The Day I Fled My Wedding, I Uncovered My Family's Scam

We were a threesome: my boyfriend, my best friend, and me.

My boyfriend and I were childhood sweethearts. We met when we were seven, and we stayed together all through elementary, middle, and high school.

I met my best friend in high school, and it was also in high school that my childhood sweetheart and I became a couple.

After our college entrance exams, my boyfriend and best friend didn't do well, so they could only go to a no-name college. They talked me into going to the same school.

"Willow, let's not split up, okay? Our grades are about the same anyway, so let's all go to the same school."

"Right, Willow. You and Samuel are a couple, and I'm your best friend. Wouldn't it be great if the three of us stuck together?"

He always chimed right in with her.

I couldn't hold out against their pestering, so I agreed. But once we got to college, I studied while the two of them went out to have fun.

When they got drunk, they had me come pick them up.

When they ran out of money, they had me pay.

They even had me go plead for them when they failed a class.

Little by little, I became their nanny.

Then came talk of marriage. On the eve of the wedding, I was running back and forth between work and the wedding arrangements, while my boyfriend and best friend spent the whole day out having fun and didn't call me to come get them until the early hours of the morning.

"Samuel, do you realize tomorrow is our wedding day?"

I glared at him, but he just draped his arm over my best friend's shoulder and said it like it was nothing.

"It's just a wedding. What's the rush?"

"Besides, aren't you handling it? I don't need to worry about it."

I was stunned. I never thought he'd care so little about his own wedding.

And he was getting more and more comfortable with his arm around her.

"So I have to worry about everything? The wedding has nothing to do with you? And I have nothing to do with you either?"

I demanded angrily.

Lena, though, put on a pitiful look.

"Willow, it's my fault. I was in a bad mood, so I had Samuel keep me company. You won't be mad, will you?"

"Ha, what do you think?"

I shot back.

Ever since senior year, those two had been acting strange. I'd just assumed they liked to have fun, but I never expected it to go this far.

At the engagement banquet six months ago, I was full of joy. I invited all our relatives and friends, and both families gathered for a lively celebration.

But when it came down to him, the leading man, he told me Lena had asked him to go out!

It was our engagement banquet, he was the leading man, and I had invited Lena tooyet the reply Lena gave me back then was completely different.

"Willow, I'm so sorry. My cold is pretty bad, I can't make it. I'll treat you both to a meal later to celebrate."

At the time I didn't suspect a thing. I even asked, concerned, how she was doing.

But at the engagement banquet, Samuel's answer chilled me to the bone.

One a boyfriend, one a best friend, and even their answers were nothing but empty excuses.

It was true six months ago, and it was true now.

Looking at the two of them in front of me, I saw nothing but a couple of phony, affected people.

"So do you still want to have this wedding or not?"

My tone went cold, and Samuel flared up too.

"Wedding, wedding, all you know is the wedding. Aren't there parents to handle it? Do we need you standing here worrying about nothing?"

His words were snide, and that one lineworrying about nothingmade my face go dark.

Sensing the mood turning sour, Lena, standing off to the side, piped up again in that coquettish voice of hers.

"Willow, don't be angry. Samuel didn't mean it. He cares about your wedding too."

"It's all because of me that you two are fighting."

Lena kept her eyes lowered, wearing a wronged look, and it made my blood boil.

"Shut up! I'm calling it off. Marry whoever you want!"

I threw the words out and turned to leave.

He didn't say a single word to make me stay. Instead, I could faintly hear Lena's hypocritical, put-on words.

I went home. He didn't want a wedding, and I had lost every last bit of patience.

I got home in the early hours of the morning. Samuel's attitude made me lose faith in him, but it also gave me my resolve.

First thing that morning, I told my parents straight out that the wedding was off.

"Off? Willow, what nonsense is this?"

My mom reacted violently, glaring straight at me, one step short of raising her hand.

"Mom, he doesn't even care, and he goes out to have fun with other women. Do you really think a marriage like that could ever work?"

