Chapter 2

The whole crowd went quiet for a beat, then broke into an uproar.

Carmen faltered, then her brows knit tight. "So my mom was in the wrong, and now nobody's even allowed to point it out. Is that it?"

Morton stood up and, with a look of grudging reluctance, pulled the red silk off the car.

He shoved it hard into my arms. "Didn't think you'd be this petty. Fine, I'm giving your worthless rags back to you, I don't want them. Happy now?"

Before I could react, the silk slid to the ground, and Morton stamped on it a few times.

The next second he tore off his own groomsman's jacket, his face crumpling. "This morning, the moment you saw me come out in the groomsman's suit, your face fell."

"You've been making trouble this whole time, and the bottom line is you don't want me as your groomsman, you don't want me standing beside you while you take a wife!"

"Fine, I won't be your groomsman, I won't wear the suit. Just don't go saying all this angry nonsense about calling off the wedding!"

Someone in the bridesmaids' group jumped in at once.

"Morton was just trying to liven things up. Since when is the groom such a bad sport!"

"The groom's just jealous that Morton's better looking than him, scared of getting upstaged, so he keeps finding ways to make things hard for him."

"No wonder he had to fight Morton for everything when they were kids. Turns out he's been jealous since childhood, right up till now."

Morton's suit was already ruined, the fabric split open at the shoulder.

He lifted his head and asked me loudly, "Satisfied now? Stop giving Carmen a hard time!"

Carmen quickly grabbed a coat, pulled it off, and draped it straight over Morton's shoulders. "It's okay. I've got you."

Then she turned back to me. "That's enough out of you. Go apologize to Morton, now."

I ignored her. Just then my phone buzzed.

I unlocked the screen. It was a photo from Marilyn.

A luxury wedding car, hung all over with bright, lavish red silk.

Morton leaned in and caught a glimpse of my screen. "So it wasn't about me taking your red cloth at all. You just thought the red cloth Carmen prepared wasn't good enough, and got yourself some outside help to bring over a nicer one?"

"Frederick, you've been reading too many novels, haven't you?"

"Enough already. It's just a wedding. Do you really need all this fuss?"

Carmen's face changed in an instant. She snatched my phone. "What outside help? Bringing over red cloth?"

Except I'd already hit the lock button before she got it.

I shook my head. "None of this has anything to do with any of you."

She tried the passcode twice and failed both times. "Morton already gave the red cloth back to you. Hurry up and cancel those rags."

She tossed the phone back at me, then paused. "Frederick, I'm asking you one last time. Are you going to apologize to Morton or not."

I raised my head. "No."

Her brows drew together. "Fine. Then take off your suit right now and give it to Morton to wear!"

"Morton's groomsman suit got ruined because of you. You owe it to him!"