My Mother Paid 100,000 For A Makeup Artist, He Sent Her To His Sister Chapter 04

My Mother Paid 100,000 For A Makeup Artist, He Sent Her To His Sister Chapter 04

At some point, my parents had come to stand beside me without my noticing.

My mother had spent decades in business and never hesitated when hard decisions had to be made. She never let her emotions show, but even a saint would have lost her temper by then. Without saying a word,

she took my hand and patted it reassuringly.

A vein throbbed at my father’s temple. His eyes were red as he took the phone from me, but his voice

remained calm.

“Nolan, Ruby is our only daughter. No one gets to hurt her while I’m standing here.”

“You and Ruby have been together for seven years, and now you’ve finally made it to your wedding day. We all want the wedding to go smoothly. You may not understand how we feel, and we won’t hold that against you. I’m asking you to do one thing. Send Susan here now and show me that you truly intend to marry Ruby.”

Nolan hesitated for a long moment.

“Dad, we need to think about the bigger picture. Please convince Ruby to let one of the other artists do her makeup. We’re about to head over for the first look, and all the relatives are already here. We can’t let people

turn us into a laughingstock.”

“After the wedding, you can yell at me or hit me. I’ll do whatever it takes to make this right.”

“Don’t call me Dad.”

My father ended the call in disappointment.

I took my phone back and opened the wedding-planning group chat.

Me: [Cancel the bridal-party getting-ready photo session and the first-look and departure sequence at my

parents’ home.]

The wedding coordinator replied almost immediately.

Wedding coordinator: [Should the rest of the schedule continue as planned?]

I thought for a moment before answering.

Me: [Keep filming. We’ll decide the rest later.]

I raised my head. “Mom, Dad, I don’t want to let this go.”

My parents exchanged a look.

My father stepped forward and gently wiped away my tears.

“Ruby, don’t be afraid.”

I had heard those words for twenty-seven years. As long as he was beside me, I truly had nothing to fear.

“I’ll call your uncles and all those cousins of yours and have them come over right now.”

I was an only child, but my father had several brothers, and between them, they had around a dozen sons.

After that whole string of boys, I was born as the only girl in my generation of the Bennett family, so

everyone doted on me.

My mother pulled me into a brief hug. “Whatever you decide to do next, I’m with you.”

She called over one of the makeup artists she had found at the last minute.

“Please do my daughter’s makeup first. She doesn’t need bridal makeup anymore. Just make her look

polished and put together.”

Then she turned away to call Susan.

“If you can’t make it here, that’s fine. Don’t do makeup for anyone else who has nothing to do with us.”

“We’ll still pay you in full.”

Brooke muttered curses about Nolan under her breath while Hannah rubbed my back sympathetically.

My aunt, who had witnessed everything, was furious too. “I’ll explain the situation to the rest of the family.

No one gets to treat you like this.”

The videographer gave me an okay sign, letting me know he had recorded everything.

Nolan called several more times, but I rejected every call.

I took off the ivory satin bridal robe I had been wearing for the getting-ready photos and changed into one of

my usual white dresses.

Sitting in front of the mirror, I looked at Nolan’s latest text and let out a derisive laugh.

Nolan: [Baby, I’ll be there in an hour and a half to take you to the venue. Be good.]

The makeup artist continued working on my makeup.

Maybe because things had already gone so badly, the anxiety that had consumed me ever since I learned

Susan had been sent to someone else unexpectedly faded, leaving me strangely calm.

My seven years with Nolan played through my mind like a movie.

We had been classmates in college. He had fallen for me at first sight and pursued me relentlessly.

Nolan was tall, handsome, and outgoing. He was also a year ahead of me, which only made him seem more attractive. Falling for him had felt inevitable.

We dated, studied together, and traveled, spending four happy years side by side.

Then I graduated, and we moved back to Chicago to build our careers. That was when Lila began appearing

in our lives more and more often.