She Gambled Away Our Six Years

1: 1

The wedding had reached the ring exchange when my best friend, Saul Stephens, suddenly walked up onto the platform in the groom's tuxedo, smiling.

And my fiance, Rowena Chase, in front of every guest in the room, slid the ring that should have been mine onto his ring finger.

I demanded an answer right there.

The two of them exchanged a look and, somehow, burst out laughing at the same time.

Saul laughed until he could barely stand up straight.

"Charles Harding, last night Rowena and I made a bet."

"She said you'd definitely notice before the ceremony that the photo on the welcome board had been swapped for one of me and Rowena."

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

He lifted his hand and waggled the man's ring on his finger.

"Now Rowena's lost the bet."

"So according to the deal, this wedding goes to me."

Rowena stood beside him, her tone easy.

"It's just Saul playing groom for a day."

"The tux, 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 loved betting with me on the table.

At our engagement, she lost a bet, so she put the man's ring from our engagement set on Saul's hand first.

At our wedding shoot, she lost a bet, so she took the snowscape series I loved most with Saul instead.

Even the study in our new home got remodeled to Saul's taste, all because of some wager.

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

But it wasn't until today that I understood.

In their eyes, my wedding, my love, my whole life were nothing but chips they could toss onto the table whenever they felt like it.

I looked at Rowena, and something in me finally let go. My voice came out perfectly calm.

"You gave him the wedding. Go ahead and give yourself to him too."

I turned to leave the moment I finished.

But Rowena grabbed my wrist.

"Charles, that's enough."

"With all these relatives and friends here, you're really going to make a scene and leave everyone with nowhere to hide?"

I shook her hand off.

"I'm the one making a scene?"

"This was supposed to be my wedding!"

Rowena frowned, her voice thick with impatience.

"I already told you. It's just Saul getting to experience it for one day."

"After the wedding, nothing between us changes."

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

She paused, as if something had just come back to her, and let out a scornful little laugh.

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

"And didn't you end up buying Saul a birthday cake yourself?"

Saul laughed too.

"Charles, every time you can't take losing, you say you're done with us."

"Three days, tops, and you always come crawling back."

He gave the ring on his hand a little shake, smiling in a way that carried more than the words.

"This time I'll bet two days."

"Rowena, you dare to bet with me?"

Rowena looked up at him.

"Bet what?"

"On how long it takes Charles to come back to us."

"If he begs you to make up within two days, you give me the gaming chair from the new place."

Rowena barely hesitated.

"Fine."

"He'll last one day, tops."

Right in front of me, the two of them started betting on me again.

As if the breakup I'd just said was only a new game to keep them entertained.

I looked at Rowena.

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

Her tone was level.

"We've been together six years."

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

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

"Charles, could you really walk away from me?"

She knew the old me too well.

That was why she dared to keep betting on my limits, over and over.

Because win or lose, I was always the one left cleaning up the mess.

When Saul ruined my engagement suit, I was the one who reordered it.

When he tore up the photo of Rowena and me, I was the one who said it was fine.

Even when he redid our new home in his own style.

In the end I was the one who apologized to Rowena, saying I shouldn't have fought with them over the renovation.

It wasn't that they didn't know they were hurting me.

They just knew I wouldn't leave.

Down below, someone laughed and tried to talk me around.

"Charles, don't get worked up over them."

"Rowena and Saul have similar temperaments. They've always messed around like this."

"And Saul's a lifelong bachelor. He's never going to actually get married."

"Letting him experience a wedding once is basically making up for that regret."

"Calling off your engagement over something this small, that's just petty."

One line after another.

Everyone was telling me to be gracious.

Not a single one of them ever asked whether I was willing to hand over my own wedding.

Mrs. Chase came up onto the platform from the head table too.

She patted Saul on the shoulder, her eyes full of approval.

"You know what, that ring actually suits Saul's hand better than it ever suited Charles's."

Saul spoke up, smiling.

"Mrs. Chase, don't say that."

"Charles will be upset if he hears it."

Mrs. Chase shot me a glance.

"If he can't even stand a comment like that, how is he going to make a proper son-in-law for this family?"

Then she patted Saul's shoulder again.

