I used to dream about weddings.
Not the fairytale kind with ballrooms and flowing gowns, but the simple joy of being there. Watching my siblings say their vows, witnessing their happiness, being part of their lives in those special moments.
But I never got that chance.
Because every single one of them left me out.
Oak, my oldest brother, got married when I was ten.
“You’re too young, Lena,” they told me.
At twelve, another wedding. Again, I was not invited. By fifteen, I begged my sister Ivy to make an exception just this once. She gave me a sweet, fake smile and said, “If I let you come, Lena, I’d have to let other kids come too. It wouldn’t be fair, you know that.”
When would it be fair?
At seventeen, my brother Silas got married. By then, I had stopped caring. His twin, Ezra, married soon after, and I didn’t even ask. What was the point? Why did I have to beg to be part of my own family’s milestones?
And the worst part? My step-cousin, who had just turned eighteen, got to be there.
I wasn’t even worth an invitation.
I sent a half-hearted congrats, locked myself in my room, and spent the night with Rowan, my boyfriend—now my fiancé. That was the last time I let myself feel hurt over them.
So, when it was my turn to plan a wedding, my decision was simple: None of them would be invited.
“Are you sure, Lena?” Rowan asked, scanning the guest list. “I know they’ve been… difficult. But do you want to do the same thing? Or do you want to be better than them?”
“I’m not inviting them,” I said firmly. “I want them to understand what it feels like to be shut out. To know their actions had consequences. They don’t get to be there. They don’t get to laugh, or cry, or throw confetti. They don’t deserve to.”
Rowan sighed, pouring me a glass of wine. “It’s just that we’re only twenty-three. I don’t want you to regret not having your mother there.”
I smiled at his thoughtfulness. “No regrets, Rowan. I promise.”
The invitations went out, and the storm hit.
They showed up at my apartment, unannounced, furious.
“Why didn’t we get an invite to your wedding, Lena?” Oak demanded, arms crossed.
I leaned against the doorframe, mirroring his stance.
“You never invited me to yours. So I didn’t invite you to mine. Simple logic.”
Silence filled the room. Their faces flickered between confusion and outrage.
“That’s different!” Ivy snapped. “There was alcohol and rowdy uncles! We were protecting you!”
I laughed, cold and sharp. “I didn’t care about the party. I wanted to be there for you, Ivy. For all of you. I loved you. I just wanted to be included.”
My mother, Marigold, stepped forward. “This is cruel! I want all my children together on your beautiful day!”
I tilted my head. “That’s funny, Mom. You didn’t seem to care when I was left out of theirs.”
The guilt set in. I saw it in the way they shifted, the way their eyes darted away. I let them stew in the silence before I spoke again.
“You want to come? Fine. But tell me the truth. Why was I really never included? No lies. No excuses. Just the truth.”
They went quiet. Too quiet. My stomach twisted.
Then Oak rubbed his beard and sighed. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
They exchanged glances, as if daring one another to say it.
Finally, Ivy sat down, hands clasped in her lap. “Lena… you’re not actually our sister.”
The words hit like a thunderclap.
“What?” My chest tightened.
“You’re our cousin,” Ivy continued. “Our dad’s brother raised you alone until he got sick and passed away. Mom and Dad took you in. But… we don’t know who or where your mother is.”
The world spun around me.
“No. That’s not—You’re lying!”
My father, Ellis, stared at the floor. “Darling, we were going to tell you one day…”
“When?” My voice cracked. “When I was forty? Fifty? On my deathbed?”
Ezra sighed. “We were just kids, Lena. And you… you needed so much attention. We knew you weren’t really our sister, so we… distanced ourselves.”
I turned to him slowly. “You mean you decided I wasn’t family.”
He didn’t deny it.
I walked out. Just left. Wandered aimlessly until I found myself sitting on the curb outside Rowan’s apartment.
At some point, his door opened. He draped his hoodie over my shoulders and sat beside me. No questions. Just warmth.
Finally, I whispered, “I don’t think I exist.”
“Lena…” Rowan held me closer.
“I mean, I do. But not really. I spent my life trying to prove I was part of them. But I was never their sister. I was never even an afterthought.”
He exhaled, thinking. “What do you need?”
“I thought I needed a wedding,” I murmured. “A perfect day where they had to sit in the audience and watch me for once. But I don’t care anymore. I don’t want them pretending they love me.”
Rowan brushed his fingers against mine. “Then don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t give them your day,” he said. “Let them live with the guilt. But you? You don’t need an audience to be happy.”
Something inside me cracked open.
“Let’s not do the wedding.”
Rowan searched my face. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “A big wedding was never us.”
His slow, steady smile melted my heart. “No, it wasn’t.”
“Then what do you want to do?”
He didn’t hesitate. “I want to wake up next to you every day for the rest of my life.”
My breath hitched.
“Then let’s elope.”
His grin was the purest thing I had ever seen. “Hell yes.”
The courthouse smelled like old paper and fresh ink. No grand decorations, no audience. Just Rowan and me, standing before a city clerk in a quiet, sunlit office.
“Do you take this beautiful woman to be your wife?” the officiant asked.
Rowan’s lip twitched. “Absolutely.”
Laughter bubbled up in my chest.
“And do you, Lena, take this man to be your husband?”
I looked at Rowan, heart full. “With everything I have.”
“Then, by the power vested in me—”
I didn’t hear the rest. Because Rowan was already kissing me, deep and soft, like he had been waiting his whole life for this moment.
Outside, the sun hit my face, warm and golden.
For the first time ever, I had made a choice for me.
And I had never been happier.
