I Walked Away After the Wedding Prank

At my wedding, I stood up to tell my groom how much I loved him.

I didn't even get through the first line.

He grabbed the cake beside him and smashed it into my face.

My ex-boyfriend stood up in the audience, clapping. "Cut! That's a wrap!"

Then he grinned at me. "Hazel, you actually bought it?"

——

Chapter One (Hazel)

Three hundred guests fell silent in the ballroom of the Plaza Hotel.

The officiant called my name.

I held the vow card I'd spent three nights writing, lifted the hem of my dress, and walked up onto the stage.

The first line on the card read: Sebastian, when you came into my life two years ago, I thought I'd never be able to trust anyone again.

I never got to say it.

Sebastian turned, lifted the top tier off the cake stand beside us, the smallest one, the one decorated with white roses.

And pressed the whole thing into my face.

Frosting sealed my eyes shut. It slid down my chin and dropped in thick clumps onto the lace of my gown.

Down in the audience, Grant got to his feet, clapping.

"Cut! That's a wrap!"

The whole ballroom burst out laughing.

I stood frozen. I wiped the frosting from my eyes and saw Brooke in the front row, her phone held up, the camera pointed straight at me. She was laughing so hard she could barely stay upright.

"That was perfect," she gasped. "This is going to go viral."

Grant came up onto the stage and ruffled my hair, the way he used to when we were kids.

"Hazel, you actually bought it?"

"Two years ago you broke up with me in tears. I figured you'd learned your lesson." He shook his head, smiling. "So we ran the whole thing again for you, and you fell for it all over again."

I didn't understand what he was saying.

Brooke put her phone away and walked over, still wiping tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes.

"Don't you remember? Two years ago, on the day he was going to propose, he wanted me in on it so we could give you a scare. The ring and the flowers were hidden under the covers. Then you opened the door, saw the two of us in bed, turned around, and ran. Nobody could stop you."

She tipped her chin toward Sebastian.

"So we thought, why not play one more round? We'd have Sebastian go after you and see how long it took you to figure it out."

"Turns out you never did."

Slowly, I turned my head and looked at Sebastian.

My fiancé was leaning against the flower wall, a little frosting still on his fingertip. He licked it off without hurry, his voice light, like he was talking about the weather.

"Don't look at me like that, Hazel."

"Nobody ever betrayed you. You were just easy to fool."

The laughter in the ballroom still hadn't died down.

I stood on the stage with frosting all over my face, the vow card crushed in my fist.

I'd known Grant for twenty years. Brooke for twelve. Sebastian for two.

The three of them stood in front of me, waiting for me to cry and ask them why, the way I always had before.

I didn't cry.

I looked down and, with the one finger that was still clean, typed a message on my phone to my mother in London.

Mom, about moving to London. I've made up my mind.

Then I took off my veil, laid it on the cake table, turned, and walked off the stage.

•   *   *

I was taking off my makeup in the bridal suite. The door hadn't shut all the way.

Brooke's voice drifted in from outside.

"Uh-oh, she's mad again. Who's going to go smooth things over this time?"

Grant laughed. "You girls are better at that stuff. You go."

"No way. She's furious right now. She'll just say I'm picking on her again." Brooke paused. "Sebastian, you go. She's your fiancée now."

Sebastian's voice was flat. "You two came up with this. Why should I be the one cleaning it up?"

"Grant, she grew up with you. She's your girl. You handle her."

A moment later, the door swung open.

Grant came in and leaned against the vanity, looking down at my reflection in the mirror.

"Okay, enough with the face." He said it like he was handing me a gift. "Everything's out in the open now. Next Saturday, we get married."

"Haven't you wanted to marry me since you were twelve?"

The hand holding my makeup pad went still.

In the mirror, his smile was easy and sure of itself. He probably thought this would make me happy for days.

But he didn't know.

The moment I opened that door two years ago, I'd stopped loving him.

I said nothing.

Brooke followed him in and sat on the couch behind me, crossing her legs.

"Hazel, you're not still upset about what happened two years ago, are you?" She held her left hand out in front of me and wiggled her ring finger. "Look. You ran off that day and the ring never got given away, so in the end Grant gave it to me."

The diamond flashed under the light.

I watched her in the mirror.

Ever since we met at sixteen, she'd loved having fun at my expense. I'd always thought it was just teasing between friends.

"Brooke." I set down the makeup pad and turned around. "You traded your friend's broken heart for a ring. Doesn't it burn your finger to wear it?"

The smile froze on her face. Her eyes went red in an instant.

Grant's face darkened.

"Hazel, Brooke was trying to clear up a misunderstanding for you. If you don't appreciate it, fine, but you don't get to talk to her like that."

"So because the misunderstanding is cleared up, I have to forgive?" I looked at him. "Grant, would someone who truly thought of me as a friend lie in my boyfriend's bed in her pajamas, waiting for me to walk in?"

Grant had nothing to say. He'd probably never heard me talk like that before.

There was a soft laugh from the doorway.

At some point, Sebastian had come in too. He leaned against the doorframe, hands in the pockets of his suit.

"Hazel, don't act like you're so innocent."

He looked me over, unhurried.

"I'd been chasing you less than two months before you came home with me."

"Your standards aren't exactly sky-high either."

It felt like someone had grabbed my heart and twisted it hard.

For those two months, he'd waited for me outside my office every morning. When it rained, he tilted the whole umbrella over me. At my mother's birthday party, he'd stepped in and taken every toast meant for me.

I thought that, finally, someone was loving me the right way.

It turned out that was a script too.

The three of them left together. After the door closed, I sat in front of the mirror for a long time. My fingertips stayed cold.

My phone buzzed.

It was my mother.

I took care of your residency paperwork two years ago. I've just been waiting for you to ask.

But think it through. Once you leave, every resource the Whitmore family has in Calloway Group leaves with you.

I looked at those words and hardly hesitated at all.

I have.

This time, I'm leaving for real.