At Isolde’s wedding, Tucker’s best friend, Sloane, proposed a game she called “Price the Vows.”
She looped a ribbon around Isolde and gave it a hard yank.
The ribbon, marked with five thousand dollars, went taut, and Isolde’s wedding dress nearly slipped.
“I’m offering five grand to buy her out of marrying Tucker.”
Sloane jerked her chin toward the massive screen behind the altar.
“Simple rules. Each ribbon has an amount written on it, plus something Tucker is willing to sacrifice from his vows. If he makes the transfer, he agrees to the terms.”
Tucker just smiled and sent the money.
Sloane flashed the payment screenshot on the big screen.
A public payment from an heir was as good as a binding agreement.
Isolde clenched her fists, ready to refuse the guests now closing in around her.
Tucker lowered his voice. “Sloane’s just trying to liven things up. Don’t make a scene.”
Isolde froze.
Once, Sloane had stuffed balloons under her shirt and faked a pregnancy, tricking Isolde, a surgeon, into pressing a stethoscope to her stomach to listen for a heartbeat.
Then she’d popped them right in her face.
The blast had left Isolde with temporary hearing loss.
Tucker had called it a great joke.
On the night of their engagement party, Sloane had deliberately left a drunk Isolde stranded outside a bar.
That neighborhood wasn’t under Tucker’s protection. A stranger had nearly dragged her into a car.
Tucker had insisted that was just a joke, too.
In his eyes, everything Sloane did was entertaining.
The guests began scrambling to tie ribbons to the hem of her dress.
One man held his up and shouted, “I wrote thirty grand. To buy the audacity she has, marrying a guy like you.”
“If you dare make that transfer, the wedding’s off,” Isolde said, her voice ice.
Tucker frowned. “Everyone’s just having fun. Come on, honey. Don’t be like this.”
Sloane chimed in from the side. “Yeah. Don’t be such a killjoy.”
The next second, a phone notification chimed.
A thirty-thousand-dollar transfer receipt appeared on the big screen.
The room erupted.
Suddenly, Isolde didn’t have the energy to argue anymore.
Sloane was right.
From the start, this whole thing had been a meaningless, humiliating charade.
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 58 I went to see my parents again. This time I didn’t bring many words. Only two bouquets of flowers, and Safe Return’s latest annual report. The money Tucker had transferred to me had been gone for many years now. Every expense in the report came from
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 57 Later, the hospital put me in charge of a new surgical team. The first time I walked into the operating room as the lead, one of the younger doctors was so nervous her fingers had gone white. “Dr. Blake, I’m afraid I won’t do this well.”
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 56 After the event ended, Chloe and I stayed behind until the very end. We pushed the chairs back into place one by one. Suddenly she asked, “Have you ever thought about what would’ve happened if you’d really married Tucker?” “No.” “Not even once?” I thought about
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 55 On the fifth anniversary of Safe Return’s U.S. service point, all fifteen of the original group came. Some brought partners. Some brought children. Chloe stood in the doorway with Peace, handing each person a blue ribbon. When I saw them, my steps faltered. She explained at
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 54 When the news reached Tucker’s monitored residence, he was silent for a very long time. That was what a Moretti adviser later told Sierra. Sierra passed it on to me. “He said if that rule had existed on your wedding day, things would have been different.”
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 53 I agreed only to offer comments on the rules as a public organization. No accepting funding, no handing over applicant lists, and no letting any Family into the project’s screening process. At the second vote, Tucker’s father did not appear. The Moretti Family was represented by
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 52 After Tucker’s mother returned to the United States, the Moretti Family withdrew its private warnings to cooperating organizations. There was no public apology. But all three temporary housing sites that had suspended cooperation returned to Safe Return’s list. Sierra still wasn’t satisfied. “They can withdraw it
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 51 “I won’t take much of your time.” “You’d better not.” We went to the café across from the hospital. She looked more tired than she had on screen. “There are people inside the Moretti Family who think what happened with Tucker cost us prestige in the
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 50 “Promised lodging and medical support will not be canceled.” “And the shortfall?” “We use the ordinary donations first.” The money Tucker had left behind had been gone for years. What had kept the project alive all this time had always been the money that hospitals and
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 49 The proposal failed. Sierra voted against it. The Ferraro Family had originally intended to back the Moretti Family, but the moment it heard compensation might be reopened, it switched to abstaining on the spot. That left the Moretti Family with only its own vote. When the
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