A Bride's Brilliant Arrangement

The night before my wedding, I received an anonymous email.

Inside was a single link to a private gossip blog, a digital confessional for the elite.

The headline screamed: "SILICON VALLEY'S PRINCE AND HIS BRIDESMAID: A FORBIDDEN AFFAIR."

The post quoted an inside source:

"The groom walks down the aisle tomorrow. But tonight, he’s with the bridesmaid."

"Don't get me wrong, their connection is purely physical. The one he truly loves is his fiancée."

"The arrangement is mutually beneficial. His fiancée can't satisfy certain... needs. But the bridesmaid? She indulges his wilder side."

"Besides, the bridesmaid is the bride's best friend. She’d never do anything to hurt her."

I knew instantly. The groom, heir to a Silicon Valley magnate; the bride, an Ivy League-educated architect; the wedding, a private vineyard in Napa Valley. The "prince" was my fiancé, Troy.

This former NCAA star quarterback once swore he’d give me the world. He spent three years proving his devotion through countless nights of tender intimacy before I finally said yes.

In our seven years together, he had loved me with an almost obsessive devotion, just as he had promised.

So much so that he could never bring himself to be rough with me.

On pure, destructive impulse, I activated the security camera I’d hidden in the groom's suite.

There, in the vineyard where we were supposed to exchange vows, two naked bodies writhed under the dim lights.

On Chloe's wrist, the custom Cartier bracelet Troy had given me—the one needing a special screwdriver to be removed—gleamed against the jagged scar she’d gotten saving my life. A bitter, perfect irony.

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1

Everything Troy did for me was on a grand scale.

But the most insane thing he ever did was set his own future on fire.

He had been a star college football quarterback, a multi-million dollar NFL contract practically in his grasp.

But during the NCAA championship game, to prove to the world that he loved me more than anything, he intentionally fumbled. He threw the game.

Just like that, his career was over.

Everyone called him a fool, but he just smiled and insisted I was worth it.

The ensuing media storm was so all-consuming that almost no one noticed my family imploding, or that I was drowning myself in alcohol.

Troy knew I couldn't handle it alone. My father was jailed for financial fraud. My mother was the one who called the police. Then she swallowed an entire bottle of pills right in front of me.

To keep me from self-destructing, he let me take my pain out on him, his own body enduring my desperate scratches.

He chased away the reporters and creditors who circled our house like vultures.

When I finally surfaced from the fog, a month had passed. He was gaunt, his eyes hollowed out from exhaustion.

But Troy only said, "Scarlett, I promised I would always be there for you."

In that moment, I knew. He was the one.

So when Chloe vehemently objected to my engagement to Troy, I told her no for the first time in my life.

I’d never been able to refuse her anything, not since she saved my life at that lakeside party in college.

That was the day my father's scandal broke.

I got blackout drunk and stumbled straight into the icy lake.

Chloe, who had been strolling by the water with friends, dove in without a second thought.

She shoved me toward the bank, but a submerged rock tore a long gash across her back.

She spent over a month in the hospital.

When she woke up, she just joked, "Good thing you're alive. Who else would buy me designer bags?"

She even teased that she could have sued my family for a massive settlement.

I was young, but not stupid.

She always used the allowance I gave her to buy all sorts of luxuries, yet she would secretly set aside the limited-edition pieces for me, insisting they looked better on me.

From that day on, we were inseparable.

No matter how badly her grades slipped, I moved heaven and earth to keep her in the same schools I attended.

It was the same in college; I covered all her expenses, letting her live a carefree life.

My life began to revolve around hers.

People said I was brainwashed, that Chloe was a parasite who couldn't survive without me.

But they didn't understand. My parents treated me like a pawn in their twisted games. Chloe was the only family I had.

I relied on her so much that when she threw a tantrum over my relationship with Troy, I completely missed the flicker of jealousy and panic in her eyes.