My Fiancé Let His Sweetheart Grab My Wedding Flowers; I Wed Another

Where we come from, the flowers on every bride's wedding car are one of a kind.

You only get one such bouquet in your whole lifeit stands for being the only one for the rest of your days.

And if not a single flower is missing by the time the car reaches the groom's house, it means an even happier marriage.

But on the wedding day, my fianc's childhood sweetheart suddenly leaned across the wedding car and plucked the roses off the lead car.

I moved to stop her at once, but my fianc blocked me. "Have you forgotten? When you were little, you were always snatching Tracey's thingsflowers included."

"Now she just wants you to give a few back to her, and share a little of the good luck. Don't be so petty."

Tracey Pruitt held the flowers, stuck her tongue out at me, and said, "Actually, Derek and I made a betwhether you'd get mad over something this small."

"See? It's really nothing."

I was shaking with rage. "But that's the wedding car! The car hasn't even left yethow could you pick the flowers?!"

Derek instantly shoved her behind him, looking annoyed. "So what if it's the wedding car? Does it stop being a wedding car just because there are no flowers?"

"It's just a few flowers. Is it really worth yelling at Tracey like that?!"

With that, he plucked off the rest of the roses himself and handed them to her. "If you like them, put them on your car hood. She owes you this anyway."

Suddenly the whole thing struck me as absurd. I looked down and called another man. "Can you have a wedding car ready in thirty minutes?"

"Let's get married."

......

Tracey stopped in front of her own car and fixed the bouquet of roses to the hood. "Derek, don't you think this looks pretty?"

The groomsmen, never ones to let a scene die down, egged it on. Someone whistled. "Another wedding car! Derek's marrying two brides!"

Laughter broke out at once. "Marry two! Marry two!"

I hung up the phone and looked at Derek, but he wasn't angry in the slightest, nor did he deny it.

Derek grinned and teased Tracey. "Someone like you? A bride?"

"Back in the old days you'd be a dowry maid at best!"

The groomsmen kept up the ruckus. "Same differencethe dowry maids all got taken too, big or small!"

Tracey walked back and pounded Derek on the chest a few times. "Pah! Am I a dowry maid?"

Then she cut me a sidelong glance. "The lead-car bouquet is on my hood nowwho knows who the real dowry girl is!"

Derek half-lifted a hand to push her off, but he was smiling. "Fine, fine, you're not, you're nothappy now?"

Tracey couldn't keep the smile down anymore. "Jemima, we're only joking. Derek says you're big-heartedyou'd never take it to heart!"

Derek turned his head to me. "Jemima, you know how Tracey is. I'll straighten her out later!"

The groomsmen snickered again; they were long used to this kind of horseplay.

I couldn't help remembering how the three of us had been the closest playmates as children, until Tracey moved abroad with her family.

Later, when she heard Derek and I were engaged, she came back.

The moment she returned, she was dropping by our place at every excuse.

Sometimes she'd even find all sorts of reasons to stay the night, saying she was just there to mooch food, drink, and a bed.

Right up to the wedding, Derek shot down every other bridesmaid I proposed, insisting it had to be Tracey.

Derek and I had argued and fought over it too. Every time, he'd say I was just born too sensitive, couldn't take a joke, always ruining the mood.

I'd told myself we were already this close to getting marriedlet it go.

But now, I wasn't going to keep fooling myself.

My thoughts came back to the present, and just as I was about to speak, I heard footsteps behind me. It was my mother.

She hurried up and asked anxiously, "What's going on? How did the flowers from the wedding car end up on Tracey's hood?"

Her voice grew more and more urgent. "Don't you know the custom around here? The flowers on the lead car are tied to a marriage's luck."

"On the way to the groom's house, even one missing flower is a bad omen!"

"Today's the big daywho told her she could pick these flowers?!"

The scene went quiet for a moment, everyone watching as Tracey shrank behind Derek.

Derek shrugged and said with a smile, "Ma'am, Jemima used to snatch Tracey's flowers when they were little. Tracey's just taking hers back. It's no big deal."

