Chapter 2

"You really pulled it off, Stella. You're unbelievable!"

Stella was thoroughly pleased with herself. "Obviously."

"Oh, right, Stella, I filmed you slapping Denise up there just now. So badass!"

"Oh? Send it to me. I'm posting it to my account."

I quickly opened Stella's account, and sure enough, she'd just put up a new video.

It was the footage of her slapping me seven times on the stage, except she'd muted it and slapped a caption on it to make me look like the villain.

"My husband's sister ran her mouth at my wedding, and I refuse to let it slide! A woman is never a man's property. Even after marriage, I will never be bullied by my in-laws!"

Someone asked under the video, "What did the sister say?"

She replied below, "She said I had to give their family seven sons within six years, and if I couldn't, she'd make her brother divorce me! So I gave her seven slaps back, and after that she called me a bitch."

She pinned that comment to the top and even ran promoted ads on the video.

In just twenty minutes, the shares broke a thousand.

The comment section blew up, and every single one of them was cursing me out.

I was still scrolling through the comments when my brother suddenly walked over, our parents right behind him.

"Denise, I just talked it over with your sister-in-law. What really set her off was that you didn't give a wedding gift, so she lost control of her temper up on the stage."

"I hate to say it, but your brother's getting married, and you, his own sister, didn't offer a single thing. She got mad and hit you. Is that really so unfair to you?"

"You tell me, are you being wronged here or not!"

Mom scolded me too. "It's really not her fault for being angry. Denise, you handled this terribly! Luke is your only brother. How could you not offer a single thing at his wedding!"

Dad's face went hard. "Go apologize to your sister-in-law right now, and make up for the gift! It'd better be a big one. Don't embarrass the Barnes family!"

Monica spoke up for me. "Even if Denise didn't give a gift, that's no reason for Stella to hit her! She slapped Denise seven times in front of both families. It's outrageous. She's the one who should be apologizing!"

Luke jabbed a finger at Monica. "This is my family's business. Who are you, an outsider, to butt in? You don't get a say here!"

I pulled Monica behind me, then took a bank card out of my bag.

Luke asked, "What's this supposed to mean?"

"There's a million dollars on it. I was going to give it to you after the wedding was over."

Luke's face flipped in an instant. "You should've said so earlier. Now you've gone and made your sister-in-law misunderstand."

Just then Stella, changed into her toast-round dress, came drifting in.

My brother called out to her, excited. "Stella, my sister's giving us a million dollars for the wedding!"