He Gambled Away Our Vows

1: 1

The wedding had reached the ring exchange when my best friend walked up in a bridal gown, beaming.

And in front of a whole room of guests, my fianc, Eugene Weiss, slid the wedding ring onto her ring finger.

Eyes stinging, I demanded an answer.

The two of them exchanged a glance and burst out laughing at the same time.

Maura Hughes laughed so hard she had to bend over.

"Marilyn Henson, last night Eugene and I made a bet."

"He said you'd definitely notice, before the ceremony started, that the wedding photo on the welcome board had been swapped for a picture of the two of us."

"I said you trust us so much, you'd never check."

She waggled the wedding ring on her hand.

"Now Eugene lost."

"So by the terms, this wedding has to go to me."

Eugene circled an arm around her waist, his tone easy.

"It's just letting Maura be the bride for one day."

"The dress, the venue, the whole program are all ready anyway. It'd be a waste not to use them."

"We'll just hold another one next month. Don't be such a sore loser."

They always liked to bet with me on the table.

At the engagement, he lost a bet, so the proposal ring went onto Maura's hand first.

When we shot the wedding photos, he lost a bet, and took the snow-scene set I loved most with Maura instead.

Even the master bedroom of our new home had been renovated to Maura's taste because of some wager.

Every time I was hurt, they'd smile and say, "It's only a bet. Why take it so seriously?"

But it wasn't until today that I finally understood.

In their eyes, my wedding, my love, my whole life were just chips they could toss onto the table whenever they pleased.

I looked at Eugene, and something in me finally let go. When I spoke, my voice was utterly calm.

"You're giving her the wedding. Give her yourself too, while you're at it."

The moment I finished, I turned to leave.

But Eugene grabbed my wrist.

"Marilyn, that's enough."

"With all these relatives and friends here, are you really going to make a scene until nobody can save face?"

I shook his hand off.

"Am I the one making a scene?"

"This was supposed to be my wedding!"

Eugene frowned, his tone thick with impatience.

"I already told you, it's just letting Maura experience it for one day."

"After the wedding's over, nothing changes between us."

"You're going to break up with me over a formality?"

He paused, as if something had just come to him, and gave a short scornful laugh.

"Last month you said you'd stop dealing with us too."

"And in the end, didn't you go and buy Maura a birthday cake yourself?"

Maura laughed too.

"Marilyn, every time you can't take losing, you say you're cutting us off."

"Three days at most, and you're back looking for us."

She waggled the ring on her finger, her smile heavy with meaning.

"This time I bet two days."

"Eugene, do you dare bet with me?"

Eugene looked down at her.

"Bet what?"

"How long before Marilyn comes crawling back to us."

"If she begs you to make up within two days, you give me the vanity from the master bedroom."

Eugene barely hesitated.

"Fine."

"She'll last a day, tops."

The two of them, right in front of me, were betting on me all over again.

As if the breakup I'd just declared were nothing but a new game to amuse them.

I looked at Eugene.

"You're that certain I'll come back?"

Eugene's voice was calm.

"We've been together six years."

"You spent a whole year planning this wedding just to marry me."

"The hotel, the dress, the guests, you arranged every bit of it yourself."

"Marilyn, could you really bear to leave me?"

He understood the old me too well.

That was why he dared bet against my limits, again and again.

Because win or lose, I was always the one left to clean up the wreckage.

Maura ruined my engagement gown, and I reordered it.

She tore up the photo of Eugene and me, and I was the one who said it was fine.

She even redid our wedding home in her own style.

And in the end I was the one who apologized to Eugene, said I shouldn't have fought with them over the renovation.

It wasn't that they didn't know I'd be hurt.

They were just sure I wouldn't leave.

Someone down in the crowd smiled and tried to talk me around.

"His wife, don't take it so seriously with them."

"Eugene and Maura have similar temperaments. They've always teased and scuffled like this."

"And Maura's against marriage, so she'll never really get married anyway."

"Letting her experience a wedding once, you could call it making up for what she'll never have."

"Calling off the engagement over something this small is a little petty of you."

One line after another.

Everyone was urging me to be gracious.

But not one of them asked whether I was willing to give my own wedding away.

Vanessa Weiss came up onto the stage from the head table too.

She took Maura's hand, her eyes full of approval.

"You know, that ring actually suits Maura's hand better than Marilyn's."

Maura pouted playfully.

"Auntie, don't say that."

"Marilyn will be hurt if she hears you."

Vanessa shot me a glance.

"She's about to marry into the Weiss family. If she can't take even this much, how is she going to be a daughter-in-law in our house?"

Then she patted Maura's hand.

"To be honest, Auntie has always liked you more."

"You've got a lively personality, you know how to make people feel good."

"Not like some people, who have to fight over who's right and who's wrong about everything, who turn every little thing into something unpleasant for everyone."

Nelson Weiss came over too, wine glass in hand.

