Chapter 2

I reached for the door, ready to get out, when the back end of the car suddenly dropped.

The sudden drop slammed my elbow and head against the door.

A sharp burst of pain made me suck in a breath. And the scene around me erupted into chaos.

"The rear wheel fell into the drainage ditch!"

"Someone help! Get over here!"

"Nathan! Nathan, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Two of my groomsmen immediately rushed over and banged on the window, frantically checking to make sure I was alright.

I raised a hand to my forehead. When I pulled it back, my fingers were wet.

In the rearview mirror, I saw Emma running toward the wedding car, looking frantic.

But as she got closer, I realized that she wasn't running toward my tilted car at all. Instead, she ran straight to the other vehicle.

"Are you freaking blind? Do you realize that you scared Ryan?" Emma snapped, pointing angrily at the other driver.

People from both wedding parties exchanged glances, covering their mouths to hide their laughter.

They weren't laughing at the car. They were laughing at me.

I closed my eyes, wishing I could disappear, not wanting to stay there for another second.

The driver tried for several minutes to free the trapped rear wheel, but it still wouldn't budge.

Soon, everyone had gathered around the car, discussing how to get it out of the ditch.

"Shouldn't the groom get out first?" someone suggested. "What if he gets hurt while we're lifting the car?"

"Yeah, better safe than sorry. It's his wedding day, after all."

Everyone agreed.

When Emma returned after checking on Ryan, she immediately shook her head.

"No. Nathan can only get out once we reach our destination. I already got out of the car earlier, and if the groom gets out halfway through the journey too, it would be considered a huge disrespect to our tradition."

I smiled bitterly at her words.

So she knew. She knew exactly how disrespectful it was for the bride to get out of the car before reaching the destination. Yet when it came to Ryan, she hadn't hesitated for even a second.

Everyone fell silent.

It took everyone working together to finally pull the car out of the ditch.

Once it was back on the road, Emma gathered up the long train of her wedding dress and turned to me, her smile bright.

"Nathan, you're not hurt, are you? I'm sorry for causing so many problems today. How about we go to the Marivelle Islands for our honeymoon after the wedding?"

She had always known exactly how to use that impossibly gentle voice to calm me down.

But this time, I didn't want to be comforted. I just wanted to leave.

"When we reach the next turnoff, I'll head home on my—"

I didn't even get to finish my sentence when someone screamed, "Emma! Ryan twisted his ankle!"

The moment Emma heard that Ryan was hurt, she turned without a second thought and hurried toward the other wedding convoy.

For a moment, as I watched her rush toward him, I couldn't help but feel like she was the bride of that wedding—not mine.

My groomsmen were furious.

Walter shook his head. "If he twisted his ankle, then tell him to sit down and rest. What's the big deal?"

Joshua scoffed. "There are more than a dozen grown men over there, and they can't handle a single thing themselves. The second something happens, they call Emma!"

Joshua turned to me, his expression tight with frustration. "Nathan, if you hadn't sworn you'd marry no one but Emma, I would've dragged you out of here myself a long time ago."

I simply smiled. I wouldn't be staying here much longer either.

The person coming to pick me up was already on the way.

A few moments later, Emma returned from Ryan's car, where she'd been crouching beside him and checking his injury.

She frowned, shoved one of my groomsmen aside, and yanked open my door.

Her voice was urgent, leaving no room for argument. "Ryan twisted his ankle. You're a doctor. Get out and take a look at him!"

I moved farther into my seat, trying to put as much distance between us as I could while she tried to pull me out.

My groomsmen immediately stepped between us.

Joshua frowned. "Emma, you just said so yourself that getting out of the car before we reach the wedding venue would be disrespectful to our tradition. Did you already forget?"

Walter nodded. "Exactly. Ryan merely twisted his ankle. It's not like he's dying. He's a grown man in perfectly good health. Why is everyone acting like this is some huge emergency? Put some ice on it and call it a day."

Joshua finally snapped, "Can you stop making Nathan sacrifice everything for Ryan?"

Their words made my throat tighten, as if an invisible hand was squeezing it.

But Emma ignored them completely. If anything, she only tried harder to pull me out of the car.

"Nathan, this is an emergency. Can you put that old-fashioned tradition aside just this once?"

"Emma, I don't want to." The sadness in my voice was impossible to miss.

She flinched as though my words had struck her, but it was only for a moment.

Her expression hardened, and her voice turned cold.

"Just do it, Nathan. I'll give you whatever you want in return. Okay?"

She paused before adding, "Ryan has always been in poor health. Even a minor injury could take him a long time to recover from."

I looked into her stubborn, worried eyes and gave a bitter laugh.

"Whatever I want?"

"Yes." Her voice was firm.

"Then we're done," I said.