"Out with a woman? You mean Lena? Lena's a harmless girl. And besides, he's a grown man, and he'll be a groom any minute nowthere's nothing wrong with him relaxing a little."

I couldn't win against my mom, so I turned to my dad standing off to the side.

But just as Dad was about to speak, Mom shot him a look, and he shut his mouth on the spot.

At home, my mom is very domineering; she holds all the household power in her own hands, and yet the one she dotes on is Samuel.

Even I, her own daughter, can't compare.

"You'll get married whether you want to or not! Samuel is such a fine boydon't make an unreasonable scene here."

"How am I being unreasonable? Mom, whose mother are you, exactly?"

I tried to push back, but under the shadow of years of my mom ruling and controlling me, it got me nowhere.

Back then, when I gave up a better university, it wasn't only my boyfriend and my best friend talking me into itmy own mother did plenty too.

"I'm tired. We'll talk tomorrow."

I didn't keep arguing. I knew there wasn't much point.

Maybe it was because of her health problemsshe couldn't have a second child, and never giving the Summers family a son became the wound she carried in her heart.

She grew up in the old days, and the idea of favoring sons over daughters was deeply rooted in her; even though she was a woman herself, she was no different.

There was a generational gap between my mom and me, just as there was a gap in values between Samuel and me.

Early the next morning.

Mom was up early getting ready, her face full of joy, while Dad, with a trace of resignation, just went along with all of it.

The wedding was set at the local Grandeur Hotelno small affair, with a banquet hall big enough to hold hundreds of tables.

Both sets of parents came early, and everyone was in high spirits.

Even Samuel, the groom, had dressed himself up sharp at homeexcept that Lena Cobb was right there beside him.

Amid the lively anticipation of the hotel guests, with the wedding about to begin, Samuel, with Lena at his side, came heading over toward my house.

He and I were childhood sweethearts; our two families lived very close, and the hotel where we were holding the wedding was close tooas if everything had been destined.

In the eyes of our relatives and friends, we were an innocent childhood pair, a match made in heaven.

Heh. That was only what outsiders believed.

She was supposed to be my best friend, yet on my wedding day she was over on the groom's side.

Too bad they were all doomed to be disappointed.

Because I ran away from the wedding.

Very bold, very thrillingbut also a decision I made after a whole night of careful thought.

We hadn't registered the marriage yet anyway. The original plan was to do it after the wedding; both families had specially picked an auspicious day.

In the car.

"You're really sure? Drive a little longer and even if you regret it and want to go back, you won't make it in time."

From the driver's seat, Pamela asked me.

She's my childhood friend too. We grew up together, though we never went to the same schoolwhether in high school or in college, she was always the best choice for me.

The two of us have always gotten along well. Of course, when we first started college, we had a fight because I gave up a better future.

Ever since, Pamela had warned me about Samuel and Lena more than once.

Sad to say, back then I couldn't take it in.

"Yeah, let's go. I already sent my rsum over there this morning, and besides, this place isn't right for me."

I said it decisively.

But looking at Pamela, I still felt a little guilty.

Back then I was stubborn, believing that childhood sweethearts meant love, and that I'd found a best friend who always had my interests at heart.

But reality dealt me a heavy blow.

And now, of all people, I had no choice but to turn to Pamela for help. This childhood friend saw things more clearly than I did.

"All right, look at the face you're making. You don't owe me millions, so it's not worth me squabbling with you."

Pamela is very observant. She noticed my awkwardness and spoke up right away to smooth things over.

"Pamela, do you really think I'm that awful? Even my own mother doesn't approve of me."

I felt a little wistful. As the car drove farther and farther, Pamela was taking me to the airport.

I'd chosen a new job, a new lifeor you could say I was running away.

"Your mother just lives in an older world. If you really argue it out with her, it'll probably backfire. Better to just smooth it over."

"Give it time, and she'll see it for herself. Besides, you were the top student back thenhow could you be awful? If it weren't for..."

Pamela stopped there, and I understood what she meant.

Because that was exactly when our constant arguing began.