"Since Eugene lost the bet, he should be a good loser about it."

"The most important thing for a man is keeping his word."

"We'll hold another wedding for Marilyn next month. It's no big deal."

I looked at him.

"In your eyes, a wedding is something you can just hold over again?"

Nelson's face showed his displeasure.

"It's only a ceremony."

"As long as Eugene is willing to marry you in the end, what more do you have to be unhappy about?"

"And to be honest with you."

"If Maura weren't against marriage, we really would have preferred Eugene marry her."

2: 2

The whole room went quiet.

Eugene finally noticed something wrong in my face.

He frowned and cut his father off.

"Dad, why bring all that up today?"

Then he turned to me.

"My parents just like that Maura's got an outgoing personality."

"Don't take everything to heart."

I suddenly laughed.

Anything that hurt me could always be waved off as a joke.

Maura tightened her grip on Eugene's arm.

"All right, don't fight because of me."

"Marilyn, you said yourself you were giving me the wedding, so let me finish the rest of it."

She glanced at the gown I was wearing and smiled.

"It's not like you can't hold your own wedding next month anyway."

I didn't argue anymore.

I just took out my phone and called the hotel's event manager.

"The bride for today's wedding has been changed at the last minute."

"I'm refusing to pay the remaining balance."

There were a few seconds of silence on the other end.

The manager asked, hesitant.

"Miss Henson, you don't know?"

"A month ago, Mr. Weiss brought Miss Hughes in to revise the contract."

"The bride on the contract was changed to Miss Hughes a long time ago."

My hand tightened around the phone.

"A month ago?"

"Yes."

"Miss Hughes also reconfirmed the reception menu and the stage setup."

"Mr. Weiss said all the changes had your approval."

I looked up at the two of them on the stage.

So this so-called bet, the one supposedly settled only last night.

They'd had it all arranged a month ago.

I forced down the tremor in my voice and kept going.

"And the balance?"

The manager answered.

"It was paid in full last night."

"Mr. Weiss paid six hundred and eighty thousand from your joint wedding account."

I yanked open my banking app.

The account balance was three dollars and seventy cents.

That six hundred and eighty thousand was every cent I'd saved in five years of work.

I'd planned to use what was left after the wedding to open a studio of my own.

Eugene saw the screen on my phone and finally came over.

"The money's already paid. You can't get it back by canceling now."

I stared at him.

"What gives you the right to touch my money without asking me?"

Eugene answered like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"That money was for the wedding in the first place."

"The wedding's going ahead as planned, so the money wasn't wasted."

Maura leaned against him and gave the ring on her finger a light little shake.

"Marilyn, didn't you just say you were giving me the wedding?"

"Since you gave it to me, the cost of the wedding is naturally part of it."

Watching the two of them play off each other, I found I didn't even have anger left.

They hadn't just made my wedding the stakes of a bet.

They'd drained my savings too.

And sent Maura off in style to marry my fianc.

3: 3

I had barely stepped down from the platform when my mother pushed through the crowd and seized my hand.

"Baby, what's going on?"

My parents were seated at the very back of the banquet hall, closest to the door.

At this wedding, they were the only two guests on the bride's side.

Our relatives back home had wanted to come, but Mrs. Weiss thought they didn't know how to behave and would embarrass the Weiss family.

Eugene had said so too. "We'll just hold a thank-you dinner back in your hometown later. Don't bring too many people."

So my parents had ridden the cheap coach seats for over ten hours, traveling alone to attend their daughter's wedding.

The dress my mother wore didn't fit right. She had taken in the waist herself, stitch by stitch.

The father-of-the-bride flower pinned to my father's chest had already been crushed out of shape in the crowd, but he wouldn't take it off.

Not until he saw Maura wearing my gown, wearing my ring.

My father walked up to Eugene.

"Take off that ring and apologize to my daughter."

Eugene's expression darkened slightly.

"It's just a bet, sir."

"Maura's only walking through the ceremony in Marilyn's place. After it's over, I'll still register the marriage with Marilyn."

My father stared at him for a few seconds.

"You marry her, but send my daughter to sign the papers?"

"Then what is my daughter to you?"

Eugene frowned.

"We've always played this way. Marilyn never used to mind."

My mother was shaking with anger.

"She doesn't mind, so that gives you the right to keep walking all over her?"

In her distress her accent thickened, and her voice climbed with it.

Mrs. Weiss's face turned cold at once.

"Keep your voice down, ma'am."

"This isn't some country market back in your village."

"Everyone here today is a client of the Weiss family. Shouting like that, are you trying to make us all a laughingstock?"

Lowered murmurs came from all around.

"Country people. No manners at all."

My mother's face flushed red in an instant.

She had come to demand justice for her daughter, and yet now she curled her fingers in tight, awkward and small, her voice dropping.

"I'm not making a scene."

"I just ache for my daughter."

My nose stung sharply.

She had done nothing wrong, and still, without thinking, she was explaining herself to the people who had humiliated her.

