourself. Is that the life you want?”

“No, he won’t do that. He said so. He’s just having wedding jitters.”

“Wedding jitters don’t make you a cheater, or they shouldn’t. And if they do, there shouldn’t be a wedding.”

“I don’t care what you say,” Gracie said venomously. Victoria was dragging her into the light of truth, and she was doing everything to escape and take solace in Harry’s lies. “We love each other, and we’re getting married. And he’s not a cheater.”

“No, he’s a great guy,” Victoria said caustically, “This is disgusting, and you’re the one who’s going to pay the price.”

“No, I’m not,” Gracie said. “It’s going to be fine.” Victoria knew it wouldn’t, and Gracie didn’t want to hear it.

“Are you coming to New York?” Victoria asked in a dead voice.

“No. Harry doesn’t want me to. He says I have too much to do here, and he’d miss me too much.” And he didn’t want his naïve future wife influenced by her wiser older sister, who wasn’t snowed by him. Victoria could figure that out easily.

“I’ll bet. He just doesn’t want you talking to me. Do whatever you want, Gracie. Just know that I’m here for you.” And she knew that sooner or later, her little sister would need her. It broke her heart. And she couldn’t help wondering, as they hung up, if this had happened to her mother too. Maybe her father had cheated on her too at some point, and that was why he was willing to give Harry a pass. He shouldn’t have otherwise, for his daughter’s sake, money or not. Money wasn’t going to give her happiness if Harry was a cheater or a bad guy. But he liked the prestige the alliance gave him by reflection.

Victoria thought about calling her father, but it seemed pointless. He wouldn’t listen to her either. He was too invested in Gracie’s marriage, for the wrong reasons. The three of them were in collusion to get her married to Harry Wilkes, come hell or high water. And it sounded like hell to Victoria. She called Collin and told him what had happened, and he was upset for her. He knew how much she cared about her sister, and this sounded like a bad situation to him.

“It’s a shame your parents aren’t being smarter than this.”

“They’re fools, and they like his name. And she’s a very foolish child. She thinks that if she loses him, there will never be anyone else like him. She’s going to be miserable with him one day.” Collin didn’t disagree. And she was depressed about it that night. She sent Gracie a text telling her that she loved her, but she didn’t call her. There was nothing she could say, except the truth.

And Dr. Watson wasn’t much help the next day. She said the same thing she had all along, even now, after Harry had cheated on Grace, or it looked that way.

“These are her decisions,” she reminded Victoria, “and her life. I agree fully with what you’re saying. He’s blackmailing her, he’s controlling, and he’s probably dishonest. But she’s the only one who can stand up to that and either change it or walk away. You have no part in this.” She was definite about it, and it made Victoria angry at her too. She felt helpless.

“So I have to sit by and watch?” Victoria had tears of rage and frustration in her eyes.

“No, you have to lead your own life. Concentrate on your life with Collin, and I’m glad it’s going well. There is nothing you can or should do about your sister’s life, or her marriage. This is entirely her choice, whether good or bad, and no matter what you think.”

“Even at twenty-two, when she doesn’t know any better and needs guidance?” Victoria cringed at what Dr. Watson was saying, especially because it was true.

“That’s right. She’s not asking you for guidance. She’s telling you to back off.” Victoria knew the therapist was right, which only made her fight harder.

“So she can buy into his lies?” She looked outraged.

“Yes, if that’s what she wants to do, and apparently it is. I don’t like it either, and hearing stories like this disturbs me too. But your hands are tied.”

“I hate this.” She was fiercely upset by Gracie’s marrying him. But she didn’t want to lose her relationship with her sister over this, and she knew she could. Harry had her sister blackmailed into silence, aided and abetted by her youth and neediness and their father’s narcissism and greed. He wanted his daughter married to a Wilkes, at any price, so he could show off. And Gracie was afraid to lose Harry. Victoria was afraid her sister was about to lose herself, which was worse.

The next jolt after that was a call from Grace a week later. As maid of honor, she wanted Victoria to plan a “destination bachelorette weekend” in Las Vegas for her, with all ten of her bridesmaids, including Victoria, which sounded hideous to her. When Victoria inquired, Gracie said everything was great with Harry and changed the subject. She had been threatened into the silence he wanted, even with her sister. If Gracie was worried, she wouldn’t admit it. All she wanted was for Victoria to organize what sounded like a ghastly weekend to her. She really didn’t want to organize it or go, and she didn’t want to enable her marriage to a jerk, but she didn’t have the guts to refuse either.

“Don’t people just go out to dinner anymore for a bachelorette party? Who has time for a destination weekend?” Only people with a lot of money who didn’t work, which was not the case for her.

“No, people do destinations now. Harry had his in St. Bart’s last week. They went for five days,” Gracie said, and Victoria didn’t want to imagine what had gone on there.

She sighed loudly, unhappy with the plan. “Send me a list of what you want, and I’ll see what I can do. Isn’t there someone else who can do this? I work, Gracie, and I’m dealing with the time difference. You’re all on the West Coast, and none of you work.” All of her bridesmaids were spoiled rich girls being supported by their parents, or still in school.

“You’re the maid of honor, you’re supposed to do it,” she said stubbornly, and Victoria felt guilty. The relationship as sisters was strained to the max these days over this wedding.

“When do you want to go?” Victoria asked, sounding discouraged.

“In May,” Gracie said happily, oblivious to her sister’s discomfort.

“Okay. I’ll take care of it. I love you,” Victoria said sadly, and hung up. Gracie had promised to send her all the names and details. And she said their father was paying for that too. He was shelling out big time for this alliance, and would have done none of it for Victoria, she knew. He had even said so to her and told her to elope if she ever found a husband.