A Funeral March for My Wedding

My fiancé’s adopted sister has a talent for pushing me to my breaking point.
I like my water ice-cold. She once swapped it for boiling water, leaving my mouth a landscape of swollen blisters.
I was rushing to a crucial meeting. She slashed my tires, making me miss the appointment and lose the contract.
…
This time, at the wedding I had dreamed of, she replaced our wedding march with a funeral dirge, then pouted with a look of feigned innocence.
“Oh, my silly brain,” she simpered. “I mixed them up. Which one was it again?”
The mournful music looped for half an hour.
Before I could even scream at her, my fiancé, Terence, was already soothing her.
“It’s not a big deal. We’ll just push the ceremony back a bit. Take your time, Bonnie. It’s your first time managing an event this big, it’s normal for things to go wrong.”
I was left standing on the altar alone, my white wedding gown feeling like a funeral shroud.
Finally, Bonnie found the right song.
Then, the rings went missing. After that, she managed to “trip” and drench me in tea.
My expression turned to ice.
That was it. I wasn't marrying him. No man was worth this kind of humiliation.

1
Terence frantically dabbed at my dress with a napkin, trying to make light of the situation for the guests.
“It’s nothing, everyone, just a little hiccup! Please be understanding, it’s Bonnie’s first time helping with a wedding.”
He then turned to my stony face, his tone teasing.
“You’re not going to throw a tantrum over a little thing like this, are you? Look, it’s all clean now.”
I looked down. A prominent brown stain marred the front of my gown.
It was hideous. Filthy.
This dress was my creation. I had poured my heart into it, collaborating with the designer on every single detail. I’d even driven through a rainstorm just to argue over the placement of a single pearl. The boutique staff had grown weary of my perfectionism.
“Miss Reed, it’s flawless. You’re going to be the most beautiful bride.”
And now…
Bonnie grabbed my arm, her eyes red-rimmed.
“Autumn, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
It was always like this. I would endure, and endure, and a flimsy apology was supposed to make it all go away. Not anymore.
The guests were murmuring amongst themselves, the air thick with awkwardness.
Terence’s grandfather struck the floor with his cane, then produced a small, ornate box.
“Autumn, this jade ring belonged to Terence’s grandmother. I was going to give it to you after your first child was born, but consider it a wedding gift.”
He gave Terence a pointed look.
Terence grabbed my hand, forcefully pulling me back onto the stage.
As the officiant tried to smooth things over, a semblance of festivity returned. Terence gazed at me, his eyes full of what was supposed to pass for love, waiting for me to recite my vows.
I just stared back at him and said, my voice cold and clear, “I don’t.”
The thorn in my heart was lodged too deep.
The smile on Terence’s face froze. He leaned in, hissing, “What are you doing? My grandfather just gave you Grandma’s ring. Don’t blow this out of proportion over a few little mistakes.”
Little mistakes. He had no idea how many times I’d listened to our wedding song to ensure it was perfect. He had no idea how many sleepless nights I’d spent poring over every detail of this day, all while juggling my demanding job. I had invested every ounce of my being into this, wanting to give myself the perfect beginning.
I had spent a small fortune to fly my family here, to finally show the people who’d always looked down on me that I had made it.
Instead, I had become a laughingstock.
My stepmother and stepsister were whispering, their smirks venomous.
“I knew it. As if she could ever marry into a family like this. We flew business class for this?”
I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood, willing myself not to cry.
Terence caught my gaze, and the rebuke on his lips died. He took the ring, trying to force it onto my finger, but the size was wrong. It squeezed my knuckle painfully.
“How can that be?”
I yanked my hand back.
“It’s meant for a ring finger after the vows. Of course it won’t fit a middle finger during them.”
The jade ring clattered to the floor. Bonnie immediately dove for it.
I walked over to her, ripped the veil from my hair, and crowned her with it.
“Congratulations.”

