Chapter 1The Wedding Day Shakedown

I spent five years delivering food and saved up enough to buy a home, all so I could marry my girlfriend of five years, Megan Portman.

On the day of the bride pickup, the bridesmaids went all out with their pre-wedding mini games, and I happily played along.

But once every cash envelope had been handed out, I realized something was off.

Megan's best friend, Jeanie Westwood, pulled out her phone and opened her payment app. "We want to share in the good luck too. There are eighteen of us here, so each of us gets 999 dollars. We'll bless your marriage to be a long-lasting and happy one."

After a lot of pleading, I scraped together 20,000 dollars and sent it over. I figured that was enough to finally win my bride.

Instead, Megan sat on the bed and refused to let her feet touch the floor. "My mom just laid down the law. The send-off fee is going up. Let's round it off to 66,000 dollars."

I was stunned. "Didn't we agree on 6,600 dollars? Where am I supposed to get another 60,000 dollars right now?"

Megan played with her nails, her face cold. "That's your problem. If you can't come up with the money, I'm not putting my shoes on."

I looked around at the room full of relatives enjoying the show and stood up. "This wedding is off."

* * *

"Hey, hey, hey! Vince, don't you know how this works?"

Behind Jeanie Westwood, seventeen bridesmaids stood in a row.

I quickly put on an apologetic smile and pulled out the fat cash envelope I'd prepared ahead of time. "Thank you for all your hard work, ladies. Here's a little something to treat yourselves to coffee."

Jeanie glanced at how thick the envelope was and snorted. She tossed it right back into my arms. "Do we look like beggars to you?"

She took out her phone, pulled up her payment app, and shoved it in my face. Right behind her, all seventeen bridesmaids held up their phones in unison.

"We want to share in the good luck too. There are eighteen of us here, so each of us gets 999 dollars. We'll bless your marriage to be a long-lasting and happy one."

Jeanie tilted her head, her face full of mockery.

My head started buzzing. Eighteen times 999 dollars came to almost 18,000 dollars.

I'd spent five years delivering food, rain or shine, and buying our home had already drained every penny I had.

For today's wedding alone, I'd paid 30,000 dollars for the wedding gifts, 5,000 dollars for the bridal gold jewelry set, and well over 10,000 dollars for the banquet and the wedding planner.

My pockets were completely empty.

"Jeanie, quit joking around. There's no way I brought that kind of money."

I wiped the sweat off my face and looked at Megan Portman. "Meg, it's almost time for the ceremony. Let's not keep the family waiting."

Megan finally looked up. There wasn't a trace of a bride's joy in her eyes, only impatience.

"Jeanie is looking out for me. If you won't even part with this little bit of money, how are you going to treat me well down the road?"

The relatives around us started heckling. Some laughed, while others just enjoyed the show.

I gritted my teeth and swallowed every last scrap of pride. "Could you go a little lower? I really can't come up with that much right now."

Jeanie let out a sarcastic huff. "Vince, you don't even have this much? Quit embarrassing Meg, would you?"

"Seriously, why get married if you're broke?"

"What a cheapskate. Meg's going to have a rough life with him."

The jeers stabbed into my ears like needles.

I took a deep breath and pulled out my phone. I maxed out my credit cards. I drained my buy-now-pay-later account and my cash-advance line.

Then I texted a few close friends and swallowed my pride to borrow from every one of them. In the end, I barely scraped together 100,000 dollars.

I handed my phone to Jeanie so she could see. "Jeanie, this is all I could get. Can I make up the rest later?"

Jeanie curled her lip and scanned the code with a look of disgust. "Fine. Since you're at least showing some sincerity, I'll let you pass."

My heart bled as the 20,000 dollars went through. It was the money I'd set aside for the mortgage.

The bridesmaids finally parted and cleared a path. I let out a breath of relief and got down on one knee, ready to put Megan's shoes on her.

As long as I took her home, the wedding was as good as done. Life might be hard and exhausting from here on out, but as long as the two of us did right by each other, we'd make it through.

I reached for the shoebox beside the bed.

It was empty.

I paused and looked up at Megan. "Meg, where are your shoes?"

Megan tucked her feet under the hem of her gown and looked down at me. "There's no rush on the shoes."

She held up her hand and signaled a number. "My mom just laid down the law. The send-off fee is going up."