“I’ve had enough.”
The words slipped out before I’d even thought them through. Nothing changed, though. They hadn’t even heard me.
Winnie and Eugenie kept bickering. The seamstress was still crouched at my feet with a mouth full of pins. Frustration rose from deep within, hot, insistent, and so painfully intense that I suddenly couldn’t breathe.
“I said, I’ve had enough!” I started tugging at the fabric as tears pressed at the backs of my eyes. “Get this off of me. Now.”
God, for all the luck I was having trying to get the damn dress off me, it felt like it had been engineered by NASA. “Could someone please help me out of this thing?”
The seamstress scrambled to her feet. “Yes, of course. Just hold still.”
Her hands moved around me, unfastening, unhooking, and untying things I hadn’t even known existed. The fabric loosened inch by inch, the pressure easing, but not fast enough.
“Excellent,” Eugenie said. “I’m glad you agree that the dress wasn’t working after all.”
Winnie sighed. “Honestly, Eliza. Why did you buy it if?—”
“Can you not?” I snapped as I spun to face them, my voice rising along with the pressure at the backs of my eyes. “I didn’t buy this fucking thing!”
Winnie blinked at me. “Excuse me?”
“Can you justnot? For five seconds, just stop,” I repeated, half hysterical at this point. “Don’t ask me why I bought it because I didn’t. I’ve been nothing but a spectator on the sidelines of my own wedding planning, and I’m sick of it. Everything, all of it, just stop.”
Winnie let out a soft laugh, like this was mildly entertaining to her. “Look at you, turning into bridezilla on us.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head as the dress finally loosened enough for me to step out of it. I grabbed the robe someone handed me, pulling it around myself like armor. “You cannot just laugh me off this time, Winifred.”
“Oh, come on,” Eugenie said, rolling her eyes. “You’re being so dramatic.”
I stared at her, feeling hysteria rise along with my disbelief. “Just piss off. Both of you. I mean it. I’m done letting you stand there, criticizing everythingyouchose and then acting likeI’mthe problem when I finally speak up.”
Eugenie scoffed. “We’re just trying to help.”
“Help?” I let out a short, incredulous laugh. “You’re not helping. The only thing you’ve been doing is alternating between ignoring me and tearing me down for fun.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Eugenie said.
“You do the same thing to Dad,” I said, my voice shaking now but not enough to stop me. “You’re constantly dismissing his opinions and disrespecting him at every turn. According to you two, nothing is ever good enough, yet neither of you are willing to lift a finger to help remedy whatever the problem might be. All you do is complain, judge, belittle, and patronize.”
Winnie’s features tightened. “That’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not,” I agreed. “The way you treat me and Dad never has been fair, but where do you think you’d be without us? Fucking nowhere. You complain about the castle, but you’re forever boasting about having one. Hard work is beneath you, but someone has to do it, and yet, you make fun ofmefor stepping up and getting it done.”
My throat tightened. “You are both awful bloody people. Honestly. There is no world in which I would ever have invited either of you to my wedding if it was within my control not to. You’ve both been absolutely terrible to me for most of our lives when in reality you’re nothing more than lazy, entitled brats who would be penniless if not for Dad and me.”
There was so much more I wanted to say, so much more that I’d been bottling up for so long, but my pulse was pounding in my ears and my hands were shaking. Right now, I just needed to get out of here.
“Lady Roderick?—”
I ignored whoever called after me, just keeping my head down and trying my best to hold back tears as I raced down the hall and past the staff. When I reached the corridor that led to my father’s office, he was stepping out, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.
“Eliza?” he said when he spotted me hurrying toward him. “What’s going on? I heard an awful racket a moment ago.”
I didn’t stop to explain that theawful rackethad been me, finally telling my wicked sisters off for pretending I was thelaughingstock of the family. Dad called my name again when I rushed right past him, but then I was pushing open the doors at the end of the hall and finally I was outside.
Cool air hit my overheated skin and I dragged in a deep breath, willing my heart rate to calm down. I looked around wildly. There had to be a car here I could use to get away, but the courtyard and driveway were chaos.
Trucks lined the drive, workers moving back and forth carrying crates filled with the family china and decorations, pieces of a wedding they thought was still happening. Voices overlapped as I rushed past them all, barely paying attention to where I was going.
