We Planned Nine Weddings, All Canceled For His Superstitious Childhood Friend Chapter 06

We Planned Nine Weddings, All Canceled For His Superstitious Childhood Friend Chapter 06

“Wait, what is this? Is she here to stop the wedding and get Julian back?””

“From the looks of it, she’s here for revenge.”

“I just saw her Instagram post. She says she married this guy. You think she Photoshopped the certificate just to piss Julian off?”

Julian’s mother went livid.

“Mara Bennett, what are you doing here? Haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough? Take your little boyfriend and get out! Keep this up and you’ll never be welcome in the Prescott family again!

I ignored every voice around me.

Still holding Elliot’s hand, I walked slowly toward the front of the ballroom.

The noise faded as I crossed the room. Every pair of eyes followed me until I stopped directly in front of Julian.

Sienna spoke first, her voice soft and innocent.

“Mara, perfect timing. Our ceremony is almost over. Once it’s done, you and Julian can go back to

normal. Just don’t make a scene right now. If this blows up, everyone will be embarrassed.”

Julian looked at me with open irritation.

“Sienna’s right. Go back. Don’t make a scene.”

My so-called best friend rushed over and grabbed my arm.

“Mara, stop. You’re making this awkward for everyone. Take this man and leave. If you keep this up, even if Julian marries you afterward, his family will make your life miserable.”

I jerked my arm free.

Then I took the microphone and pulled the marriage certificate from my pocket.

My voice rang clearly through the ballroom.

“There’s no need to speculate. I am married. The man standing beside me is my legal husband, Elliot Vaughn.”

The laughter died instantly.

The entire ballroom went dead silent.

Julian went rigid.

The condescending irritation on his face vanished.

The fantasy he had been clinging to-that I had faked the photo out of spite-shattered right in

front of him.

He couldn’t make sense of it.

He couldn’t understand how I could marry someone else when I had loved him for so long.

His thoughts spiraled, and he latched onto the idea that I had only come back to create a scene and get his attention. He could barely stop himself from demanding an explanation in front of everyone

The fragile, innocent expression on Sienna’s face stiffened.

Her fingers dug into the skirt of her wedding dress.

Low whispers rippled through the crowd again.

I spoke again.

“I didn’t come here to stop the wedding and get Julian back. I came to clear up a few things that have been buried for years.”

Elliot gave a small nod to one of the staff members.

The large screen lit up.

The hospital’s complete donor and transplant records, surgical records, and signed paperwork

appeared for everyone to see.

[2006

Donor: Mara Bennett

Recipient: Julian Prescott]

The proof was right there in black and white.

There was no explaining it away.

I looked coolly at Julian and Sienna, both of them visibly shaken.

“I don’t know why everyone spent all these years believing Sienna was the one who saved Julian. Back then, I chose to keep my identity private when I donated a kidney to him. I wanted nothing in

return. But Sienna took the credit for saving his life.”

The ballroom erupted.

Sienna went deathly pale and swayed on her feet before rushing toward the screen as if she could

somehow block it from view, her voice shaking with panic.

“No! It’s fake! She forged all of this! Julian, don’t believe her!”

I didn’t even glance at her. My voice turned colder.

“Because everyone believed that lie, they excused everything she did and took her side every single time.”

“Julian and I planned nine weddings. Every one of them was canceled because Sienna claimed the reading was bad or our charts were incompatible.”

“And today, at what was supposed to be my wedding, all she had to say was that I shouldn’t be at the altar while I was on my period, and just like that, she took my place as the bride.”

Bitterness tightened my voice, but every word came out clear and steady.

“And then there’s my grandmother.”

“She saw the two of you all over each other with her own eyes. The shock was too much for her heart, and she died furious and heartbroken.”

The room exploded again.

“Oh my God. That’s what really happened?”

“Sienna stole credit for saving his life and put Mara through ten years of hell!”

“Julian got played completely. How could he be that blind?”

“Who could go through all that and just let it go? She’s been treated horribly!”

Whispers, murmurs of disbelief, and open contempt came at Julian and Sienna from every

direction.

Julian stood rigid, cold all over.

Every detail he had ignored over the past ten years, every way he had failed me, every absurd time.