Chapter 4 - The Abandonment and the Text
""Alden! Alden, where are you going?!"" Sutton shrieked, her voice cracking with sudden, genuine panic as she realized her meticulously planned fairytale was disintegrating in real-time. ""The rehearsal isn't over! Get back here right now!""
Alden didn't even look back. The heavy glass doors swung shut behind him with a dull, heavy thud.
The guests began whispering frantically among themselves, several older couples standing up from their seats, grabbing their designer coats, and heading straight for the exit without a word of goodbye. The illusion of perfection had shattered beyond all repair, and the rats were officially deserting the sinking ship.
""Look what you did!"" Sutton screamed, pointing a trembling, manicured finger directly at my face as I lay shivering on the cold marble. ""You deliberately sabotaged my entire wedding weekend! You couldn't stand the thought of me being the center of attention for a single weekend, so you threw yourself down the stairs to steal the spotlight!""
""Sutton, shut your mouth,"" Mark, the groomsman, snapped, stepping between my sister and me like a protective wall. He glared down at Althia and Stellin with unconcealed disgust. ""Your daughter is seriously injured. Her leg is clearly broken. Are you people completely psychotic? Call an ambulance right now!""
""We are not calling an ambulance to make a scene at a five-star resort,"" my father barked, waving his hand dismissively. ""She can take a local taxi to the county clinic. Althia, help me drag her outside before she ruins the rest of the evening reception setup.""
They didn't call paramedics. Instead, my own parents—with the reluctant assistance of a terrified bellhop—half-carried, half-dragged my limp, agonizingly broken body out through the service entrance, dumping me unceremoniously into the back seat of a local cab idling by the dumpsters.
""Pay the driver when you get to the ER,"" my father said coldly, slamming the cab door shut without a single parting glance. ""Don't bother coming back to the resort tonight. You've done enough damage.""
As the taxi pulled away into the rainy California night, I lay sprawled across the sticky vinyl back seat, biting my lower lip so hard it drew blood to keep from screaming out loud. My right leg felt like it was on fire, every bump in the road sending agonizing shockwaves up through my hip.
Then, my cell phone buzzed loudly against my palm.
I pulled it out with a shaking hand, expecting another abusive text message from my mother or a furious voice note from Sutton.
Instead, it was an unknown number.
The message contained just two sentences:
""I saw everything she did from the balcony. I recorded the entire incident in 4K resolution, including her shoving you and laughing afterward. If you need a witness and the unedited footage to destroy her in court, call me.""
Before I could process the surreal text, my phone buzzed a second time.
This time, it was an official notification alert from my business banking app.
I unlocked the screen with trembling fingers and tapped on the recent transactions list. My breath caught sharply in my throat. There was a massive, unauthorized pending charge that I had never approved.
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The merchant listed was the Azure Horizon Resort.
And the amount charged to my corporate credit card was $85,000—precisely the exact sum of the initial development deposit for my upcoming independent aerospace engineering inspection contract. Sutton and my parents had somehow accessed my corporate financial portal during the family dinner preparations to fund their exorbitant luxury resort upgrades.
