Chapter 3 - The Engineered Fall on the Marble Steps
The wedding planner, a frantic man with a wireless headset clamped to his ear, clapped his hands to gather the bridal party around the head of the resort's magnificent dual marble staircase. A string quartet played softly beneath the enormous crystal chandeliers. Fifty elegantly dressed guests, including high-profile business associates and wealthy socialites, murmured in anticipation.
I gripped my wooden crutch, my heart hammering against my ribs. My right leg was essentially a dead weight, locked in place by the metal hinges. Every single marble step looked like a sheer cliff. A kind groomsman offered his arm, and I gratefully accepted, keeping my steps agonizingly slow and deliberate.
Halfway down the staircase, I noticed our younger cousin, Briany, standing near a massive floral arrangement at the base of the stairs. Her smartphone was raised, its camera lens pointed directly at me. But she wasn't recording a sweet family moment; her eyes were locked entirely on Sutton, and she gave an almost imperceptible nod.
A cold shriek of intuition went down my spine.
Suddenly, Sutton bolted past the bridesmaids, letting out a loud, theatrical gasp. “Oh, wait! The petal basket! I forgot the flower girl's basket!”
She lunged forward, her high stiletto heel deliberately driving straight into my good ankle while her shoulder slammed with brutal, calculated force into my upper back.
The world tilted sideways.
My crutch flew out of my hand, clattering loudly against the marble steps. For one terrifying split second, there was absolute weightlessness beneath me. Then gravity took over with a vengeance.
Crunch.
The sound echoed through the silent ballroom like a gunshot. My injured knee slammed directly against the sharp edge of a marble riser, the force tearing through the locked metal brace. The internal metal pins shifted violently inside my bone. I tumbled the remaining six steps, landing in a crumpled heap on the lower landing.
The string quartet ground to a horrified halt. Several guests screamed. A champagne glass shattered on the floor, spraying crystal shards everywhere.
I lay gasping for air, white-hot agony radiating from my tibia up into my hip. I couldn't move my leg an inch. It sat at an unnatural, horrifying angle.
“Somebody please call an ambulance!” a female guest cried out in panic.
Instead of rushing to my aid, Sutton threw her head back and let out a bright, piercing peal of laughter.
“Oh, lighten up, everyone!” Sutton called out, waving her hand dismissively as she posed gracefully on the stairs. “It was just a clumsy accident for content! Fallon, why are you lying there crying for attention? Get up!”
The ballroom fell into a stunned, deathly silence. Even the guests who usually excused our family’s toxic behavior looked at Sutton in utter revulsion.
Before I could even scream through the agony, my mother, Althia, rushed forward. I clutched at a faint straw of hope, thinking she was finally going to help me. Instead, she grabbed my uninjured arm with manicured fingernails, digging them deep into my flesh.
“Get up off this floor right now, Fallon,” Althia hissed under her breath, her face contorted with rage. “Alden’s parents are watching from the front row. You are creating a disgusting scene!”
“Mom... my leg... my knee is broken again,” I wept, tears blurring my vision. “I heard the bone snap.”
“Stop being so dramatic!” my father, Stellin, barked, pushing through the crowd. He didn't look at my deformed leg; instead, he shoved a white cloth napkin toward my face. “Wipe your face. Your sister’s wedding rehearsal is ruined because you couldn't even walk down a flight of stairs like a normal person.”
I looked past them. Briany was still holding her phone high—and she was still recording every single humiliating second.
Then, my eyes locked on Alden.
He stood motionless near the base of the staircase, completely drained of color. He wasn't looking at my injury. He was staring directly at Sutton, his jaw locked so tight a muscle ticked violently in his cheek.
May you like
He hadn't just seen the push; he had heard Sutton’s deliberate remark and her cold, mocking laughter.
Without uttering a single word, Alden turned his back on his bride, pushed through the crowd of shocked onlookers, and walked out through the glass doors into the cool night air.