2
I ran. The wedding was, of course, canceled.
Terence gave me the silent treatment for days, until Bonnie was finally “punished” by the family.
See? They thought I was just some girl from a lower-class background who wouldn’t dare make a fuss. Only when they saw I was serious did they make a token gesture of disciplining her.
This relationship, with me always on the bottom rung, was exhausting.
Terence finally tracked me down, his face a thundercloud.
“Bonnie is being punished because of you. I need you to go to my grandfather and ask him to forgive her so we can move on. What’s the point of dragging this out? She’s my sister, not some stranger.”
I wrenched my hand from his grasp.
“Not my problem.”
His patience snapped. He shoved me toward his car, forcing me inside.
“You’re the one who started this mess! My family barely agreed to let me marry you in the first place, and now you pull this?”
A chilling cold spread through my chest.
It was true. I had worked so hard to be accepted by his prejudiced family.
But I had dignity. I was a person, not a doormat.
If that’s how it was, then it was time to make things crystal clear.
At the Vance estate, Terence took all the blame, which was really just another way of protecting Bonnie.
“Bonnie is still young,” he told his grandfather. “Ultimately, it was Autumn who didn’t explain things clearly enough. It wasn't her fault. It was mine, too. You can punish me instead.”
The old man ignored him, his sharp eyes fixed on me. Seeing my cold, unyielding expression, he barked, “Bonnie, apologize!”
Bonnie was reluctant, but one look at her grandfather’s stern face and she bowed her head.
“I’m sorry, Autumn. It was my fault. I’m just so clumsy, I’m always messing things up.”
As she raised a hand to wipe away a crocodile tear, the ancestral jade ring flashed on her finger.
I took a deep breath.
“We’re broken up. The wedding is off. It has nothing to do with anyone else. I’m the one who doesn’t want to continue.”
Terence’s face darkened, his body trembling with disbelief, as if he couldn't comprehend that those words had come from my mouth.
His grandfather gave me a few days to “reconsider.”
I walked out without another word.
To my surprise, Terence ignored Bonnie’s calls and ran after me.
“Autumn, let me drive you home. What did you mean back there? What do you mean we’re broken up? I didn’t agree to it.”
It was late and hard to find a cab, so I got in his car.
On the way, he rambled on, explaining and justifying, but I tuned him out, staring blankly at the cityscape rushing by.
Terence was about to say something else when his phone rang. His expression shifted instantly.
“She has a fever? Okay, I’m on my way back right now.”
He slammed on the brakes and pulled me out of the car.
“Autumn, you’ll have to get a cab from here. Something’s happened to Bonnie. She must have gotten sick from being so upset about her punishment tonight.”
The car sped away, leaving me alone in the biting wind.
Of course, there were no cabs. I walked the whole way home in a daze, my hands frozen stiff.
I couldn't help but think about how we started.
I met Terence one night years ago. After my father remarried, I became the family punching bag. Terence found me crying on a park bench, and after hearing my story, he stormed into my house with a wooden bat and smashed a coffee table to pieces.
“Don’t you ever touch Autumn again,” he’d roared at my family, “or you’ll have to go through me.”
He was the light that guided me forward.
Until his adopted sister returned from overseas. Suddenly, I wasn’t the center of his universe anymore. I couldn’t be carefree, couldn’t be his priority.
I was always second place.
I decided then and there to refocus my life. My future would belong to my career.

3
When Terence finally came back to our apartment, I had already taken down most of the red "Double Happiness" decorations.
He frowned, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind.
“Still angry? You’re the one who put all this up. You’ll just have to put it back later. What a hassle.”
He still thought I was just throwing a tantrum.
I looked at him calmly.
“That won’t be necessary.”
He didn’t hear me. He was busy typing on his phone, a bright, carefree smile on his face, just like when we first started dating.
“What did you say?”
The will to fight had left me. I silently slipped out of his embrace.
The next day, I was stopped at the entrance of my office. Our biggest client was inside, screaming. As he stormed out, he threw a contract at me.
“You brought me a plagiarized proposal! Do you have any idea the kind of legal trouble you almost got our company into?”
My heart plummeted.
The proposal was entirely my own work. I had the creation logs to prove it.
My boss looked at me with weary resignation.
“We all know you’re capable, Autumn. The accusation comes from a small startup, from a new hire. See if it’s someone you know. But for now… we have to let you go.”
His words echoed in the sudden silence.
“No, you can’t. I gave everything to this job. The early mornings, the late nights… you know how hard I’ve worked…”
But the look in his eyes didn't change. I knew he was already being lenient by not suing me for the damages to the company.
I walked home in a stupor. A text from my stepsister arrived, dripping with scorn.
“You worked so hard for a decade to get into a good university, and for what? Look at you now, with nothing. You were supposed to be such a role model.”
A lump formed in my throat. My fingers went numb. I had no words to fight back.
When I opened the door to my apartment, I found Terence and Bonnie celebrating her new full-time job.
I couldn't contain my rage any longer. I stormed up to her.
“Did you steal my proposal? Did you?!”
Bonnie’s eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t know! I thought it was just some old drafts. Terence said it was okay.”
That was the last straw. I slapped her across the face and tried to drag her out the door to go clear my name.
Terence grabbed my wrist, his grip like iron.
“If you do this, you’ll ruin Bonnie’s future! She just started her career. You slapped her. Isn’t that enough to make you feel better?”
My voice was a raw, broken scream.
“Do you have any idea that if she doesn’t go, my future is ruined? Everything I’ve worked for all these years, gone! You think a single slap is a fair trade for my entire life, Terence? How dare you even suggest that?”
Tears streamed down my face. Terence flinched under my gaze but stubbornly held his ground.
“If you lose your job, fine. I’ll take care of you. You won’t have to work.”
My tears felt like a sick joke. The words made me want to vomit.
“I don’t want you to take care of me! I want my name cleared! I want justice!”
Terence grabbed my shoulders, his voice rising in frustration.
“So you’d rather destroy Bonnie’s life instead?”
So, once again, I was the one who had to be sacrificed.
Bonnie, playing the victim, covered her face and ran from the room, deliberately shoving me as she passed. I stumbled backward, my lower back slamming into the sharp corner of a bookshelf. The pain was so intense I crumpled to the floor.
Terence gave me a single glance before chasing after her.
Between me and Bonnie, I would always, always be second.
I went to the hospital alone. My back was a canvas of deep, ugly bruises. The pain brought fresh tears to my eyes. There was no one to rush through the paperwork for me anymore. No one to gently blow on my injuries, whispering words of comfort.
I shut down my emotions and began to gather evidence.
I would get my justice.
I couldn’t rely on anyone else. From now on, I was my own staunchest ally.

