1: 1

On the biggest day of her life, her future mother-in-law planted herself in the doorway, pulled out a digital scale she'd readied in advance, and spoke in a cold voice in front of every relative and neighbor there.

"I said the rule ahead of time. Our Gilbert family doesn't marry a bride over a hundred pounds. Fat weighs down a family's luck and drains its fortune. Today you step on the scale, and if you're over by even a pound, you don't come through this door."

The whole place went dead silent.

A moment ago it had been all drums and gongs, relatives everywhere, and there I stood in a custom gown with a bouquet in my hands, dressed to join the Gilbert family, only for their door to be shut in my face.

I looked at my fiancé, Julian Gilbert. He said nothing, as if he'd known this was coming all along.

"You never told me about any such rule."

"I forgot. And you might not even be over. It's just a formality, so don't embarrass my mother."

I let out a cold laugh. I didn't argue, didn't make a scene. I tore off my veil.

"If a hundred pounds isn't good enough to enter your Gilbert family's door, then my Pruitt family can't hope to marry up. The wedding's off, today."

1

"What kind of girl are you? This is the rule in Gilbert's Hollow. Everyone follows it."

"That's right. The Gilberts may have money now, but that's no reason to skip the rule."

I listened to them peck at me one after another, and Julian just stood there without a word, letting them humiliate me by saying nothing. My heart sank all the way down.

"Just bear it a little, Lindy. Stepping on a scale is no big deal. Don't you weigh yourself all the time anyway?"

I clenched my fists and looked at him.

"Is that the same thing?"

"How is it any different? It's weighing yourself either way. A few seconds and it's done."

I only ever did that to check whether my workouts were paying off during a cut. Stepping on that scale today was an insult, an insult to me and to my whole family.

"In Gilbert's Hollow, no one crosses the threshold over a hundred pounds. Over by a pound is a big deal."

"Exactly. Fat weighs down the luck and squeezes out the fortune. Can't have that. Who'd dare marry a girl like that?"

I'd never heard anything like it, and the friends who'd come with me were seething.

"Isn't this just humiliating her? Who springs a rule like this on the day you come to fetch the bride? And so what if she's over a hundred pounds?"

Most of us stand over five-five, so a hundred-something, maybe a little soft, is perfectly normal.

"Now you've got it wrong. When it weighs down the luck and drives off the fortune, who's going to answer for that?"

"Right, what do you people know. Before you come through the door, you step on the scale, period."

Julian never made a sound through any of it, keeping himself perfectly out of it.

"See, I told you. The Gilbert threshold's too high. I wouldn't dare step over it."

"Don't make a scene. It's only a custom. When in Rome, you know. And all the guests are here today. Is this any way to act?"

"When did I make a scene? And when did you ever tell me there was a rule like this?"

If he'd told me beforehand, if it were only a matter of respecting a local custom, I could have understood. But the looks on his mother's face and his relatives' made it obvious. They wanted to put me in my place, to set the terms right out of the gate.

"It's a tiny thing. You're reading too much into it."

I shook his hand off.

"You all see it. Setting terms before she's even through the door, with an attitude like that. Once she's inside she'll turn the whole house upside down."

"Setting terms? We're marrying into the family, not hiring on as the help. What terms?"

The aunt who'd ridden over with us couldn't stand it and cursed back at them.

"What's wrong with setting terms? Marry into the Gilbert family and you follow the Gilbert family's rules. Come through this door and you take our customs."

I gave a cold laugh. I really did want to know.

"And what happens if she's over a hundred pounds?"

2: 2

2

Julian suddenly walked over smiling and took my hand, pulling me forward. He thought I'd given in.

My future mother-in-law spoke up, pleased with herself.

"Every pound over the limit, and you pay back fifty thousand of the dowry."

"What? You're treating a person like merchandise."

The Gilberts and the Sheltons were about even in standing, nothing you'd call an upper-crust dynasty, but well-off enough to count as minor money. So the dowry had been done by the book, no more and no less: two hundred eighty thousand.

The gold wedding jewelry and the rest of the trousseau actually came to more than that, all of it bought by my mother. My mother figured as long as the young couple was happy, that was enough. She'd arranged everything herself and never once thought about taking anything from the Gilberts.

"Julian, is this what you think too? Two hundred eighty thousand was agreed on. If you people didn't want to go through with it, you could have said so. There was no need for this."

"What are you talking about? You're taking it way too seriously. It's just for show. Even if they knock off fifty thousand, doesn't that money end up in your pocket anyway? Just go along with my mother for a minute."

He kept dragging me forward. My face went cold.

"I said I'm not marrying in. Save the scale for someone else."

"Are you done making a scene? The wedding's already started, you don't get to just cancel it. You're getting on that scale today."

"My son's right. If you're getting married, you follow the rules, and nobody's an exception. Bride and bridesmaids, one at a time. Whoever doesn't measure up doesn't get through the Gilbert door."

"This is insane. Lindy, let's go. Better not to marry into this at all."

Ursula Hayward grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the door, but the relatives closed in around us and shoved us all back inside.

"You're getting on that scale whether you like it or not."

"Get out of the way."

They didn't move. They grabbed our clothes and started hauling us back in.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Julian's aunt rushed up to stop them and got shoved aside.

"I'll say it one more time. Let go."

I glared at this pack of ignorant villagers who couldn't understand plain speech.

"Where are your manners? These are all your elders. Get down on your knees and apologize right now. No home training at all."

I had no intention of dealing with any of them. Julian yanked at my arm.

"Apologize, did you hear me? In this family, disrespecting your elders is a serious thing."

I turned and walked toward the door. He pulled me back.

"I'll say it one more time. Apologize."

"And I'll say it one more time. I'm not marrying into this."

"We've come this far, there's no canceling now. You may have no shame, but we still do."

They pushed me up onto the scale. I tried to step off and they held me down hard.

"A hundred and three. Next."

One by one they held down all six bridesmaids, forcing each of them up onto it like goods laid out for judgment. I watched it happen, breath heaving in and out, my eyes red with rage.

"Every last one over the limit. Just as I said, not a lucky one among them. Good thing we weighed them, or these girls would have crushed all the luck right out of this family."

"This is complete nonsense. We all have normal figures. You people are just ignorant and backward."

A slap cracked out. A village woman had struck Ursula across the face. I seized her wrist and locked my eyes on hers.

"Apologize to her."

I frightened her, and she stumbled down onto the ground. Then the relatives who'd been enjoying the show a moment ago all surged forward and shoved us down onto the ground.

Julian gripped my arm, his face full of fury.

"I told you. In this family, disrespecting an elder is a serious matter."

"Drag her over and make her kneel and apologize to my aunt, or she'll be lawless the second she's through the door."

"Go apologize, or this wedding stays stuck like this all day. You don't want your parents unable to hold their heads up in front of everyone, do you?"

I clenched my teeth and looked at this man, the eyes that used to be so gentle now holding nothing but something dark.

"Not a chance."

3: 3

3

Every person who'd come with me in the wedding cars was a woman, so we were no match for a crowd of grown men.

Julian dragged me over to the woman from before.

"Kneel."

"Do you even hear yourself?"

"Kneel, or this doesn't end today."

When I didn't move for a long moment, he pinned me down and finally kicked the back of my knees. My legs gave out and I slammed hard onto the ground, the pain forcing a sharp breath out of me.

I looked up at the satisfied smile on Julian's face, my nails scraping a few marks into the floor.

"Good boy. That's exactly how you set the rules for her, so she knows to obey once she's in the Gilbert house."

My mother-in-law-to-be pressed a hand down on my head. I fought against it hard, and clumps of my hair tore loose.

"Apologize properly, or I can't promise those bridesmaids of yours will stay safe. Our village has plenty of bachelors, after all, and they're just the right age too."

The girls went pale, but none of them wanted me to suffer this either.

"One, two…"

"I'm sorry!"

It took every bit of strength in me to force those two words out.

"Good. Now the bride goes on the scale last."

I struggled, but Julian held me down so I couldn't move at all.

"Behave. It's almost over."

"Julian, let go of me. I won't marry you."

"Linda, once you've come to the Gilberts, there's no such thing as not marrying."

The moment I was shoved onto the scale, the wooden ruler came down across my back.

"Stand up straight. Standing there slouched like that, no manners at all. Is that how your parents raised you?"

Narelle looked me over with pure disgust.

"The Gilbert family's upbringing is quite the eye-opener too."

Another crack, and my back went red in a stripe.

"No respect for your elders, talking back. You've earned this."

"Ma'am, a hundred and five pounds!"

The whole swarm of aunts jumped in at once, all of them piling onto me.

"Oh my, what a shame. No wonder she's built so solid. Fortune like that gets crushed right out of a house."

"A fat wife comes through the door, and there'll be no saving money after this."

There was no way to argue against all those voices. They pinned every accusation on me, even things that hadn't happened, and Narelle rounded on me at once, roaring.

"What bad luck. She's crushed so much of our fortune. No wonder the Gilbert projects keep getting snatched away lately and the profits have been poor. It was you all along, you jinx."

The Gilbert projects were being snatched away because they had no innovation, because they were arrogant and complacent and stuck in their ways, because they wouldn't listen to anyone. If it weren't for me, the last few projects would never have gone to the Gilberts at all, and now they were blaming me?

"Blame yourselves for your own garbage. If it weren't for Lindy, your Gilbert family would've gone bankrupt long ago."

"Big talk. What could one girl possibly do? Better than the head of the house?"

"Crushing my family's fortune, and she still has the nerve to boast. Today I'm getting the Gilbert fortune back, or she'll ruin everything we have."

It was honestly laughable. They couldn't manage it themselves, so they turned around and blamed someone else.

"Julian, you know exactly what shape your company is in. What does that have to do with me?"

"Don't you usually watch your weight? Where did all that watching go? What am I supposed to do about the embarrassment you've caused me?"

He told me to go over and apologize to his mother, and to promise I'd never do it again.

Looking at him standing there so righteous, as if he were doing me a favor, I wondered whether the Gilberts were the only ones who'd ever have me.

"If you don't want the Gilbert family to end up a third-rate dynasty, then get your mother to stop all this self-destructive behavior."

"Are you threatening me? You think the Pruitt family has that kind of power?"

His eyes had gone visibly harder than before. The Pruitts didn't have that kind of power. But the resources in my hands did.

Because fifty percent of the resources the Gilberts had right now came straight out of my hands.