My Husband Made Me Bow to His Ex-Wife, Then Cried When I Obeyed

1: 1

On our wedding day, Conrad Farley told me my fate ran too strong, that it clashed with his mother's, and that the ceremony had to be scaled down to hold back the bad luck.

He turned the car around and decided, on the spot, to switch hotels and trade the crimson gown for pink.

Nothing unsettles me more than downgrading a wedding, but the question I meant to ask came out as a single "Oh."

He smoothed the tassels at my temple.

"Whatever color my wife wears, she's the most beautiful bride. The elders are superstitious. Bear with it, just this once."

Not long after, I happened to overhear him chatting with his best man.

"You fed Beulah Henson that line about holding back the luck, and she didn't say anything? She agreed to toast your ex-wife too?"

Conrad's voice was easy, unbothered.

"Mabel's a proud one. When she lowers her head and asks me for something, I can't turn her down. Call it repaying her for the fake marriage."

"Beulah's always been sensible. Besides, marrying me raises her standing. Her mother's lying in a hospital bed, waiting on the Farley family to cover the bills. She won't dare make a scene."

I froze where I stood, cold all through.

The two of us had held each other up, lived through everything step by step, spent five years standing together against his family.

All those years I poured myself out for him, clearing his path, wearing myself down until my body was full of aches.

He helped me stand against the family that had thrown me away, swallowed his own pride, gritted his teeth and bent to the Farleys he hated to the bone.

I thought we were comrades running toward each other.

It turned out he was just using me to settle a debt.

Fine. Then I'll settle a debt with him too.

Twenty-four hours from now, we'd be finished.

……

1.

Inside the hotel dressing room.

Conrad rested his chin on my shoulder, his eyes soft with doting.

"You're flawless today. From now on we'll go back and redo every themed wedding, one by one."

My fingers tightened around the makeup brush. My eyes stayed fixed on the pink gown, and slowly I said, "I heard everything the two of you said."

"What?"

"Switching hotels, switching dresses, all of it for Mabel Simmons. And you want me to toast her."

The weight lifted off my shoulder.

Conrad dropped to one knee and looked up at me.

"Jealous? Don't read into it. The wedding and the position of Mrs. Farley are both yours. She and I are only—"

"You know how much Mother and I hate any lingering ties with an ex-wife. There's no such custom."

His face darkened as he listened, and he shot to his feet.

"Rules are dead, people are alive. It's just one small segment in the ceremony, a toast to the ex-wife. You have to blow a tiny thing like that up into some big matter?"

A small thing?

I clenched my fingers, the custom bridal nails digging into my palms, a sharp little sting.

"A bride toasting her husband's ex-wife at her own wedding. That's a humiliation."

Conrad pressed his fingers to the space between his brows.

"I already promised Mabel. I can't go back on it."

My fingers loosened. All at once it felt pointless.

Years ago my mother came into the household through the side door, for love, and swallowed everything the first wife did to make her life hard.

Her whole life, behind her back, they called her the mistress, the concubine.

At the end, my father even meant to leave the burial plot beside him to his first wife.

Mother took me and left the Henson family in a fury, and the resentment turned into a body full of illness.

I once thought Conrad would be the exception.

Seeing my face, he softened, coaxing me like a child.

"Beulah, just this once. The moment the wedding's over, I'll cancel all my work and spend the honeymoon with you. No one gets to come between us."

My chest felt clogged and tight.

This was already the third time we'd tried to hold a wedding.

The first time, Mabel fell into the water and ran a fever.

Conrad left behind a note that said "Wedding postponed" and spent three days with her.

Afterward he explained it was an emergency, that he'd had no choice.

The second wedding, Mabel was hurt in a car accident.

Conrad didn't say a word, just turned and left, and spent another three days with her.

Afterward he said a life was at stake, that there was no time to waste.

This time.

I looked down at the wedding ring on my hand and rubbed it without thinking.

Conrad caught my hand, his voice low.

"This time, I promise the wedding will happen. I won't let Mabel pull any more stunts."

"Conrad, once the wedding's done, we'll—"

I didn't get to finish. The dressing room door swung open and cut me off.

It was Mabel.

She came in, looked me up and down, then pressed her lips together and gave a small scoff.

"I did want to see what the bride who's got Conrad on a leash actually looks like."

"Passable, I suppose. Just barely worth a glance. Still a good bit short of me."

"Right, right, right. You're the one blessed above everyone else. Who could ever be as proud as you?"

Conrad hurried over to take Mabel's bag, pull up a chair, pour her tea.

The wedding ring had barely warmed to his touch, and now it went cold.

Conrad was not the exception.

Twenty-two hours left.

Mabel didn't sit.

She circled around behind me, straightened the collar of my gown as if by habit, and leaned close to my ear.

"Even after I humiliated you like that, you still insist on marrying him. Tsk, tsk. Persistent, aren't you."

"Though after everything comes full circle, watching my little dog trot around after someone else does leave me a little sore about it."

Then she stepped back half a pace, put on the proud look again, and laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Fine. With you looking after Conrad from now on, I won't have to trouble myself."

My stomach turned. I threw Mabel's hand off with everything in me.

Mabel stumbled with a startled cry, her elbow sweeping across the vanity and knocking over the several pairs of flat embroidered shoes that had just been delivered.