"Honestly, I've always liked you better."

"You're lively, you know how to make people feel good."

"Not like some people, who have to argue right and wrong over everything, who turn even the smallest thing into something that leaves everyone unhappy."

Gerald Chase came over too, wine glass in hand.

"Since Rowena lost the bet, she should honor it. A loss is a loss."

"You promise something, you follow through."

"We'll throw Charles another wedding next month. It's no big deal."

I looked at him.

"In your eyes, a wedding is something you can just redo whenever?"

Gerald's face soured.

"It's only a ceremony."

"As long as Rowena's willing to marry you in the end, what more could you want?"

"And I'll be honest with you."

"If Saul weren't a lifelong bachelor, we really would have preferred Rowena marry him."

2: 2

The whole hall had gone silent.

Rowena finally noticed something was wrong with my face.

She cut her father off with a frown.

"Dad, why bring all this up today?"

Then she turned to me.

"My parents just like how easygoing Saul is."

"Don't take everything to heart."

I found myself smiling.

As long as it hurt me, it could all be filed away as a joke.

Saul edged another step closer to her.

"Enough. Don't fight over me."

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

He glanced at the groom's tuxedo I was wearing and smiled.

"You can always hold your own wedding again next month anyway."

I didn't argue anymore.

I only took out my phone and called the hotel manager.

"There's been a last-minute change of groom for today's wedding."

"I refuse to pay the remaining balance."

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

The manager asked hesitantly,

"Mr. Harding, you don't know?"

"A month ago, Ms. Chase brought Mr. Stephens in and changed the contract."

"The groom on the contract was switched to Mr. Stephens a long time ago."

My hand tightened hard around the phone.

"A month ago?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Stephens even re-confirmed the reception menu and the stage setup."

"Ms. Chase said all the changes had your approval."

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

So this so-called bet, supposedly settled just last night.

They had been getting ready for it 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."

"Ms. Chase paid six hundred and eighty thousand out of 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.

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

"The money's already paid. Canceling now won't get any of it back."

I stared at her, hard.

"What gives you the right to touch my money without my say-so?"

Rowena answered as if it were obvious.

"That money was always meant for the wedding."

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

Saul, standing beside her, lifted the hand with the men's ring on it again.

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

"Since you gave it away, the cost naturally comes with it."

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

They hadn't just made my wedding the stake in a bet.

They'd drained my savings too.

And made Saul the groom, in style, at the wedding.

3: 3

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

"Charles, what's going on?"

My parents were seated at the very edge of the ballroom, closest to the door.

At this wedding, they were the only two relatives on the groom's side.

The relatives back home had wanted to come, but Diana thought they didn't know how to behave and would embarrass the Chase family.

Rowena had said the same thing: "We can just throw a thank-you dinner out in your hometown later. Don't bring too many people."

So my parents had ridden coach for over ten hours, coming all this way alone to attend their son's wedding.

My mother's dress didn't fit right; she had taken in the waist herself, stitch by stitch.

The father-of-the-groom flower pinned to my father's chest had already been crushed out of shape, but he still couldn't bring himself to take it off.

Not until he saw Saul wearing the groom's tuxedo that had been tailored for me, with my ring on his finger.

My father walked up to Rowena.

"Have him take that ring off and apologize to my son."

Rowena's face went faintly cold.

"It's just a bet, sir."

"Saul is only finishing the ceremony in Charles's place. After it's over, Charles and I will still sign the papers."

My father stood frozen for a few seconds.

"You hold the wedding with him, and send my son off to sign the license?"

"Then what is my son to you?"

Rowena frowned.

"We've always played games like this. Charles never used to make a fuss about it."

My mother was shaking with anger.

"He doesn't make a fuss, so that means you get to keep walking all over him?"

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

Diana's expression darkened at once.

"Keep your voice down, ma'am."

"This isn't some country market where you people go shouting."

"Everyone here today is a Chase family client. You screaming like this, are you trying to make us the joke of the room?"

Lowered voices murmured all around.

"Country folk. No manners at all."

My mother's face flushed red in an instant.

She had come to demand justice for her son, yet now she was tightening her fingers, flustered, her voice dropping.