Eugene cut in impatiently.

"The wedding today goes to Maura first."

"Next month I'll come to your hometown and hold a thank-you dinner."

"Your relatives can all come to that. That's already more than enough face for Marilyn."

My father slowly lifted his head.

"You give her this wedding worth a fortune."

"Then throw together a few tables of cheap liquor in the countryside to send my daughter off?"

Eugene's face turned ugly.

"I've already agreed to make it up to you. What more do you want?"

Only then did Maura come over, lifting her gown, and take my mother's hand warmly.

"Auntie, does it really matter where the wedding is held?"

"You and Uncle came all this way. It wasn't easy for you."

She pointed to the party favors in the corner.

"Take a few extra boxes of the wedding candy home later, hand them out to the neighbors. Then the trip won't have been for nothing."

My mother snatched her hand back as if burned.

My father ripped the red flower off his chest and slammed it down hard on the table.

"Our family is poor."

"But we're not so poor we'd trade our daughter's wedding for a few boxes of candy!"

Maura's eyes reddened instantly.

"Uncle, I only meant well."

Eugene moved in front of her without a second thought.

"Enough."

"Maura's done nothing but think of you two. Don't be so ungrateful."

My father looked at him steadily.

"You knelt in front of us once. You said you'd never let Marilyn suffer."

Eugene looked away from him.

My father didn't ask again.

He turned and wiped the tears from my face, his voice suddenly much older.

"Marilyn, your dad misjudged this man."

"We're not going through with this marriage. Your mom and I are taking you home."

My tears finally fell.

A hall full of guests were all pressing me to swallow it.

Only my parents, humiliated until they couldn't lift their heads, still stood between me and all of it.

I took off my veil and held a hand in each of mine.

"Okay."

"Let's go home."

Behind me, Eugene let out a cold laugh.

"Since she insists on leaving, let's make another bet."

Maura perked up at once.

"I bet Marilyn won't last three days before she brings Uncle and Auntie back to apologize."

Eugene watched my retreating back, his tone certain.

"It won't take three days."

"She'll cave this afternoon and beg me to sign the papers with her."

Maura smiled and asked, "And the stakes?"

"If she doesn't apologize to me today, the wedding house on the South Side is yours."

"Deal."

The two of them laughed behind me.

Even now, they still treated whether I stayed or left as some ridiculous bet.

I didn't look back.

As we walked out of the hotel, my father asked carefully,

"Baby, you really won't regret this?"

I glanced at the welcome board, at Eugene's and Maura's names written side by side.

Then I gripped my parents' hands tighter.

"My only regret is that I didn't see them clearly until today."

And that wasn't all. I was going to give Eugene a very special gift.

He liked bets so much. I wanted to see whether he could afford to lose this one.

4: 4

At three in the afternoon, a reminder popped up on my phone.

*Your marriage-license appointment is scheduled for today at 4:20 p.m. Both parties please bring valid ID and arrive on time.*

A second later, Eugene sent a screenshot of the appointment.

"I've already given you a way out."

"Get to the county clerk's office before four, and I'll forgive the scene you made today. We register as planned."

Then Eugene sent a voice message.

"But before we register, you have to apologize to my parents."

"And to Maura."

"You and your parents humiliated her in front of everyone today. She cried for a long time."

"As long as you own up to it sincerely, we'll call it settled."

I replied calmly, two words.

"Sure."

The group chat went quiet for a few seconds.

Then Eugene tagged Maura in the group.

"I win."

Maura sent back a reluctant little emoji.

"A bet's a bet."

"When you two go on your honeymoon, I'm coming along."

Eugene immediately sent a flight order with an added passenger.

"Ticket's already booked for you."

So it turned out that even the honeymoon I'd been looking forward to for so long had become a prize on their betting table too.

At 4:15, I showed up at the county clerk's office right on time.

Eugene was standing at the entrance to the registration hall.

When he saw me, the tension finally drained from his face.

"Good thing you came to your senses."

"My parents and Maura are all waiting at the hotel."

"After we register, I'll go back with you to apologize."

As he spoke, he held out his hand.

"Give me your ID."

I didn't move.

The next second, two police officers stepped out from behind me.

"Mr. Weiss?"

"Someone has filed a report accusing you of using another person's account without authorization and transferring six hundred eighty thousand dollars."

The smile froze on Eugene's face.

"Using it without authorization? What are you talking about?"

"That's our wedding account!"

I took out the bank statement and the hotel contract.

"The account is in my name. Every cent in it is mine."

"You stole my payment password while I was asleep, then impersonated me to confirm the payment with the hotel."

"The hotel's security footage, the transfer records, and the chat evidenceI've already handed all of it over to the police."

An officer stepped forward and clamped a hand around his wrist.

Eugene finally panicked.

"Marilyn, aren't you here to register with me?"

I looked at him and smiled softly.

"No."

"I'm here to send you to jail."