My mother froze, then her face flushed bright red. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Do you know why Jemima grabbed that bouquet back then?!"

"That year Tracey was ten. A strange man came up and tried to coax her with plastic flowers, and she was about to climb into his car!"

"If Jemima hadn't run over and snatched the flowers away, if she hadn't dragged her off by force, Tracey would have been kidnappeddo you understand that?!"

Tracey's brow furrowed, and her eyes had already gone red. "Ma'am, just because your family has a mean streak, don't go assuming everyone else does too!"

The next second, tears rolled down her face. "He was my friend. He simply thought I was cute and wanted to give me flowers, and Jemima insisted he was a bad person."

Someone nearby murmured, "Right, how many kidnappers can there really be?"

"Jemima Fox probably just didn't get any flowers, got jealous, and framed him."

My mother was so angry her hands were trembling. She strode forward and reached out to snatch the bouquet off the hood. "Stop this! Give it back right now!"

Seeing that, Tracey hurried over as well.

But after deliberately bumping into my mother, she let herself topple backward first.

"Tracey!" Derek lunged forward, catching her with one hand while his other arm shoved my mother hard.

My mother stumbled into the flower stand, then fell to the ground, her wrist hitting the ground with a dull thud.

The whole place went silent for a second.

"Mom!" I rushed over and helped her up. Her wrist was already swelling, and she was in too much pain to speak.

Derek didn't even lift his head, bending down to check whether Tracey was hurt.

Once he saw Tracey was perfectly fine, he turned to my mother. "Don't think that just because you're my mother-in-law today, you can do whatever you please!"

"Tracey is a guest I invited. Laying hands on a guestis this how badly your family was raised?"

My heart went cold. I took a deep breath. "Right! My mother isn't lucky enough to be your mother-in-law."

"The lead-car bouquet is gone, so this wedding is off too!"

The whole room went silent for a moment, then broke into an uproar.

Derek was startled for a second, then his brow furrowed hard. "Your mother did do something wrong, and now she can't even be called out for it, is that it?"

Tracey stood up and, crying, took the flowers off the front of the car.

After all that handling, the bouquet had already started to wilt.

She shoved the flowers hard into my arms. "I didn't think you'd be so petty. Fine, I'm giving the flowers back to you now, I don't want them. That works, doesn't it?"

Before I could react, the dense thorns on the stems had already dug into my palm, a sharp, piercing pain. "Ah!"

I looked down and saw blood seeping from my palm.

Derek's gaze fell on my hand, and for an instant his expression softened with concern. "How could you be so careless..."

The next second, Tracey tore off her bridesmaid dress, weeping with tears streaming down her face. "This morning you saw me come out in my bridesmaid dress and your face just fell."

"You've been making a scene this whole time, and what it really comes down to is you don't want me as your bridesmaid, you don't want me beside you when you get married!"

"Fine, I won't be your bridesmaid, and I won't wear the dress either. Just stop saying spiteful things about calling off the wedding!"

Someone among the groomsmen chimed in at once.

"Tracey was only trying to lighten the mood. Why is the bride such a sore loser!"

"The bride's just jealous that Tracey's prettier than her, afraid of getting upstaged, so she keeps finding ways to give her a hard time."

"No wonder the bride always fought Tracey over everything when they were little. Turns out she's been jealous since childhood."

Tracey's bridesmaid dress was already torn, a rip in the fabric at the shoulder, and her makeup was washed away by her tears.

She looked up at me, her voice choked, and asked, "Are you satisfied now? Stop making things hard for Derek!"

Derek instantly took back the concern he'd shown me. He pulled off his jacket and draped it straight over Tracey's shoulders. "It's all right. I'm here."

Then he turned his head, his voice low. "That's enough out of you. Go apologize to Tracey right now."

I ignored him. My palm was still hurting, and blood was already dripping from my fingers onto the floor.

My phone buzzed.

I unlocked the screen with one hand. It was a picture from Hubert.

