The Two-Tiered Wedding Chapter 1

Right before the wedding ceremony was supposed to start, my mom found me, her face dark with anger.

"Chloe, did you arrange the catering for the reception?"

I nodded, confused.

I had personally handled all the catering details. We even went to several different hotels for tastings before settling on this one.

My mom froze for a second, then glared at me.

"Are you out of your mind?! I gave you thirty thousand dollars, and this is the garbage you serve at your wedding?!"

"Your husband's family gets top-shelf whiskey, premium steak, and lobster!"

"And you serve our relatives cheap beer and generic chicken?!"

"Do you have any idea how humiliating this is going to be for your father in front of our entire extended family?!"

I was completely stunned. We paid for the exact same premium catering package for every single table. How could there be such a massive discrepancy?

Just as I was about to storm out of the bridal suite to find the hotel manager, my husband, Liam, grabbed my arm.

"The ceremony is about to start. If you go now, you'll delay the schedule and ruin the timing."

Then, he muttered under his breath:

"Besides, I'm the one who told them to change it. Why would you go yell at the hotel?"

* * *

Even though Liam muttered it under his breath, I heard him perfectly clearly.

My brain stalled for a second before the realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

The two-tiered catering—the blatant disrespect toward my family—was Liam's doing!

I forced down the raging fire in my chest and tried to keep my voice level.

"Why? I paid the hotel in full for the premium package. Why did you change it?"

"You downgraded the food and drinks for my side of the family. How are my relatives supposed to look at my parents now?"

"Did you even consider for a second that after this wedding, my parents won't be able to show their faces in front of our family and friends?"

Despite my best efforts to stay calm, my voice unconsciously rose into a shout.

Liam looked away, too guilty to meet my eyes.

My mom's face was livid. She was breathing heavily, on the absolute verge of an explosion.

But maintaining the elegant, composed image she had cultivated for years, she held it in and said to me in a low, tight voice:

"The ceremony starts in thirty minutes. I am giving you exactly ten minutes to find a reasonable solution to this mess."

After she finished, my mom shot Liam an icy, lethal glare, turned on her heel, and walked out.

The bridal suite fell dead silent. The only sound was our breathing.

"Honey, please, just listen to me explain..."

After a long, uncomfortable silence, Liam took a deep breath and reached out to take my hand.

I took a step back, pulled up a chair, sat down, and stared at him silently.

Liam awkwardly withdrew his hand and scratched his head, pretending it wasn't a big deal.

"Look, honey. The premium catering package is eight hundred dollars a table. We booked twenty-eight tables, plus three reserves."

"If we used the premium package for everyone, the money your mom gave you wouldn't be enough."

"Plus, your family alone takes up twenty-one tables! If we kept the premium package, we'd end up having to pay the difference out of our own pockets!"

Liam counted on his fingers, eagerly breaking down the math for me.

"But changing the package changes everything!"

A look of calculated greed flashed in his eyes—a look I had never seen before.

My heart grew colder by the second. This hidden side of Liam was completely rewriting my understanding of the man I was about to marry.

"I talked to the hotel manager and downgraded the catering for your family's tables to the basic hundred-and-fifty-dollar package."

"By doing that, we'll actually have money left over from your mom's budget after the wedding! We can use that extra cash to take my parents on a nice vacation with us!"

When Liam mentioned the vacation, his eyes lit up with excitement.

It was as if he was already sitting on a beach with his parents.

I, on the other hand, was completely dumbfounded. I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined he would go behind my back like this.

Sneaking off to the hotel manager to downgrade the food, without even bothering to consult the person who was actually paying the bill.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear my own wedding to the ground!