My mother-in-law's expression shifted—shock to anger to helplessness.

I bit my lip hard. "Mrs. James! Don't listen to Jordan's lies—please help us!"

No one outside dared to come in. She was our only chance.

But the pity in her eyes vanished. Panic replaced it. "Luna, just cooperate! It'll be over soon! I just remembered—I have something to do!"

She fled without looking back.

Bang!

The door swung shut. In that split second, I caught the looks on those men's faces outside.

The door closed, cutting off every last hope for me and my best friend.

I glared at the men in front of me. "Don't push it!"

"Jordan, if you don't want to marry me, just say so! But you can't humiliate me like this!"

He shook his head.

"Luna, I never said I wouldn't marry you. Just be good and finish the game."

Leon snorted. "Jordan, I'm bored with that game. Let's switch to something new."

I bit through my lip, screaming with everything I had. "What else do you want?"

"Animals!"

My best friend and I fought back with all our strength, but we were no match for them.

Jordan didn't refuse. He glanced toward the door.

Something glinted in Leon's eyes. He shoved me onto the bed, his head diving under the wedding dress.

My best friend's clothes were ripped to shreds. Two men pounced on her.

My vision went red. I was on the verge of breaking.

Then—hurried footsteps. The door slammed open.

"I want to see who dares touch anyone from Clearwater Village!"

Everyone froze.

I saw the neighbors rushing in, and the wire-tight tension in my chest finally snapped loose.

Miles Simmons took one look at the state of us and wordlessly shielded me and my best friend behind him. His face was black as thunder.

"Jordan James! This is how you treat people from Clearwater Village?"

His roar made every man who'd been so cocky a moment ago change color.

Jordan swallowed hard. "Chief Simmons, she… how could she be from your village? You must be mistaken."

The onlookers frowned.

Now that the villagers had arrived, those who'd been watching the spectacle followed them inside.

"What kind of logic is that? Just because Luna isn't from Clearwater Village, you think you can treat her like this?"

"Exactly! Grown men ganging up on a woman on her wedding day—have you no shame?"

With backup finally here, others who'd been too scared to speak up joined in.

My mother-in-law rushed over. The moment she saw Chief Simmons, her face twisted.

"Let's talk this out! It's all a misunderstanding!"

"Chief Simmons, right? Kids will be kids. Luna, hurry and tell him—if you keep this up, you'll miss the auspicious hour!"

She shot me frantic, meaningful looks.

Jordan panicked too. "Luna! What are you standing there for? Don't tell me you actually want to cause a scene today?"

"Come on, it was just a joke! Don't blow this out of proportion!"

His scolding almost made me laugh.

Chief Simmons's face was ashen. He turned to me, asking what I wanted to do.

"Luna, this kind of man is an animal. Do you really still want to marry him?"

Everyone held their breath.

I stared coldly at those disgusting men and spoke, word by word:

"The wedding is off. And I want them to pay for this."

Now Jordan really started to get scared. He screamed and kept backing up.

Everyone present was from villages within ten miles, and nobody didn't know Clearwater Village.

The local folks cracked their knuckles and got ready.

Without hesitation, I raised my hand and slapped Jordan hard across the face.

He was furious but didn't dare say a word.

Chief Simmons gave me a look, signaling me to step back.

The villagers swarmed up all at once. The scene was spectacular. The animals who'd been shouting about stripping us to "inspect the goods" were stripped naked themselves and thrown outside the yard.

In the freezing snow and ice, their faces were bruised and swollen, shivering from the cold.

The men who'd been so arrogant just moments ago turned into cowering dogs under absolute force.

Leon's contemptuous posture was gone. He dropped to his knees and begged for mercy.

But that was nowhere near enough to put out my anger!

The thuds of fists hitting flesh made them completely quiet.

A flash of hatred passed through Jordan's eyes. "This is a group assault! Aren't you afraid we'll call the cops?"

I looked at him like he'd told some kind of joke and raised my phone.

On the screen, it was clearly playing everything they had just done to me in that room.

I swept a cold gaze over them.

"You know exactly what you did! Take it to the deputies? Fine! Let's see how many years molestation gets!"

I narrowed my eyes and turned to the people present. "And who here saw us hit them?"

They all fell silent, afraid of offending us. They hurriedly shook their heads and stated one after another:

"About what happened today, we won't say a single word!"

Jordan and Leon were completely stunned, collapsing weakly onto the ground.

"It's over! Everything is over!"

"Jordan! It's all your fault! You ruined me—go die!"

Leon forced himself to stand and started grappling with Jordan.

I exchanged a look with the villagers and left this hellhole without looking back.

When they heard I was canceling the wedding, Mom and Dad didn't object at all.

When they heard my reason, they wanted nothing more than to rush over and help me get revenge.

I let out a snort of laughter, soothing them that those people had already gotten their lesson.

Presumably, for a while they wouldn't come to provoke me again.

After all, Clearwater Village's reputation was well-known. These people shouldn't be so stupid as to charge in looking for death.

What's more, quite a few people had seen that wedding prank. Those men weren't human at all!

Every time I thought of what happened that day, I wanted nothing more than to kill them.

After hearing what I said, Mom still knitted her brows. She held my hand, full of worry:

"Luna, that's what you say, but you're not afraid of ten thousand, you're afraid of the one in a million. You still have to be careful!"

Dad also frowned.

"Jordan looks harmless, but he's got schemes running in his head. I don't think he was necessarily threatened into this."

I nodded. In my heart, I more or less had a plan.

I didn't care what he was really thinking. As long as he crossed me, I had plenty of ways to deal with him.

The canceled wedding made our family the center of gossip, and quite a few people in the village wanted to introduce me to a new match.

Before things had even been quiet for two days, I got Mom's panicked voice on the phone.

Her tone couldn't hide her agitation. "Luna! Hurry back! Something happened!"