A luxury wedding car, its hood blanketed with large red roses that hid half the engine cover.

Tracey leaned in and caught a glimpse of my screen. "So it wasn't that you were mad about me taking the flowers. You thought the bouquet Derek had ready wasn't good enough, so you found outside help to bring flowers over?"

"Jemmy, have you been reading too many novels?"

"That's enough already. It's just a wedding. Does it really call for such a big production?"

Derek's expression changed in an instant, and he snatched my phone away. "What outside help? Bringing flowers over?"

But before he grabbed it, I'd already locked the phone.

I shook my head. "None of this has anything to do with any of you."

Derek tried to unlock it twice and failed both times. "Tracey already gave you the flowers back. Hurry up and cancel those lousy flowers."

As he spoke, he tossed the phone back to me, then paused. "Jemima Fox, I'm asking you one last time. Are you going to apologize to Tracey or not?"

I looked up. "No."

His brow furrowed. "Fine, then take off your wedding dress right now and give it to Tracey to wear!"

"Tracey's bridesmaid dress got torn because of you. You owe her this!"

My mom froze for a moment. "The bouquet's already been stripped off the wedding car, and now you want her to give up the wedding dress too!"

"Do you... do you really not intend to go through with this marriage?"

Her voice trembled a little, and her eyes were already red as she spoke. "Treating Jemima like this todaywhat exactly do you mean by it?"

Derek gave a cold snort and said to my mother, "That's your daughter bringing it on herself. She can't blame anyone else."

"Has your family ever stopped to think about who fronted that million dollars in surgery bills back when Jemima's father was in that car accident?"

"So before you try to pull rank on me as an elder, take a good look at whether you've even earned the right."

My mother's face went pale, and she said nothing for a long time.

My thoughts flew straight back to the time of my father's accident.

I was only a freshman. When I got the call, I nearly dropped my phone. A serious car crash.

I ran from school to the hospital, where the doctor said the surgery was very serious and that a million dollars in surgery bills had to be paid upfront.

I scrolled through every contact in my phone, not knowing who I could possibly call to cover those surgery bills.

Then Derek showed up, coming straight over with the money in hand. "Your dad is my dad. I'm not going to stand by and let him die!"

"I took the money from the family safe. If it's not enough, I'll get more."

I hugged him tightly right then and cried, so moved by it.

Later, even though my father had the surgery, he still passed away from complications.

Derek never once asked for that million back.

But afterward, Tracey would always drop little hints: "Abroad, even blood brothers and old married couples keep clear accounts. Whenever I go out with friends, we always split the bill."

"Squaring things up clearly is the only way to avoid hard feelings. No matter how close the relationship, money is a fuzzy thing, and it causes trouble the easiest!"

Derek heard it enough times that he'd nod every time. "Tracey has a point. Jemima, you should take a lesson from her."

I'd already planned to pay it back slowly anyway.

But once I caught the meaning behind her words, I gritted my teeth and picked up an extra job.

In the end, years ahead of schedule, I transferred the full million back to Derek, not a penny short.

When the payment came through, Derek didn't forget to message Tracey: You really are something. A few words from you and Jemima paid it all back.

If it weren't for you, that bad debt probably would've been gone for good.

I thought that was the end of it.

I never imagined he would drag it out again today to humiliate my mother!

Before I could even pull myself out of my thoughts, Derek suddenly yanked me aside. "Are you deaf today?! I told you to take that dress off!"

"Tracey's completely exposed nowcan't you see that?!"

I found it a little funny.

Not long ago, because of one thing Tracey said, he'd insisted on waiting until after the wedding to go register the marriage certificate.

And now, because of another line from Tracey, he wanted me to take off my wedding dress.

Not that it mattered. Hubert's wedding dress would be here soon.

At the thought of it, I let out a cold laugh, lowered my head, and started taking off the dress. "Fine. I don't want this dress anymore either."

My mom panicked, ignoring the injury to her hand, and reached out to hold me back. "Jemima, what are you doing? Today is your wedding day!"

