My Mother-in-Law Chose My Best Friend Over Me

"Jocelyn, what on earth happened?" I turned my hand to hold my mother's and patted it, steadying her, then told them exactly what had happened up on the stage, start to finish. My father's face went black on the spot. "The Swansons have gone too far!" He ripped the boutonniere off his chest, flung it to the floor, and turned to march straight up toward the stage. By then Earl had chased his way down after me. "Dad, don't be angry, it's all a misunderstanding." "Jocelyn just has a stubborn temper. She blows the smallest thing out of proportion." "Beth is her best friend. My mom took her in as a goddaughter, so the two of them will only be closer from now on. That's a good thing!" My father stared him down, shaking with rage. "A good thing?" "My daughter gets married, and her welcome gift is eight dollars and eighty-eight cents." "An outsider walks away with ten thousand and one?" "Is that how your Swanson family treats people?" The smile froze on Earl's face, but he still tried to talk his way out of it. "Dad, more or less, the money's just a token of feeling—" "Token of feeling, my ass!" My father was a mild-mannered man. He'd spent half his life teaching, and never once raised his voice at anyone. Today he swore outright. He shoved Earl back with one hand. "Get out of my way!" Sharon came down from the stage too, dragging Beth along, her face sour, and she screamed across at my father. "What's that supposed to mean, sir?" "How exactly did we Swansons mistreat anyone?" "Jocelyn's a cheap little gold-digger throwing herself at us for free, and she wants more welcome money on top of that? She's the one pitching a fit and calling off the wedding. It's your Henson family losing face here!" Back then Earl had told me all the family money was tied up in an investment that had gone bad, that he had barely anything left on hand. I'd felt for him, so I never asked for a bride price. I'd even taken on some of the wedding costs myself. And now, out of someone else's mouth, that made me the one throwing myself at them. I looked at her coldly. "Your family sent one person and nothing else to this marriage. Word gets around, and it's not so clear whose face is on the line!" That stopped Sharon short. Her eyes started to dart away. But her mouth still wouldn't back down. "Our Earl is a fine-looking, accomplished man! Plenty of girls are lining up to marry him!" "If so many girls are lining up, then go let him marry one of them." I turned and took my parents' hands. "Dad, Mom, let's go." Earl panicked, strode forward, and grabbed my wrist. "Jocelyn, if you walk out that door today, don't ever think about coming back!" I wrenched my hand free. "Earl, I'll say it one more time." "This wedding is off. As of now, there's nothing between us." With that I turned and walked straight to the dressing room in the back. My mother followed behind me. My father stayed out front, calling for our relatives to leave the banquet. "There won't be any dinner today. I'm sorry to have dragged you all out here for nothing. Another day I'll set out a table myself and make it up to you." The relatives stood up one after another, not one of them wasting a word on questions, and headed straight for the door. The Swanson side stayed in their seats, looking at one another. Inside the dressing room, I reached back and locked the door. My mother, eyes rimmed red, helped me pull down the zipper at the back of the wedding dress. Her hands were shaking the whole time, and the tears finally spilled over. "Jocelyn, we can't let this go like this. They've bullied you too far." I nodded. "Mom, don't worry. It's not going to end like this." Just then came a violent pounding on the door, along with Earl's furious, frantic shouting. "Jocelyn! Open this door!" I finished changing, twisted my hair up carelessly, walked over, and pulled the door open.

