“Jayden, whatever went wrong, it's all my fault.”

“I shouldn't have taken the envelope from your mother, shouldn't have called her Mom.”

“Hit me, curse me, whatever you want. Just please don't stay angry at Eily over this.”

I watched him put on this act and felt nothing but how ridiculous it was.

“Bradley, what exactly are you performing here?”

“You really think I don't know what you've been up to?”

From the moment we started planning the wedding, he'd been constantly around Eileen, always under the excuse of “helping me keep an eye on things.”

Picking the wedding dress, he insisted on going along with Eileen, and even weighed in on whether it looked good on her.

The tasting, he had to sit beside Eileen, the two of them laughing and chatting the whole time.

I'd thought he was just being helpful.

Now I saw it. The two of them had been carrying on behind my back all along.

Seeing Bradley look so wronged, Eileen went straight over and hooked her arm through his.

“Jayden, Bradley has backed down this far. What more do you want?”

“Do you have to drag this out until it's this ugly? Do you have even a shred of empathy?”

Hailey joined in too, jabbing a finger at my face as she cursed.

“Exactly! Look how decent Bradley is. Not like you, no big-heartedness at all.”

“Let me tell you, if you call off this wedding today for no reason, you'll never marry a woman as fine as my daughter again!”

I couldn't help letting out a small scoff.

“Ma'am, your daughter was carrying on with the best man at her own wedding. Goods like that are too far above my station.”

Hailey's face went purple in an instant, the finger she pointed at me trembling.

“You……you ill-bred thing!”

“Fine! You won't go through with it? Plenty of others will!”

She walked over to Bradley and grabbed his hand.

“Those dozens of banquet tables outside are all set, the money's paid. Be a waste not to use them!”

“Today's reception, we'll just change it into Eileen and Bradley's!”

“I liked Bradley better to begin with anyway!”

“And besides, our Eily is already carrying Bradley's child!”

My mother sucked in a sharp breath and, without thinking, clutched my arm tight.

I turned to look at Eileen. Her head was down, her hands folded protectively over her still-flat belly, but she couldn't hide the smug little smile at the corner of her mouth.

A good brother of five years. A fiancée I'd loved for three.

While I was running myself ragged over this wedding, the two of them had already gone and made a baby together.

Something churned violently in my stomach, past anything I could hold down.

Seeing the truth was fully out now, Eileen let out a sigh.

“Jayden, since my mom's already said it, I won't hide it from you either.”

“That thing with Bradley was just an accident. Everyone had too much to drink and lost control.”

“But trust me, the only person I truly love is you. It's you I'm sincere about.”

She stepped closer, her eyes full of charity.

“Jayden, we've got three years between us. I don't want this to get too ugly either.”

“I'm giving you one last chance today. Come out with me right now and finish the rest of the ceremony.”

“As for the baby……it's already here, we can't exactly abort it and wreck my body, can we?”

“Once it's born, it takes your name, calls you Dad.”

“You won't have to lift a finger. A big healthy boy handed to you for free. That's not a bad deal for you, is it?”

I couldn't hold back another second. I raised my hand and slapped Eileen across the face.

“Get out.”

“Take your mother and your side piece and get out of my sight this instant.”

Eileen cupped her cheek, staring at me in disbelief.

“Jayden, you dared to hit me!”

“Fine. You chose this. Don't you regret it!”

"Mom, Bradley, let's go! These dozens of tables of good food and wine — we'll eat them ourselves!"

They'd barely walked out when the hotel's lobby manager knocked and stepped in, looking uncomfortable.

"Mr. Henson, what exactly is going on out there?"

"A moment ago Miss Swanson was shouting that the groom had changed, telling the emcee to reannounce the wedding party."

"And your relatives are streaming out the doors in droves."

"The kitchen's asking me whether they should still serve the thirty tables of top-tier seafood banquet you ordered."

I wanted to say no, then a thought struck me.

"Serve it. Why wouldn't we?"

"It's their big happy day. Of course the good food and good liquor should go out, every last dish of it."

Eileen and her mother thought I'd already paid off all thirty tables of the banquet in full.

After all, every bit of the preparation for this wedding, from the banquet venue down to a single piece of wedding candy, I'd handled myself.

What they didn't know was that the owner of this hotel was my college senior.

Back when I'd booked the venue, Sabrina Wells hadn't taken a single cent of deposit from me.

We'd agreed to settle the whole thing together tomorrow, once the banquet was over.

In other words, those thirty tables outside were, as of now, still sitting at zero paid.

I looked at the manager and smiled.

"I'll trouble you to pass a message to your owner."

"From this moment on, that banquet out there has nothing to do with me, not one cent."

"Whoever's out there toasting, whoever ate this meal, that's who you go to for the money."

"And if they try to skip out on the bill, don't hold back. Lock the front doors and call the police."

The manager blinked, then caught on at once.

He'd been in this line of work for years. What kind of circus hadn't he seen?

"Don't worry, Mr. Henson. I know what to do."

Once everything was settled, I walked my parents out of the hotel.

In the car on the way home, I opened social media on a whim.

Sure enough, Eileen had already rushed to post.

In the photo she was nestled in Bradley's arms, Hailey beside them, holding both their hands and grinning ear to ear.

The caption read: 【*The right time, the right person. Double blessings at once. Thank you to Mom for her love, thank you to my husband for stepping up.*】

Below it, a few of the Swanson relatives had liked it and left comments: 【*Bradley really does suit our Eily better.*】

【*This spread is really something. The lobster looks so fresh. That Henson fool has no luck at all.*】

Reading those comments, I didn't just keep my temper. I nearly laughed out loud.

Eat up. Eat plenty.

I only worried that however much you swallowed now, you'd be coughing it right back up soon enough.

The banquet drew to a close, the guests full of food and drink, drifting out one after another with their party favors.

Eileen, on Bradley's arm, got ready to leave, surrounded by a crowd of relatives.

Right then, two rows of uniformed security guards appeared out of nowhere and blocked the way.

The manager stood in front of Eileen with the bill in hand and a professional smile.

"Miss Swanson, congratulations on your marriage."

"Today you ran up thirty tables of our top-tier seafood banquet, for a total of five hundred thousand dollars."

"Will you be paying by phone, or by card?"