4
I pulled security footage, backend server logs, every digital crumb I could find, and posted it all online. Then I filed a police report.
It didn't take long for Terence to find me. He was holding a tube of ointment, but he didn’t even ask about my injury.
“Just let this go. Can you please stop making a scene?”
He demanded I take down my posts and withdraw the police report.
Bonnie was threatening suicide.
He had to leave to be with her, but not before delivering an ultimatum.
“Autumn, don’t push me. I’m giving you one hour to take everything down.”
I didn’t understand what he meant at first. The story was exploding online. People were rallying to my side. Even my old boss called and promised that once things were cleared up, my job would be waiting for me.
A genuine smile touched my lips. I felt a surge of energy.
But it was short-lived. Terence turned all the evidence against me. He issued a public statement claiming the laptop, and therefore the original idea, was his. He had the receipts to prove it—it had been a promotion gift from him to me. That gift had just become the sharpest knife in his arsenal.
My smile dissolved into a cloud of despair.
He was a major player in our industry. And he was the person closest to me. His word was enough to turn the tide of public opinion.
“She’s the real thief! This is a criminal offense! Boycott Autumn Reed!”
I was doxxed. My personal information was plastered online. My assets were frozen to prepare for the “reputational damages” I owed Bonnie. I became a pariah overnight.
The only place I could find a moment of peace was at the cemetery.
I looked at my mother’s photograph on the headstone and broke down completely.
“Mom, I wanted to build a good life. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worthy. But it’s all gone. Everything I worked so hard to build has been destroyed.”
“I’m so tired. I can’t get back up.”
Just a few days ago, before the wedding, Terence had knelt in this very spot and promised he would give me a home. He promised he would make my mother proud.
I slumped against the cold marble and drifted off. In my dreams, I was an outcast, with no job, no money… nothing.
I awoke to find Terence standing over me, holding an umbrella to shield me from the sun.
“I know you’re hurting,” he said softly. “This is the last time, I promise. Bonnie didn’t mean for it to go this far. You have so many other options, other paths you can take.”
I didn't even have the energy to slap him.
“Paths? My love, my career, my future… they’re all gone. What paths are you talking about?”
His phone rang. He hesitated for a second before answering. It was Bonnie, sobbing on the other end.
“Autumn hired bots to attack me online!”
Terence spent a few moments placating her, promising he would handle it, before hanging up.
I laughed, a pale, brittle sound in the bright sunlight. He looked uncomfortable and tried to help me up.
“Once we’re married, everything I have is yours. You don’t need a career to define your self-worth.”
The wedding ring wasn't even mine, and he thought his possessions were?
I pushed myself to my feet.
“I don’t want your things. I want my life.”
He didn't understand. His frustration boiled over.
“Isn’t it a good thing? You won’t have to work at all! What more could you want? We’ll have a few kids… it’ll be a better life than the one you came from. You should be grateful. You were fine with it before, why not now?”
The broken window effect… once a boundary is crossed, it’s easier to cross it again and again.
I was done. We were never on the same path.
As Terence’s face grew darker, I let go of my last restraint. There was one thing that was truly equal for everyone: life itself.
“Terence,” I said, my voice dangerously calm, “if you keep pushing me, I will drag you both down to hell with me. You can be the pallbearers at my life’s funeral.”

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