Chapter 2
The reception room became so quiet that I could hear a glass being placed on a table across the room.
Isabella didn't move.
Nathan stood beneath the projector screen.
His face was calm.
Too calm.
“Mom.”
His voice carried through the speakers.
“Stand up.”
Isabella glanced around.
Every person in the room was looking at her.
She forced a laugh.
“Nathan, this is ridiculous.”
“Stand up.”
Her smile disappeared.
Slowly, she rose.
Nathan turned toward the screen.
“Five minutes ago, my wife was taken upstairs crying because her wedding dress was destroyed.”
I wanted to disappear.
Not because he was defending me.
Because I suddenly realized how public this was becoming.
Isabella folded her arms.
“I already said it was an accident.”
Nathan tapped his phone.
The photograph changed.
Now the screen showed Isabella's foot directly over my train.
Her eyes were fixed downward.
Nathan looked at her.
“Does this look like an accident?”
Whispers spread across the room.
Isabella's face went white.
She looked toward me.
Then at Nathan.
“You are humiliating me.”
Nathan laughed once.
“You tore my wife's wedding dress in front of our guests.”
“I stepped on it.”
“You aimed for it.”
“You don't know that.”
Another image appeared.
The smile.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
Isabella looked genuinely panicked now.
Nathan lowered the phone.
“You warned her at the rehearsal that people wouldn't watch where they stepped.”
“I was joking.”
“You've been punishing her for months because she went dress shopping with her sick mother.”
Several heads turned toward Mom.
She stood beside me, gripping my hand.
Isabella's jaw tightened.
“That isn't fair.”
Nathan's voice sharpened.
“Fair?”
He walked closer to her.
“You want to talk about fair?”
She lowered her voice.
“Not here.”
“No.”
Nathan shook his head.
“You chose here.”
A few guests murmured agreement.
I saw Nathan's father, Richard, rise from his chair.
He looked devastated.
“Nathan.”
Nathan glanced at him.
“Dad, did you know?”
Richard shook his head immediately.
“No.”
Isabella turned.
“Don't encourage this.”
Richard stared at her.
“Did you do it?”
Her face hardened.
“It was a joke.”
That answer changed everything.
Nathan stopped moving.
“A joke?”
Isabella realized too late.
“I didn't mean to tear it that badly.”
I heard Mom inhale beside me.
Nathan's voice became almost a whisper.
“You did it on purpose.”
Isabella looked trapped.
“It was supposed to be harmless.”
My heart broke in a new way.
Not because I was surprised.
Because hearing her admit it made the cruelty real.
Nathan nodded slowly.
Then he looked toward the venue manager.
“Mr. Collins?”
A man near the bar stepped forward.
“Yes?”
“Please remove my mother from the reception.”
Isabella stared at him.
“What?”
Nathan didn't look away.
“You heard me.”
Her face changed from pale to red.
“You are throwing your own mother out of your wedding?”
“You stopped acting like my mother when you decided hurting my wife would entertain you.”
“Nathan!”
Richard stepped between them.
“Enough.”
For one second, I thought he meant Nathan.
Then Richard turned to Isabella.
“Get your purse.”
She stared at her husband.
“You're taking his side?”
“I am taking the side of the woman whose dress you deliberately destroyed.”
Isabella's mouth opened.
No words came.
Nathan handed the microphone to the DJ.
Then he walked toward me.
Everyone watched.
I hated that part.
I wanted to be invisible.
Nathan took my hands.
“I am sorry.”
My eyes filled.
“You didn't do it.”
“I should have stopped this sooner.”
Behind him, I heard Isabella.
“So that's it?”
Nathan turned.
She stood beside her table with her handbag.
“You throw away your family because of a dress?”
The entire room tensed.
Nathan looked at her for a long moment.
Then he spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“No.”
He pointed toward me.
“She is my family.”
Isabella went still.
“You're my mother.”
He continued.
“And I love you.”
Her expression softened slightly.
“But loving you does not mean letting you mistreat my wife.”
Her softness vanished.
“So she wins.”
“This isn't a competition.”
“It became one the second she walked into your life.”
That sentence silenced the room.
I stared at her.
Nathan looked almost heartbroken.
“Thank you.”
She frowned.
“For what?”
“For finally saying the truth.”
Isabella's eyes widened.
Nathan continued.
“You didn't hate the dress.”
He gestured around the reception.
“You hate that my life doesn't revolve around you anymore.”
Richard closed his eyes.
I could see shame on his face.
Isabella grabbed her purse.
“This is disgusting.”
“No.”
Nathan shook his head.
“What you did was disgusting.”
The venue manager approached gently.
“Ma'am.”
Isabella looked around the room.
No one defended her.
Not one person.
She passed me on the way out.
For half a second, I thought she would apologize.
Instead, she whispered:
“You've destroyed this family.”
I stared at her.
Then something inside me finally hardened.
“No.”
I looked directly into her eyes.
“You did.”
She flinched.
Then she walked out.
The doors closed behind her.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then my mother squeezed my hand.
“Go finish your wedding.”
I looked down at the pinned lace.
“It looks terrible.”
Mom smiled through tears.
“No one is looking at the dress anymore.”
I laughed weakly.
Nathan returned to me.
“Do you want to leave?”
The question mattered.
He wasn't asking what the guests wanted.
He wasn't asking what his family expected.
He was asking me.
I looked around.
My friends.
My father.
My mother.
Nathan.
All the people who had shown up with love instead of resentment.
“No.”
I squeezed his hand.
“I want to dance.”
Nathan smiled.
The DJ started the music again.
Our first few steps felt strange.
Then Nathan pulled me closer.
“I'm sorry.”
“You already said that.”
“I'll probably say it another hundred times.”
“Don't.”
I looked at him.
“Just don't let her do this again.”
His expression became serious.
“She won't.”
That night, after the last guest left, Nathan and I sat in our hotel room.
My torn dress was hanging near the window.
The adrenaline had worn off.
I felt empty.
Nathan's phone kept buzzing.
Calls.
Messages.
Family group chats.
He ignored them.
Then one message arrived from his father.
Nathan read it.
His face changed.
“What?”
He turned the phone toward me.
It was a photograph.
A bank statement.
Several large transfers had been made from Richard and Isabella's joint account over the past eight months.
The recipient was a wedding vendor I recognized.
Our florist.
Then another transfer.
Our caterer.
Then one to the venue.
I frowned.
“What is this?”
Nathan called his father.
Richard answered immediately.
“Dad, why were you sending money to our vendors?”
Silence.
Nathan's face tightened.
“Dad?”
Richard finally spoke.
“I wasn't.”
My stomach dropped.
Nathan sat up.
“What do you mean?”
“Your mother handled those payments.”
I stared at him.
The flowers.
The caterer.
The venue.
Isabella had repeatedly reminded everyone that she was “helping” pay for the wedding.
Richard's voice came through the speaker.
“I checked because tonight made me suspicious.”
Nathan went still.
“Suspicious of what?”
“Some of the transfers don't match your invoices.”
I felt cold.
“How much?”
Richard hesitated.
“Almost twenty-four thousand dollars.”
Nathan stared at me.
We had received nowhere near that amount of help.
Richard continued.
“And that's not the worst part.”
“What is?”
“I found emails.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“From Mom?”
“Yes.”
“To your vendors.”
My heartbeat quickened.
“What did she say?”
Richard took a breath.
“She wasn't only paying them.”
The room seemed to shrink around me.
“She was giving them instructions.”
Nathan's voice became dangerously quiet.
“What kind of instructions?”
May you like
Richard answered.
“She tried to change your wedding without telling you.”
