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 48 The Ferraro representative’s face changed. “That’s not what I meant.” “Every word you just said is in the record.” Sierra looked at him. “Don’t rush to take it back.” Tucker’s father tapped the table, trying to pull the meeting back to Safe Return. But Tucker’s mother,
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 48 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 47 The three-party alliance’s meeting was not open to the public. I attended remotely as the person responsible for Safe Return. Sierra sat in the Bellandi Family’s seat. In front of her lay that public ruling. When Tucker’s father saw me, his expression looked even uglier than
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 47 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 46 Some hesitated. One of them now had a family and didn’t want that wedding dragged back into his life. “Then I won’t publish yours.” I didn’t push. In the end, eleven agreed. Chloe did more than agree. She brought Peace into the frame. “At the time,
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 46 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 45 The next day, three temporary housing sites suspended cooperation. None of them admitted to being threatened. They only said they needed to reassess their risk. The Safe Return service point in the United States remained open, but three lines vanished from the wall of addresses overnight.
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 45 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 44 “We don’t want to make this ugly.” “The proposal has already been submitted.” I sat in an empty conference room at the hospital. “That’s a line I should be saying to you.” Her expression tightened. Tucker’s father threw a printed copy of Safe Return’s rules onto
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 44 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 43 “That’s your seat.” I picked up my coat, then put it back in Peace’s hands. “You should vote however you think is right.” Sierra gave a short laugh. “No wonder the Moretti head hates you.” “He didn’t like you before, either.” “He has even less reason
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 43 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 42 I stopped in the doorway. Peace thought I had forgotten something and came running out after me with my coat. “What’s wrong?” “Someone doesn’t like Safe Return.” She frowned. “Why?” Sierra hadn’t answered that directly, either. Instead, she read me the proposal. If it passed, anyone
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 42 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 41 Safe Return had already helped many people. Some got timely protection outside bars. Some were brought to safety before severe weather hit. Some escaped harm disguised as a joke. The money Tucker had transferred to me had long since run out. The program did not stop.
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 41 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 40 After we left the cemetery, we went to the first Safe Return service point in the United States. The place wasn’t large, and there was nothing expensive about it. On the wall were the emergency contact details for coastal rescue, along with the addresses of nearby
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 40 Read Post »
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 39 The following spring, I went back to the United States. I didn’t tell the Moretti Family. And I didn’t let Chloe pass the news to anyone, either. She drove me to see my parents. Peace sat in the backseat the whole way, hugging the doll I
The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 39 Read Post »