Earl came bursting in, his mother, Sharon James, and Beth Fox right behind him. The second Beth was through the door, she dropped to her knees in front of me. "Joss, whatever went wrong, it's all my fault." "I shouldn't have taken Auntie's envelope. I shouldn't have called her Mom." "Hit me, scream at me, whatever you want. Just please, stop being angry with Earl." I looked at her putting on this whole show, and all I felt was how ridiculous it was. "Beth, what exactly are you performing here?" "You really think I don't know what you've been up to?" From the moment we started planning the wedding, she'd used the excuse of "helping me keep an eye on things" to spend more and more time around Earl. Picking the wedding dress, she insisted on trying it on for me, then asked Earl whether she looked good in it. The menu tasting, she made a point of sitting beside Earl, the two of them laughing over everything. I'd thought she was just being enthusiastic. Now it was obvious. She'd been working behind my back the whole time. Seeing Beth on her knees, Earl rushed to bend down and pull her up, tucking her against him. "Jocelyn, Beth has gone this far, and you still want more? Do you have to drag this out and make it this ugly? Do you have a shred of empathy in you?" Sharon jumped in right behind him, jabbing a finger in my face. "Exactly! Look how sensible Beth is. Not like you, not an ounce of generosity in you." "Let me tell you, if you don't go through with this wedding today, from now on you're a used-up piece of trash nobody wants!" That made me let out a small snort. "Used-up trash?" "Ma'am, the last century ended a long time ago. You still walking around with that kind of thinking?" "I never signed a marriage license with your son. I'm a single woman with a clean record, and calling this off is just cutting my losses in time." "Your son, on the other hand, carrying on with the maid of honor at his own wedding, now that's an animal who can't keep it in his pants." Sharon's face went a mottled purple, the finger she was pointing at me trembling. "You... you ill-bred little thing!" "Fine! You won't do it? Plenty of people will!" She walked over to Beth and grabbed her hand. "There are dozens of tables of food already out there, paid for. Not going through with it would be a waste!" "This banquet today, we're changing it right now to Earl and Beth's!" "I liked Beth better from the start anyway! And besides, Beth is already carrying our Swanson family's child!" My mother sucked in a sharp breath and gripped my arm without thinking. I turned to look at Beth. She had her head down, both hands folded over her flat stomach, but she couldn't stop that smug little smile at the corner of her mouth. Five years, my closest friend. Three years, my fiancé. While I'd been running myself ragged over this wedding, the two of them had already gone and made a baby. My stomach turned over, a wave I couldn't hold down. Seeing the whole thing was out in the open now, Earl let out a sigh. "Joss, since my mom's already said it, I won't keep it from you either." "Beth and I, that one time was just an accident. Everyone had too much to drink and lost control." "But you have to believe me, the person I really love is you. It's you I've been sincere with." He took a step forward, something almost charitable in his eyes. "Joss, we've got three years between us at least. I don't want to make this any uglier than it has to be." "So I'm giving you one last chance today. Go change your clothes, go back out there, and finish the rest of the ceremony." "As for Beth... she's your best friend too. You can't really watch her baby grow up with no name and no standing, can you?" "Once the baby's born, we'll just put it under your name. It can call you its real mother."

“You don't have to carry it for nine months, you don't have to go through the pain of childbirth, and you get a healthy baby boy for free. You come out ahead, don't you?” I couldn't hold back another second. My hand shot up and slapped Earl across the face. “Get out.” “Take your mother and your mistress, and get out of my sight. Now.” Earl clutched his cheek, staring at me like he couldn't believe it. “Fine, fine, fine, Jocelyn, you chose this! Don't you dare regret it!” “Mom, Beth, let's go! All these tables of good food and good wine, we'll eat them ourselves!” They'd barely stepped out before the hotel's lobby manager knocked and came in, looking troubled. “Miss Henson, what's going on out there?” “Mr. Swanson was just shouting that the bride had been swapped, telling the emcee to announce it all over again.” “And your relatives are leaving, whole groups of them, one after another.” “The kitchen's asking me whether they should still bring out the thirty tables of premium seafood you ordered.” I was about to say no, then an idea came to me. “Serve it. Why wouldn't you?” “It's their big happy day. Of course the good food and good wine should go out. Every last dish.” Earl and his mother assumed I'd already paid the thirty tables in full. After all, every piece of this wedding, from the venue down to a single piece of candy, I'd arranged myself. But what they didn't know was that the owner of this hotel was my college senior. Back when I booked the venue, he hadn't taken a cent of deposit from me. We'd agreed I'd settle the whole thing tomorrow, once the banquet was over. Which meant those thirty tables outside were, right up to this moment, still completely unpaid. I looked at the manager and smiled. “Do me a favor and pass a message to the owner.” “From this moment on, that banquet out there has nothing to do with me. Not a single cent.” “Whoever's wearing the wedding dress, whoever's toasting on that stage, whoever's eating this meal, that's who you bill.” “And if they try to skip the bill, don't hold back. Lock the doors and call the police.” The manager blinked, then caught on completely. He'd been in this business for years. What kind of circus hadn't he seen? “Don't worry, Miss Henson. I know exactly what to do.” Once everything was handled, I took my parents by the arm and walked out of the hotel. In the car on the way home, I idly opened my social media. Sure enough, Beth couldn't wait. She'd already posted. In the photo, she was wearing the toasting dress that was supposed to be mine, nestled against Earl. Sharon stood beside her, holding her hand, grinning ear to ear. The caption read: 【The right person at the right time. Double blessings. Thank you to my mother-in-law for all her love, and to my husband for stepping up.】 Below it, a few of the Swanson relatives had liked it and left comments: 【Beth really is a better match for our Earl.】 【That spread looks amazing, those lobsters look so fresh. That fool from the Henson family doesn't know what she's missing.】 Reading it, I wasn't angry at all. I nearly laughed out loud. Eat up. Eat plenty. I only worried that whatever you swallowed now, you'd be spitting right back up soon enough. The banquet wound down. The guests, full of food and wine, started drifting out one by one with their party favors. Earl, face flushed red from drinking, strutted along with his arm around Beth, ready to leave in the middle of a crowd of relatives. That was when two rows of uniformed security guards appeared out of nowhere and blocked the way. The manager stepped in front of Earl, bill in hand, wearing a polished professional smile. “Mr. Swanson, congratulations on your marriage.” “Today you booked thirty tables of premium seafood, for a total of five hundred thousand dollars.” “Will you be paying by scan or by card?”