Why Not Me?

Incandescent

          My husband doesn't love me, that I know for sure. It was an arranged marriage, so how could he? I can attest that I was not fond of the idea of a marriage that was not formed on love. But when I first laid my eyes on him, I knew that I loved him.

There is only one problem, he loved and still loves my best friend.

"Nevaeh" he called from the main floor of our house, which, I will be the first to admit, is pretty large.

"One moment, Elias" I call back, my french accent feeling especially heavy on my tongue

"We will be late" He continued, Shut up "And we cannot be late"

"Here is the funny thing Elias," the annoyance clearly present in the way I enunciate my words, "We have an hour to before we need to be there, it is 20 minutes away. We will not be late."

"We still have to pick up Thea," he says, his voice softening ever so slightly when he says her name

"She is on the way there," I say, I take a moment to appreciate myself in the mirror. I am not ugly per se, at least my eyes aren't with their green color and speckles of gray. The dress I have on is beautiful, to say the least, it is a blush pink with a ton of sheer fabric.

"It is your sister's wedding" Elias calls again, "and you are the maid of honor!"

"Tu m'as emmerde" I hiss under my breath as I descend the stairs, taking careful steps as not to step on the dress You're a pain in the ass (A.N can also mean you piss me off)

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that" Elias chuckles as he turns around, I think I catch a slight blush on his cheeks but quickly dismiss it, get a grip Nev "Who is going to notice the bride with you looking like that?"

I feel heat rise quickly up my neck, "Don't say such things so thoughtlessly"

"I thought about those words very carefully before I said them, thank you very much" Elias retorts

I snort as I walk up to him, "Oh I see, it must have taken some intense thinking then"

"Who needs a weapon when you can hurt someone with that tongue of yours," He says, feigning hurt as he clutches his heart dramatically "how can I go on?"

"Oh mon Dieu Elias," I laugh walking towards the door, "You have a knack for blowing things out of proportion"

"Do I?" he asks, taking a few large steps to catch up to where I am "I hadn't noticed"

~~~

We arrive at Thea's house around 15 minutes later, I begin to unbuckle my seatbelt but Elias reaches his hand over mine to stop me "What are you doing?" he asks, genuine curiosity present in his tone

"Moving to the backseat"

"Why would you do that?" he questions

"I just thought that you would want to... catch up with Thea," I say quietly, gripping my seatbelt tightly

"Just stay up here," he says, "We are close to the wedding venue anyway"

Just after the backdoor opens, Thea throws herself into the seat behind Elias, she reaches over and kisses me on the cheek "Ma belle amie!" she exclaims wrapping her arms around my neck, god this woman could be an MMA fighter with that grip "How are you?"

"Hey loosen your grip," I laugh, or at least I try to it is a bit hard when you are being strangled to death "I can't breathe"

My phone begins to ring suddenly, Thea releases my neck and I fumble around in my bag before finally coming in contact with my phone, ah it's my sister

"Hera," I say "what is wrong?"

"Well nothing is wrong... with me," she says, "But you know how I said Father's wife would not be coming?"

"What did you do?" I sigh

"It wasn't me Nevaeh," she says, clearly panicking "Father just brought her, I am sorry. I won't let her near you. I promise"

"Hera, it is okay. I need to face her sooner or later. I just would have preferred it being later. Or never"

"Nev..." she continued

"Hera, it is your wedding day. You do not need to worry about my problems today, because this day is for you"

"I love you Nev"

"Love you too," I say, "See you soon" I hang up and lean further back into the leather seat

"What was that about?" Thea asked cautiously

"My step-mother and adoptive father will be attending, I was expecting father but not his wife ughh"

"You mean your step-mother as in the step-mother," she asks, shivering ever so slightly

"Yes exactly," I say turning towards Elias, who is looking at me with a confused look just as we pull up to the venue

Elias waves me goodbye as he drags Thea to their seats in the church, I head to the room where Hera is getting ready.

I peek inside before entering, making sure that my stepmother is not present. Once the coast is clear I head inside. Hera is standing in her fairy-like dress, looking stunning as ever. Her hair a rustic blonde, her eyes the same shade as mine. We get that from our moms. Hera is my cousin, once my mom died my aunt brought me into their house, and once aunt died my 'father' brought in Lilith, my stepmother. That conniving bitch.

"Hera" I whisper, sneaking up behind her "You look gorgeous"

She turns around grinning ear to ear, "I know right?" she laughs "But take a look at yourself, I might need to watch my husband or he will snatch you right up"

"Please," I laugh with her "That man has eyes for only you"

She sighs and looks at herself in the mirror once more "You are right, he wouldn't dare"

I roll my eyes at her antics, Jude won't even look at a woman who is not Hera, he loves her with everything he is. "Are you ready love?" I ask, fluffing out her dress a bit

"Yes" she whispers, a large smile still gracing her features "Let's go"

Nevaeh's dress 
Authors Note: When A.N is written throughout the novel it means authors note.

Also, Hera and Nevaeh are cousins, but since they grew up as sisters and are legally adoptive sisters they just refer to each other as sisters.

I imagine Elias to be at least half Japanese, but he was born in Greece. You can imagine him however you want though.

Neveah is from France. Brown hair, green eyes with gray speckles.

Hera is half African-American, on her father's side, and was born in Greece. Her mother was born in France though.

I, for some reason, do not have any clear idea of what Thea looks like so you can imagine her however you want to, I feel as if she may be blonde though and she is definitely beautiful... not as beautiful as our Nevaeh though ;)