Pamela dropped me at the airport, and I boarded the plane, just as I'd hoped. I thought I'd finally be rid of that irritating Samuel, rid of that disgusting Lena for good.

But I'd still underestimated how things would unfold.

I'd only just arrived and found a hotel to stay in for a while. Since I still had to prepare for the interview, I also meant to clear my head a bit.

But the very next day, the moment I woke up, there was a frantic knocking at the door.

I hurried into my clothes and went to open it, but the instant the door opened, I froze.

Samuel had come.

Lena was there too, and even my mother was there.

And to my even greater surprise, the police had shown up.

That was truly the last thing I expected.

"You? How did you find me here?"

Before I could gather myself, Samuel spoke first. "Willow, I've been so good to youwhy would you do this?"

"Tell me! Who exactly have you been carrying on with?!"

"Running off from your own wedding, and going to the next city over for a secret rendezvous."

Samuel hurled slander at me without a pause, leaving me completely bewildered.

"You brat, grown your wings now, have you? Daring to run out on your wedding! Do you have any idea how many relatives are watching..."

My mother took over next, the spit flying without stopping for a second.

If the two officers who'd come along hadn't stepped in to cut them off, they'd have gone on cursing me for at least another half hour.

A moment passed.

The officer looked at Samuel and the two others with a stern expression. "This is a family matter. Don't let it disturb the hotel. Keep things peaceful within the family, talk it out properly, and don't carry on the way you were just now."

The officer meant well with his advice, but it did no good.

It was from the police that I learned they had gone straight to calling the police after finding out I'd fled the wedding.

And the charge was absurd, deeply insulting!

They had reported me for prostitution!

And my dear mother had testified to it herself! That was how the police had been able to trace me and get here so fast.

Ha. With data tracking, no one really can get away.

But it also makes it that much easier for people this vile to grow bolder.

By now there was no anger left in my eyes, no other emotion eitheronly disappointment settled into calm.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

I'd had enough of the nagging, the humiliation.

I did my best to steady myself, so I wouldn't sink into being one of those filthy people who can't tell right from wrong.

"Willow, your mother and Samuel didn't mean anything by it, they were just worried about you."

Lena spoke up. Hearing her words, watching her put on that pitiful little act, it was as if she were the one who'd been wronged.

She made me sick.

This was the best friend I'd known all those years.

Lena's hypocrisy and playacting disgusted me, so I dropped all courtesy too.

"Shut your filthy mouth. Don't think I don't know what you're up to."

"You cling to Samuel like thatwhy don't you just marry him yourself?"

"And I'll say it one more time: the wedding is off, and I'm done with him. It's that simple."

"Pull a stunt like this again, and don't blame me for turning on you without mercy."

I made my voice as cold and level as I could, especially when I looked at my own mother.

I simply couldn't understand ithow a biological mother, however old-fashioned her thinking, could do something that dragged her own daughter's good name through the mud like this.

Even more shameless were Samuel and Lena.

A whore and a thief, in it together.

I said it flatly, without room for argument, but it clearly did little good.

"You wretched girl, think you've grown wings now? Who taught you to talk like that?"

"You say the wedding's off, so it's off? You say you're breaking up, so you are? Did I, your mother, ever agree to that?"

"Do you have any idea how good Samuel has been to you?"

My mother went on and on, throwing me a vicious glare every so often.

People say daughters are angels sent to repay their parents, but I felt it was exactly the opposite.

"Good to me? Ask him yourselfhas he really been good to me?"

"Samuel, drop the act too. Let me tell you plainly: I, Willow Summers, will not marry you, because I have completely given up on you."

I said it with total conviction, and there was no longer the faintest trace of lingering feeling for Samuel in my eyes.

"Willow, stop talking nonsense. Haven't I been good enough to you?"

"This is just because Lena and I went out without you, isn't it? Lena wasn't feeling well, so what's wrong with me looking after her?"

Samuel was as disappointing as ever.

Nonsense?

Not bringing me along?

Having to look after a girlfriend because she's upsetwhere on earth is the sense in that?

