Not Your Billion Dollar ATM

At The St. Regis Ballroom, a bride stands beneath the spotlights in a couture gown, holding six-figure Ecuadorian roses. The wedding is hers, paid for down to the last detail. But when the officiant, Brock, deliberately calls her by the wrong name—Sloane Maxwell instead of the name Garrett once gave his college sweetheart—the room falls silent. Garrett does not correct him. Instead, his gaze drifts to the sixth table, where his old college friends sit, and a tenderness she has never seen crosses his face.

Brock's taunts turn vicious, and the groom's fraternity brothers roar with laughter. Then the engagement video is replaced by decade-old photos of Garrett and a girl named Jocelyn, flashed under the words A REQUIEM FOR LOST YOUTH. When Jocelyn rises in a white lace dress, Garrett walks away from the altar to lead her up the aisle by the hand, leaving his bride alone on the stage. Her father's rage is silenced by Garrett's parents, who call it a joke. Brock leans in and whispers that some women are simply blessed—while others buy the ring, the house, the car, and still lose.