My Fiance‘s Kindness To Her Was My Humiliation In A Bridal Shop Chapter 05
I looked at him and nearly laughed out of pure
disbelief.
We were at this point, and he was still trying to get the wedding over with first and preserve
appearances first.
Get past the relatives, the friends, the coworkers
first.
As for the humiliation I’d suffered, the money I’d
fronted, the sheer unfairness I was supposed to
choke down–all of that could wait until after the
ceremony. We could talk slowly then.
At the bottom of it, he was still betting.
Betting I couldn’t walk away from what I’d already
sunk in.
Betting I didn’t have the nerve to actually flip the
table.
I walked to the dining table and turned my laptop
around. On the screen was the settlement
breakdown I’d just finished building.
“You see this?”
“I put this together this afternoon. The dress, the
hotel, the event planner, the favors, the estate
furnishings, every other incidental–every dollar
that came out of my personal accounts. It’s all
right here.”
Margaret’s face darkend. “You’re bringing up.
money now?”
“What am I supposed to bring up?” I asked her.
“How reasonable I’m being?”
That shut her mouth.
I slid the printed payment receipts across the
table.
“I’m not marrying him.”
“But I’m not eating a single dollar, either.”
Ryker frowned, like I was finally grating on him.
“Presley, do you have to take this all the way?”
“Take it all the way?”
I lifted my eyes to his.
“Ten days before the wedding, you put my gown on Willa. You made me look like a joke in front of
the consultants, the photographer, my friends.”
“Now your mother shows up at my door, and her
first question isn’t what kind of hurt I’ve been
through. It’s how you’re supposed to hold your
head up after this.”
“Ryker Ashford, you tell me. Between the two of
us, who’s ‘taking it all the way‘?”
The question hung there. He couldn’t answer it.
Margaret jumped in instead. “We’ve already
spoken to Willa about her part in this. Young
people do foolish things. Who hasn’t made a
mistake? But this was seven years. Are you really
going to throw away a seven–year relationship
over something this small?”
I looked at her. For a moment I wanted to hurl
those words right back at her.
But all I did was smile.
“You still think this is just ‘something this small.”
“And that tells me you’re not here to fix anything.”
“You’re here to make sure I keep swallowing it.”
Margaret’s face went hard. “What kind of attitude
is that?”
“This kind.”
I closed the settlement breakdown on the table,
my voice low, but I left zero room behind it.
“The wedding being canceled is no longer a
negotiation.”
“I’m giving you exactly two notifications.”
“One. Ryker repays every dollar I fronted for this
wedding.”
“Two. The blame for this canceled wedding
doesn’t get pinned on me.”
“What you tell people outside–I’ll give you time to
figure that out.”
“But if you keep trying to sell the story that I just
lost my emotional grip, then what I have in my
hands won’t only get shared in a family group.
chat.”
The second I finished, the room dropped into dead
silence.
Ryker’s face changed instantly. “Are you
threatening me?”
“Not a threat.” I held his stare. “A notification.”
He stared back, breathing harder.
I knew that look too damn well.
It was the look he got when he realized something
was slipping out of his control. First the heavy
face, then the reasoning, and finally the emotional
appeal.
On cue, his voice softened.
“Pres, I admit I was careless today.”
“But you know there’s nothing between her and me
anymore. You know that.”
“She just came back in bad shape. I couldn’t stand
seeing her like that.”
“Couldn’t stand it?”
I repeated the words, and the irony tasted sharp
on my tongue.
“You couldn’t stand seeing her in pain.”
“And me?”
His throat moved. Nothing came out.
I answered for him.
“With me, you felt safe.
“You trusted I’d be sensible, trusted I’d let it go,
trusted I wouldn’t leave when our wedding was
just ten days away.
“That’s why you dared to use my wedding to
indulge your misplaced compassion.”
The color bled out of Ryker’s face little by little.
Because he knew I’d nailed it.
I stopped looking at him and turned to Margaret.
“You don’t have to agree, ma’am.”
“But tomorrow at three p.m., I’ll be at the hotel to
go over the cancellation and liability statement.”
“If you want to keep this contained, you can bring
Ryker with you.”
“We’ll settle the accounts in front of the hotel and
the event team.”
Margaret clearly hadn’t expected me to have the
time and place already locked down. Her
composure cracked. “You’re taking this trouble to
the hotel now?”
“It’s not a trouble,” I said.
“It’s a wrap–up.”
Piper, still standing off to the side, couldn’t hold
back. “The wedding’s dead. You really expect
Presley to carry the mess on her back?”
