The Wedding Crash I

Chaos erupted in the wedding hall as stunned gasps and sharp inhales flew out from the lips of the people who should've been her wedding guests.

Rebecca didn't understand what was so surprising about her act.

Did they think she was dumb, or were they just plain stupid?

Everyone had heard about the news of her marriage. Were they trying to act like they didn't know who she was? That Patricia wasn't the first child?

Yet, she didn't care. She didn't care about the look on their faces and was not interested in their faux display of emotions. They were all betrayers. Just like her family... just like Jacob.

The second her foot stepped into the hall, a sharp pang of hurt shot through her at the fact that this was her reality. A small part of her had wished he'd prove her wrong. That this time, as always, he'd be on her side.

But nothing changed. Her face grew darker as they took in his shell-shocked state.

"What?" Rebecca gave a sinister smile. "I'm sure my invitation got lost in the mail or something?" She gestured to the ruined wedding dress with the ripped side stained with blood from a tear on the skin the pen had caused. "Do you like my outfit? It's the wedding dress you picked out for me."

"Oh my..." The officiator staggered with an expression of horror, unable to believe the words his ears were receiving were what his brain was interpreting. "What is going on here?"

"That's something only my stepsister and fiancé can give answers to—would you like to do the honours, Patricia?"

Sensing that the tables were beginning to turn, Patricia pulled on a well-practiced, saddened look. "Rebecca, why are you doing this here? Is it my fault that Jacob loved me first?" Tears welled up in her eyes. "You've been trying to come between us and almost succeeded; now you're back?"

Rebecca let out a scornful laugh at her words. Her jaw would've dropped at how quick her stepsister was to come up with a lie like that if her stepmother hadn't said the same a few hours ago.

Was this their makeshift story?

She eyed her,  "Are you sure you're saying it right? Isn't it the other way around?"

"That is enough, Rebecca!" Jacob barked, gathering a sobbing Patricia into his arms. "Why are you so hell-bent on ruining other people's happiness?"

"Me?" She crossed half of the space between them in anger. "I didn't ruin anyone's happiness. If anything, you all did that to me! I had no one else, Jacob. You know now how much I detest my family, yet you sided with them to bring me down?"

"What did you expect from me? To marry a whore?"

A wave of nausea washed over her.  The hall seemed to tilt, the guests blurring into indistinct shapes as Rebecca clenched her hands into fists.

How could he say that?

The expressions on the guests' faces as Jacob said those words made her heart sink. They were like a stabbing knife, inflicting the most gruesome pain on her.

Of course, how could she forget? How could she forget the reason he had claimed to abandon her?

"Do you trust what Patricia told you?" She asked painfully. Perhaps he would have a change of heart if he could see the sincerity in her eyes. "You could've asked me. Do you have any trust in me at all?"

"I don't!" Jacob fumed. "Not after what I heard."

"I think we've said enough." A snobby familiar voice cut in. "You've heard him; you have ten seconds to get yourself out of here before I get the security to do it for you!" The elderly woman whom Rebecca had been trailing after previously, walked up to her with a glower.

When did she get here? Wasn't she with her brother a while ago? Where was he?

Rebecca tutted, eyeing the woman with a venomous look, "...and so the stepmother walks in—

—excuse me? That is no way to speak to me!" Mrs Park screeched.

"Aren't you my stepmother?" She sneered. "Listen, I am here for Jacob and Patricia only. You're next. Walk away or I won't be responsible for my actions."

"How dare you talk to me this way." Her stepmother raved, her hands rising above her head to deliver a resounding hit but Rebecca was well prepared this time, and she'd be damned if she let anyone, let alone a liar, make a mockery of her again.

Her hand met her stepmother's midair, her contemptuous gaze fixed on the elderly woman.

"I am done taking such insolence from you." She spat, her words dripping with hatred. "Try to hit me one more time, and I won't hesitate to retaliate." Rebecca's voice was deadly calm.

Mrs Park blinked rapidly, her mouth agape as she studied the young lady who looked to be her stepdaughter but wasn't acting like it.

Is this... Rebecca? Where did she find such courage?

She was so used to trampling over the poor child that she found it hard to believe she could speak up for herself. Anger coursed through her veins, and her face reddened with embarrassment.

How dare she speak to her that way? Moreso in front of a large crowd?

Not wanting to go down without a fight, Mrs. Park cried out, "After all I've done for you, took you as my own, yet you repay me and your sister with this shame? Why would you do this?"

Another set of whispers began to fly around. As human beings only care about what they see; therefore, the guests sympathised with her, painting Rebecca as the wrong and unfilial child.

No one knew the actual truth, but the sorrowful look on her stepmother's face was enough to win them over.

Yet Rebecca didn't care.

They hurled insults at her, but she was beyond the point of acknowledging their words; She was here for one thing and one thing alone.

Ruining this wedding, finding the murderer.

She wouldn't let them get away with it.  Not after what they'd done to her, to her mother.  Ruining this wedding was the first step.  She'd expose their lies, their betrayal, and then she'd find the one who had killed Uncle Steve.

This would be her revenge.

"You would make a decent actress." She joked. "You all can do whatever you want but no one would be getting married here today!"

"Rebecca!" A deep voice boomed, one that had been a bystander and onlooker of her stepmother's ill-treatment.

Didn't he disown her a few hours ago?

"Compose yourself! Remember where you are. I would not have you tarnish my name."

"It's already the centre of discussion. People need to know why a man abandoned his child and placed her at the mercy of his  mistress-turned-wife,"

"That is enough!" Jacob seethed, heaving heavily. "I have had enough of this!" Carefully crossing the remaining distance, he stopped two steps away from Rebecca, "I can never be with you, Rebecca. Why would I want to when I never loved you!"

Rebecca's world stopped at the confession of the man she would once give up her life for, without batting an eyelid.

What?