She choked up for a moment, then turned to Derek. "Derek, let me apologize on my behalf. I was in the wrong just now."

"For the sake of all these years, please don't make things so hard for Jemima. Just let the two of you finish the wedding today, all right?"

Derek didn't even glance at my mother. He just stared at me coldly. "Take it off!"

The groomsmen around him started whispering among themselves again.

"You've got to hand it to Derek! He's put his future mother-in-law in her place before he's even brought his bride home, so she won't have to take any grief from them once she's in the family!"

"Right, we need to give them a taste of it today, or they won't know who's in charge, and they'll be giving Tracey trouble down the road!"

"Serves her right! If the bride hadn't insisted on courting disaster, her mother wouldn't have had to swallow her pride and go begging!"

My mom was about to say something, but I tugged at her. "Mom, don't beg him. I'm not marrying him."

My mother said anxiously, in a low voice, "By custom, if the lead car has no bouquet, you'll have a hard time once you reach the groom's family. I don't want you to suffer that."

"There's still a little time before the auspicious hour. I'll go buy flowers now and tie a new bouquet for the lead car. I'll definitely make it back in time."

But the next second, Derek raised his hand to block my mother's path. "Since Tracey has returned the bouquet, this is the only one we'll use."

"I won't accept any other flowers."

Just then, Tracey suddenly sneezed. "It's so cold."

Derek's brow twitched, and he immediately turned to look at me. "Do you need me to help you take it off?"

He shot the groomsmen a look.

A few of them caught his meaning and came over to pin me down.

I struggled again and again but couldn't break free. "Let go!"

Derek was brutal about it, and in a few rough motions he tore the wedding dress off me and handed it to Tracey. "Go put it on."

I was left exposed right there, until my mom rushed over and draped her coat over me. "You people are utterly shameless!"

"Jemima's right! You're not worth marrying!"

Tracey wasn't the least bit embarrassed. She pulled open the car door and went inside to change, and a moment later she lifted the curtain and came out. "It fits perfectly!"

The men holding me let go, and one muttered under his breath, "Heh, Derek had it made to your measurements, so of course it fits perfectly."

What?

So that was it. No wonder it always felt a size too small when I wore it.

Derek threw the bridesmaid dress at my feet. "Put it on. The auspicious hour is almost here. The moment it comes, I'm driving off. Whether you follow or not is up to you."

Tracey looked at me smugly and slowly mouthed the word: Trash.

My mother's eyes reddened. She turned and pulled me up. "We're not changing."

Derek gave a cold snort. "Quit acting so prim."

"You'll be chasing after my wedding car soon enough."

We ignored him and turned back into the room.

Seeing how heartbroken my mom looked, I gave her the gist of what was going on with Hubert.

She froze for a moment, then wept with joy. "It's him..."

"That's wonderful! He's chased after you for so many yearsI've seen it all..."

"Back then, he actually came to you with money too. He was just a step too late..."

I was stunned. So that was how it had been.

Soon the auspicious hour arrived, and firecrackers went off in a deafening tangle.

When Derek didn't see me come out, he bellowed into the room, blazing with fury. "Jemima Fox, are you really set on making a scene today?"

"Fine! I'll give you what you want!"

He turned to everyone and said, "I hereby announce that my engagement to Jemima Fox is off!"

"When she finally figures out what she did wrong, we'll hold this wedding again!"

Just then, the roar of engines came from far off, and a line of Rolls-Royces rolled slowly up, stretching farther than the eye could see.

The hood of the lead car was piled with a huge bouquet of red roses, grandly arranged, more than twice the size of the one Tracey had taken.

Derek immediately frowned. "Who are they?!"

Only once the motorcade came to a full stop did Hubert step out of the car.

The moment Derek saw him, he panicked completely. "What are you doing here?!"

The next second, my mom led me out.

Hubert shoved Derek aside, took my hand, and smiled. "I've come for my bride. Is there a problem?"