"I'm not making a scene."

"I just ache for my son."

Something pressed down hard on my chest.

She had done nothing wrong, and still she was instinctively explaining herself to the people humiliating her.

Rowena cut in, impatient.

"The wedding today goes to Saul first."

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

"All your relatives out there can come to that. That's already more than enough face for Charles."

My father slowly lifted his head.

"You give him this million-dollar wedding."

"And then throw a few tables of cheap liquor out in the country and call it settled for my son?"

Rowena's face turned ugly.

"I already agreed to hold the second one. What more do you want?"

Only then did Saul, in the groom's tuxedo, come over and plant himself cozily in front of my mother.

"Ma'am, does it really matter where the wedding's held?"

"It wasn't easy for you and your husband to travel all this way."

He pointed toward the wedding favors in the corner.

"Grab a few extra boxes of the candy on your way out, hand them around to the neighbors. Then at least the trip won't be wasted."

My mother snatched her hand back as if she'd been burned.

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

"Yes, my family is poor."

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

The smile faded from Saul's face.

"Sir, I meant well."

Without a second thought, Rowena stepped between my father and Saul, blocking his line of sight.

"Enough."

"Saul has thought of everything for you people. Don't be ungrateful."

My father looked at her steadily.

"Back then you swore to us, right to our faces, that you would treat Charles well for the rest of his life."

Rowena looked away from him.

My father didn't ask again.

He didn't try to comfort me either. He only clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder, and all at once his voice sounded far older.

"Charles, I misjudged him."

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

My throat worked, and I nodded hard.

A whole hall of guests, all of them pressuring me to swallow it.

Only my parents, humiliated until they couldn't lift their heads, were still standing in front of me.

I took off the groom's flower on my chest and put an arm around each of them.

"Okay."

"Let's go home."

Behind me, Rowena suddenly let out a cold laugh.

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

Saul perked up at once.

"I bet Charles won't last three days before he comes crawling back with his mom and dad to apologize."

Rowena watched my retreating back, her tone certain.

"It won't take three days."

"By this afternoon he'll cave and beg me to go sign the papers with him."

Saul asked with a grin, "So what are the stakes?"

"If he hasn't apologized to me by the end of today, the wedding house on the South Side is yours."

"Deal."

The two of them laughed behind me.

Even now, they were still treating whether I stayed or left as one laughable little bet.

I didn't look back.

As we walked out of the hotel, my father asked, careful and quiet:

"Charles, you're really not going to regret this?"

I glanced at the welcome board, where Rowena's and Saul's names stood side by side.

Then I gripped my parents' hands tight.

"The only thing I regret is that it took me until today to see them clearly."

4: 4

At three in the afternoon, my phone buzzed with a reminder.

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

A second later, Rowena forwarded 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 sign the papers as planned."

Then came a voice message.

"But before we sign, you're going to apologize to my parents."

"And to Saul."

"You and your parents humiliated him in front of everyone today. That apology is happening."

"Say you're sorry and mean it, and we'll call the whole thing even."

I typed back two calm words.

"Sure."

The group chat went quiet for a few seconds.

Then Rowena tagged Saul.

"I won."

Saul sent a grudging little sticker.

"A bet's a bet."

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

Rowena immediately posted a flight order with an added passenger.

"Already bought your ticket."

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

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

Rowena was standing at the entrance to the registration hall.

When she saw me, the tension in her face finally eased.

"Good thing you came to your senses."

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

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

As she spoke, she held out her hand.

"Give me your ID."

I didn't move.

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

"Ms. Rowena Chase?"

"We've received a report accusing you of stealing access to someone's account and transferring six hundred and eighty thousand dollars without permission."

The smile froze on her face.

"Stealing what?"

"That was our wedding account!"

I pulled out the bank statements and the hotel contract.

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

"You took the payment password while I was asleep, then posed as me to confirm the payment with the hotel."

"The hotel's security footage, the transfer records, and the chat logs are all with the police now."

A female officer stepped forward and locked a hand around her wrist.

Rowena finally panicked.

"Charles, aren't you here to sign the papers with me?"

I looked at her and smiled, just a little.

"No."

"I'm here to send you to the station."