"Heh. She wasn't feeling welldown there, maybe? And that's exactly where you were looking after her, was it?"

I watched him with a cold smile, no longer holding out any hope for this man.

Sure enough, the moment I said it, both Samuel and Lena wore an uneasy look.

But before I could go on and lay their scheme bare, my mother jumped back in.

"Enough! How did I ever give birth to a thing like you? What a disgrace!"

My own mother's tirade struck me as utterly absurd.

"A disgrace? You team up with outsiders to smear your own daughter as a prostitute, and that's not a disgrace?"

"I only learned it from you, didn't I?"

I shot straight back at her.

Years of my mother's overbearing ways had long left me unable to breathe, and now I'd had enough. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life living in that shadow.

Soon my mother and I were shouting at each other, and the older one really was craftierit wasn't long before she started playing the shameless victim.

As the scene grew louder, plenty of people from the hotel were drawn over.

A mother bringing people along to report her own daughter for prostitutionif word of this got out, it would be an enormous joke.

And for me, it was no less so.

My words made my mother fall silent for a rare momentbut only a moment.

Because the next instant she raised her hand and swung it at me.

The sudden move startled me, and I had no time to dodge.

But at the critical moment, Samuel of all people stepped in front of me and took the slap.

Smack.

The blow landed, and both women moved at once.

My mother asked, all apology, "Oh no, Samuel, are you hurt? Does it sting?"

"Why would you block it for her? She's asking for a beatingotherwise she'll never fall in line."

She fawned over him with one breath and threatened me with the next.

Yes, I took it as a threatat least in that moment, that's what it was.

Lena rushed forward, her face full of concern for him. That look was nothing like an ordinary relationship.

"Mom, I'm fine."

The way Samuel let that word slip made my scalp crawl. This guy really did have a thick skin.

Then again, given the things he'd done, it was only fitting that his skin was that thick.

"What a good, sensible boy. I'll take this wretched girl home and set her straight, and then the two of you can go register the marriage."

"The wedding and all that can come later."

In just a few words, my mother had once again decided my future for me.

Before, I'd have resisted and then been forced to give inbut not anymore.

"I already told you, I will not marry him."

"So you'd all better give up that idea."

I gave a cold snort and turned to head back to my room, but my mother blocked my way.

Just as another argument was about to break out, a familiar voice came from the corridor.

"Well, wellCeleste is here too."

"You really did make quite a production of it."

The newcomer was none other than Pamela.

She wasn't only seeing me off to the airport; she'd also had business here, which was why I'd chosen to stay the night at the hotel.

We'd already made plans to go out together todayI never expected all this to happen instead.

Pamela's arrival made my overbearing mother go quiet at once, as if she were both irritated and a little afraid of Pamela.

I'd noticed it ever since I was very small.

I never understood why someone as forceful as her would be afraid of Pamela.

"Celeste, Willow has already said she won't marry him, and they never even registered the marriage. Breaking up after dating is perfectly normal, isn't it? Keep pressuring her like this and you're breaking the law."

Pamela started lecturing them, and the scene took me quite by surprise.

And oddly enough, no one contradicted hernot my mother, not Samuel, not Lena.

Instead, all three turned and left, resentment written all over their faces.

Once they were gone, I let out a breath.

But in truth, I was even more worried.

After the way they'd acted today, I had no doubt they might pull something far worse one day.

"Pamela, thank goodness you came."

"Otherwise I really wouldn't have known what to do."

I could snap back, I could argue, but if it ever came to blows, between my mother's overbearing temper and those two fakes, I was no match at all.

Pamela stepped forward and gripped my hand tightly, and I quickly shut the door and locked it.

"They really did go too far, but this is your own family's business, after all. If your mother weren't mixed up in it, I could actually help you."

Family matters are the hardest to sort out, and outsiders least of all should meddle.

"Saddled with a mother like this, there's nothing I can doit's not as if I can do anything to her."

I sighed helplessly.

Compared with knowing about Samuel and Lena's sordid dealings, it was facing my own mother that left me most powerless.

I had absolutely no idea what to do.