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 18 The person who told me about it laughed with me for a long time. The people Sloane sent never found me. The Moretti Family’s advisers had sealed off my whereabouts. All they found was the apartment I’d already moved out of. When I reached my building,
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 17 She let out a sigh. “Too bad it’s too late now. Isolde’s really unlucky.” Tucker’s whole body jolted, and for the first time in his life, a heavy, violent hatred rose inside him. Maybe he truly hadn’t cared that much about what happened to other people.
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 16 Tucker snapped, his hand clamping around Sloane’s throat. “Call them off.” He couldn’t bear to imagine how frightened Isolde must be right now. Sloane looked baffled. “What are you so scared of? She’s not going to die. At worst, they’ll scare her for a night.” “Isn’t
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 15 “Tucker, if you walk out that door today, don’t ever come back.” His father’s voice was heavy. This wasn’t the kind of thing an ordinary father said in anger. When the head of the Moretti Family said those words in front of the Bellandi Family, it
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 14 He couldn’t even steady his breathing. “Where is Isolde?” He looked at his parents, his voice an outright plea. “Please, just give Isolde back to me.” “Pathetic.” His father let out a cold snort. “Played by a woman so badly you forgot your own place.” Tucker
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 13 At the time, the Bellandi Family had been weaker than the Ferraro Family. And Tucker had stepped up to lie for Sloane. During the internal inquiry, he said Sierra had suddenly run in front of the car, and Sloane hadn’t had time to swerve. His status
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 12 Standing nearby were Tucker’s ashen-faced parents and people from the Bellandi Family. Blocked outside the doors were the Ferraro outer-circle men Sloane had brought with her. Their original plan had been to play Price the Vows one more time. Only this time, the new wedding dress
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 11 Tucker stood there holding a box. Inside were the “ashes of Isolde’s parents” he had somehow managed to gather back together. At the site of his second, out-of-control wedding, he felt like he was dreaming. Otherwise, how could the bride not be Isolde? Otherwise, how could
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 10 Tucker had come here ready for a fight, and now he couldn’t even get his words out. “You’re going to the wedding?” “But Isolde is missing…” His mother cut him off. “I know. You’ve always done things without any sense of propriety.” “According to Moretti Family
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The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 09 The phone changed hands five times. Only after the fifth person had cursed themselves breathless did Tucker finally ask in a low voice, “Can any of you tell me where Isolde went?” The only answer was the hard click of the line going dead. “I really
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