PART2

But my gown was gone.

All the plans were in place for my surprise.

I stared at the empty hanger. “They didn’t… not my dress. They wouldn’t steal that, too.”

I ran back out in the dress I’d arrived in. Most of the guests were already in their seats. As I drew level with the main entrance to the church, the doors opened wide.

And there they were.

Lori walked through the main doors in my wedding gown. Nick stood beside her with her hand looped through his arm like they were the stars of some cruel little show.

Lori walked through the main doors in my wedding gown.

“Surprise!” Lori said brightly to the room. “We’re getting married instead.”

A few people gasped. A few just stared.

A few looked at me, waiting for the scene. Waiting for me to fall apart.

My mother stood from the front pew and started clapping.

“Well,” she said loudly, “this makes much more sense.”

I turned slowly and took in the room. Two hundred guests stared at us with mixed expressions of confusion and horror.

“We’re getting married instead.”

And then I smiled. “I’m glad you’re all here. Because I have a surprise, too.”

Nick frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I signaled the sound and video technician.

“Play it.”

The lights dimmed, and all the screenshots I’d taken of Lori, Nick, and my mother’s messages to each other discussing the wedding and my sister’s affair with my fiancé played on the white screen at the front.

“I have a surprise, too.”

It didn’t take long for the whispers to start.

Someone near the front said, much too loudly, “Oh my God.”

Another woman exclaimed, “They’re stealing her wedding?”

I heard someone yell, “Her own family did this to her?”

Nick’s face lost color. Lori let go of his arm.

“Turn that off,” she hissed.

“Her own family did this to her?”

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“If you don’t like people knowing the truth about you, Lori, Nick, and Mom, then maybe you shouldn’t do such awful things to people behind their backs.”

“Andrea, you’re making a big scene out of nothing!” Mom cried. “Your sister and Nick are in love. They didn’t know how to tell you, so they—”

“Decided to hijack my wedding?”

Mom’s jaw dropped. She looked to the people sitting closest to her, but found no support there.

“Andrea, you’re making a big scene out of nothing!”

Nick stepped toward me then. “So what? You found out. Congratulations. But the wedding is happening anyway.”

Lori straightened beside him. “You can’t stop it.”

I smiled. “Oh, I have no intention of stopping it.”

Nick and Lori exchanged a confused glance.

I pulled out a folder. “I decided that if you want my wedding so badly, you can have it. I just wasn’t prepared to pay for any of it.”

He stared at me. “What?”

“But the wedding is happening anyway.”

“You handled the vendor contracts, remember? You signed everything while I paid my share?”

His expression changed. I saw the exact moment he understood where I was going, and it was better than any speech I could have written.

“So the only person legally responsible for paying for this wedding is you,” I finished.

Right on cue, the wedding planner, who had spent the last few minutes looking like she wished the floor would open, stepped forward with a clipboard in hand.

“You signed everything while I paid my share?”

“Excuse me,” she said carefully, looking at Nick. “The final balances for today’s event are still outstanding.”

Nick turned to me slowly. “You never paid anything?”

A ripple of whispers spread through the church.

I folded my arms. “I told you it was handled whenever you asked, but I never paid a cent. ”

He took one step closer. “You lied?”

“Yes, I lied. You planned to humiliate me and steal my wedding. Did you really expect me to foot the bill for that, too?”

“You never paid anything?”

The caterer stepped up next. “Sir, we need payment authorization before service continues.”

The venue manager joined him. “And settlement of the hall balance.”

The band leader lifted a hand from near the aisle. “Same here.”

Nick looked around like a man trapped in a burning room. “This is insane.”

Lori grabbed his arm. “You have money, right, baby?”

He swallowed. “Not enough… not $80,000. What about you? Can’t you pay your sister’s share?”

“You have money, right, baby?”

Lori’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? Of course, I can’t!”

That did it.

The room erupted.

Nick’s father stood up from the second pew, red with embarrassment. “Nicholas, how dare you embarrass our family like this?”

Nick turned to him with a panicked look in his eyes.

Lori turned toward the room, desperate now. “Nick and I are still getting married!”

“Nicholas, how dare you embarrass our family like this?”

A guest near the aisle let out a short, unbelieving laugh and said, “With what money are they getting married?”

The caterer answered before I could. “Not without payment, you aren’t.”

Lori’s eyes found mine, wild and furious. “You can’t just ruin everything.”

I looked at her standing there, wearing my life like a costume, and said, “You wanted the wedding. I’m just giving it to you, bills and all.”

I turned toward the doors and started walking.

“With what money are they getting married?”

Behind me, one of my bridesmaids said, “I’m with her.”

Then another.

Then I heard movement all through the church. Rows of guests standing, low voices. By the time I reached the doors, most of them were following me out.

Nick shouted after me, panic finally cracking through his voice. “You can’t just walk away.”

I looked back once.

Most of them were following me out.

Nick and Lori were still standing near the doors, surrounded by vendors demanding payment.

Nick’s father was berating my mother. Dad was standing across from her, with Nick’s parents, his judgment clear.

I turned on my heel and walked out into the sunlight. I’d already made things right.

I’d exposed a cruel plan to steal from me and ensured the guilty parties suffered the consequences.

PART1