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 28 Tucker lay propped against another hospital bed, his face ashen. He hadn’t looked at Sierra once since the video began. Only when Sloane brought up that old lie did he stir. “What she said is true.” Sloane froze. Sierra’s grip slowly tightened on her cane. Tucker’s
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 27 After we hung up, I wrote the statement as requested, checked every page, and sent it to the secure archive of the three-party committee. By the time I finished, it was already dark. Peace had fallen asleep curled against my leg, still clutching the bottle of
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 26 There was no small talk. “I need you to confirm this is the original link Tucker sent you.” “It is.” “The video hasn’t been edited?” “What I saw was exactly that. By the time the three-party committee found them, what happened in the footage had already
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 25 I stared at the line for several seconds. Before the screen dimmed, I opened my final chat history with Tucker. The delayed video link was still there. Back then, I had used it to find Sloane. I had also used it to confirm that Tucker’s so-called
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 24 Tucker discovered it early and managed to stop some of them in time. But in the end, Sloane still dragged him with her when she jumped. Neither of them died. One was paralyzed. The other lost a leg. The institution couldn’t suppress the news, and the
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 23 The fellowship that followed was busy and monotonous. Much like my life had been when I was working in the States. Sometimes I called my relatives. At first, they had blamed me. Once they learned everything that happened, they turned around and comforted me instead. The
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 22 By the time the three Families found Sloane, she was covered in injuries, the wedding dress on her body nearly shredded. They found Tucker, too. Both of his hands had been broken. Only then did I learn that the video link he had sent me was
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 21 But the chase did not become righteous just because of that. Soon she couldn’t run anymore, so she turned and lunged straight at Tucker. “The one who brought Sierra to that wedding was your father, wasn’t it? Do you think playing dumb will fool anyone?” “You
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 20 Tucker was insane, too. Watching the video, I understood that completely for the first time. Wearing a wedding dress, Sloane was being chased by a group of masked men through an old yacht-club building at the docks. They were hired with Tucker’s private money. He had
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 19 “Tucker, go. We have nothing to do with each other anymore.” I turned and started upstairs. “Isolde, don’t do this.” He caught my sleeve, his eyes glistening. “I’ll bring Sloane to apologize. You can deal with her however you want. From now on, whatever you say
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