My Fiancé Let Her Ruin Our Wedding but Insisted It Was Just a Joke novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Microphone

Darcy takes the DJ's microphone in her ruined dress and tells the reception plainly where her money went. The guests step away from Conor, and the assistant says he told her it was Darcy's idea.

The music stopped when I walked in.

A hundred and twenty heads turned to the door, and a few people clapped, thinking the joke had come around again.

Conor saw me and spread his arms.

"Told you," he said to the room. "She never stays mad."

Colt swung the camera onto my face.

Tobias stayed in the doorway behind me, a quiet shape in a white shirt with his jacket on my shoulders.

I walked across the dance floor in my ruined dress.

I walked past Jenna and past Marley, and I took the microphone out of the DJ's hand.

He gave it up without a word.

I looked at the room.

Most of them were people I had known for years.

My aunt, with her purse clutched in both hands.

Four nurses from the pediatric floor, in a row at table nine.

My mother's neighbour, who had brought a casserole to the hospital.

"Hi, everyone," I said.

It went through the speakers louder than I meant.

"Thank you for coming to my wedding."

Somebody laughed, and I waited until they stopped.

"I want to tell you what just happened, because some of you were told it was a joke."

Conor stepped toward me, smiling.

"Darcy, babe, come on."

"Stay where you are, Conor."

I had never said that to him in ten years.

He stopped.

I think it was the surprise more than the words.

"At 2:51 this afternoon," I said, "an hour before I walked down that aisle, Conor moved forty-six thousand, seven hundred dollars out of our joint account."

The room was very quiet.

"That money was mine. It was four years of night shifts. It was my half of the house we close on in nine days."

A man at table four put down his fork.

"He sent it to Jenna Hudak."

Every face turned to Jenna.

She was standing in her cream dress with my bouquet still in her hands, and she had gone the colour of the tablecloth.

"That's not what it looks like," she said.

"Then tell them what it looks like."

She did not say anything.

Marley's laugh came out sharp.

"Oh my God, Darcy, it's a bank transfer. It's all part of the bit. He was going to give it back."

"Was he?" I said. "When?"

"After the honeymoon."

"Whose honeymoon?"

Marley's mouth opened and shut.

I looked at Conor.

"Whose name is on the tickets, Conor?"

He did not answer fast enough.

One of the nurses at table nine said, loud enough for everyone, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

The same nurse had laughed at the altar.

She was not laughing now.

Colt lowered the camera a few inches, and then raised it again, because he could not stop himself.

"You're live with sixty thousand people," he called out cheerfully. "Keep going, this is gold."

I turned and looked straight into his lens.

"Good," I said. "Everybody watching, listen."

The number in the corner must have been tipping toward sixty-five thousand.

"My name is Darcy Bradfield. I am a pediatric nurse. I have been engaged to Conor Pellham for seven years and with him for ten. My best friend of sixteen years pulled my veil off in front of my family.

She told them I was a victim who needed toughening up.

This man," I said, pointing at Colt, "has been filming me for years and calling it content."

Colt's smile dropped.

"I'm getting my money back by Monday," I said. "Every dollar. If anyone here doubts who is telling the truth, ask the woman holding my bouquet."

Jenna made a small sound.

I crossed the floor to the cake.

It stood four tiers high with a tower of champagne glasses beside it, set up for a toast I had picked the flutes for myself.

I opened my fist.

The ring was still in it, the one I had paid for.

I dropped it in the top glass of the tower.

It rang once against the crystal.

"Put that toward what you owe me," I said.

I handed the microphone to my aunt.

She took it with both hands.

Then, behind me, I heard chairs.

The nurses at table nine were standing.

My mother's neighbour was standing.

My cousin's husband picked up his coat.

They did not leave with me.

They did not leave at all.

They walked in a loose line to the front of the room, and they stood in front of Conor in a half circle without saying anything.

It was the only answer I needed.

Conor looked around at all of them.

"You can't be serious," he said. "It was a prank."

Nobody spoke.

His smile went crooked.

"It's a joke, you people. Look at her, she's already crying."

I was not crying.

Marley grabbed my arm from behind, her fingers hard.

"Darcy, stop it," she whispered into my ear. "You are embarrassing yourself."

"Let go."

"I made you what you are. You'd still be hiding in your mother's kitchen."

I looked at her hand.

Then I looked at her face.

She smiled, a smooth, quick smile that did not reach her eyes.

"I've got you," she said. "Remember?"

I pulled my arm free.

Jenna stepped forward from the edge of the dance floor, holding the bouquet in front of her chest with both arms.

Her voice shook.

"Darcy, I didn't know," she said. "I swear. He told me it was your idea."

"What was my idea?"

"The account," Jenna said. "He told me you wanted me to hold it for you, until after the wedding."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend