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.

4: 4

4

In front of everyone, Narelle finally spoke. Since things had already come to this and there was no changing it, she said, I would do exactly as she told me.

First: bow and apologize in public, admit that I was cursed with bad luck, that my body was heavy and clumsy, and that I brought ruin to the Gilbert family's fortune.

Second: swear in front of all the relatives and friends that after the wedding I would strictly diet and keep my weight under a hundred pounds forever, and the day I went over, I'd walk out with nothing.

Third: cut the dowry in half, hand over all the gold wedding jewelry to be locked in her safe, to ward off the bad luck.

I listened without any expression as she read out the three rules, each one harsher than the last, and on my side every one of my family and friends had their fists clenched tight.

She knew that on a wedding day like this, with the Pruitts and the Gilberts both being people of standing, I had no way to back down, and I would surely bow my head and grovel for the sake of appearances.

Julian's ugly expression smoothed over.

“See? I told you. My mother was just trying to scare you. There's no way she'd actually keep you out. Hurry up and apologize, write her a pledge, and this whole thing blows over.”

Everyone in the room was waiting for me to cave and grovel, waiting to watch me eat my humiliation. Too bad. They'd calculated wrong.

I smiled, a wild smile, but one without a shred of hesitation.

I reached up, pulled off the wedding ring and the veil, and shoved all of it into his hands.

My voice was clear and calm, every word landing like a hammer on each of their chests.

“A hundred pounds to get through the door? The Gilbert family's threshold really is set high. Fine. I just won't cross it.”

The room erupted.

“What did you say? You dare call our threshold cheap? You've got some nerve.”

Julian grabbed at me, stunned.

“What are you saying?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. I'm not marrying you. Your Gilbert family isn't anything special.”

Julian's and Narelle's faces changed in an instant.

They'd thought the earlier lesson had taught me my place. Since it hadn't, he saw no reason to spare me any dignity.

“You think you get to decide? I already said it. Once you're inside the Gilbert family, there's no such thing as calling off the wedding.”

“Gilbert, what's this supposed to be? Keep it up and we can call the police.”

“Call the police? Go ahead. Want me to deal with you first?”

I stared them down, cold. They were only pushing this because none of my family had come, using that to lay down their rules over me. They'd figured it wrong.

“Julian, I'll say it one more time. This wedding is off. Let us leave. Otherwise, in five minutes, whatever happens is on you.”

“Still putting on airs. Once you're inside the Gilbert family, you're my son's wife, and it's only right that I discipline my daughter-in-law.”

Julian thought I was bluffing too. He'd already taken my phone. From start to finish I'd had no chance to reach the outside world.

“My mother's right. Stop wasting time. Apologize to my mother now and write the pledge.”

“I won't write it, and I won't set foot in your Gilbert family's door.”

“It's not up to you to refuse. We've got plenty of ways to make you do it.”

Just as they moved to lay hands on me, the assistant came stumbling in from outside.

“Mr. Gilbert, it's over, it's all over!”