I stood in the ruins of the barn reception, in my dirty wedding dress, staring at the spot where Dex and Priya should have been standing, where my family should have been laughing.
Dex. If anyone understood how hopeless the situation was that pushed me to sell my myself. It would be Dex. He was there. He told me 'by any means necessary'...he said Liam would do the same for me.
I found Dex's number and I called it.
It rang. And rang. And then, finally, he picked up.
"Helene?" His voice was flat. Careful. Not the easygoing Dex.
"D-Dex?" My voice was thick with unshed tears. "Where are you? Please… I need… I need to talk to you. Please come back to the barn. Liam… he…" I couldn't finish. A sob escaped from me.
A heavy sigh came down the line. "Helene… I don't think that's a good idea."
"Please, Dex!" The plea tore out of me "I know, you saw the video but you are the only who was there, the only one who could understand. Liam was dying! He needed the money! It was… it was all I had! The only thing of value I could give to save him! I had to!. You explain to Liam that I had to or he was going to die!"
The words tumbled out, desperate justification for the unforgivable. "I did it for him! Because I loved him! Because I couldn't lose him!"
Silence. Then, his voice, colder than I'd ever heard it came. "Helene, that's nonsense."
The word hit me like a physical blow. Nonsense. My sacrifice. My desperation. My shattered soul. Nonsense.
"Dex, please…"
"Look," he cut in, his tone hardening. "What you did… selling yourself like that… it's… it's messed up, Helene. Seriously messed up. And lying to Liam? Letting him believe… what he believed? After everything? I can't… I can't even look at you right now." His voice dropped, final. "Don't call me again."
The line went dead.
Silence. Deeper this time. The spark died, drowned in a fresh wave of my despair. Dex, the easygoing friend, the one who'd shared beers and band practices, had looked right through my explanation and seen only the tawdry act. He'd judged me. Condemned me. Just like Liam.
I stood there. Rooted to the spot. The fairy lights blurred into streaks of color. The scent of the uneaten food turned sickly sweet and I watched the video play on.
Time lost meaning. Minutes? Hours? I just stood in the center of the empty devastation, in my soiled white dress unable to move.
Eventually, a primal need to escape the scene of my execution kicked in.
My legs carried me towards the barn's side entrance, the one leading to the gravel parking lot. I moved like an automaton, the train of my dress snagging on unseen debris, dragging through unseen dust.
As I neared the heavy wooden door, voices filtered through – urgent whispers coming from just outside. It was Dex's voice. And Priya's.
"…can't believe he did that, Dex!" Priya's voice was tight with anger.
"It was out of his hands" Dex said.
"Oh spare me! His cousin, Clara told him she can bury the story, instead he leaked it to the Internet himself. On their wedding day
That's… that's monstrous!"
My breath hitched. Sent it? Leaked it? Himself?
Wait! The video was everywhere?!
"I know, Pri," Dex sighed, sounding weary, conflicted. "It's brutal. But… after what she did? The lying? The… the selling? Liam's destroyed. He found out last night. Liam… he just snapped, I guess. It's too much, you know seeing your girl turned into a 'public toilet' for money. Said he wanted the world to see who she really was. Wanted her to feel the humiliation he felt."
"So he ruined her?" Priya hissed. "Publicly? Instead of just… I don't know, talking to her? Calling it off privately? Dex, I don't understand. I thought he loved her. Didn't he write like a million songs about her, one ended up on Spotify! I mean I'm not justifying what she did but it was to save his life"
"He doesn't see it like that, Pri," Dex argued, but weakly. "He sees it as the ultimate betrayal. He feels… polluted. And yeah, maybe he went nuclear, but…"
"Polluted?" Priya's voice rose. "She did something horrific, yes, out of pure desperation to save him! And his response is to destroy her publicly? To leak that video to every gossip site? To make sure the whole world points and laughs while she's standing there in her wedding dress?" Her voice broke. "That's not justice, Dex. That's sadism. He's scum."
The world tilted violently. The rough wood of the wall scraped against my back, but I felt nothing. Nothing except the shattering, earth-splitting truth.
Liam.
He found out last night.
He got the footage.
He sent it anonymously.
He leaked it.
He orchestrated this public execution.
He chose the wedding day.
He wanted me humiliated.
He wanted the world to see.
All the pain, the betrayal, the contempt from Liam… it had been bad enough. But this? This calculated cruelty? This deliberate destruction? It wasn't just rejection. It was annihilation. By the man I sold my soul to save.
A wave of pure, unadulterated horror – deeper than shame, more profound than heartbreak – crashed over me. It stole the air, the light, the ground beneath my feet. Priya's furious whispers and Dex's weak protests faded into a distant buzz.
The last thing I saw was the dusty floor of the barn rushing up to meet me. Then, nothing.