Our Family Wedding: One Stranger

Previously: Our Family Wedding VI (Velda)

Good things happen to bad people too...

That's what I said to myself when Gabrielle announced she was getting married. She was so happy, it was painful to watch. She had everything, it seemed - a fantastic wedding, a wonderful charming husband-to-be, a childhood love that refused to let go, tons of money, a perfect life. So it seemed. But it was crashing down like a pack of cards...

We all look to the back of the room where the only stranger in the room is rising to his feet; he looks surprised, like he can not believe what he just did. I feel almost sorry for him, but I know that now he has no choice. It was time to pay the piper.

I would have bet my life that no one would be more surprised to see him than Gabrielle, but the look of horror on her fiance's face is enough to get me curious. He looks like he has seen a ghost, and suddenly more things are falling into place...

The stranger walks up to Gabrielle, and as he moves closer to her you could see him transform; his confidence grows and suddenly he exudes such an aura of rage that we are all held spellbound by what we know is about to happen...

"She cannot marry him. She is married to me."

There is a gasp from all the guests, a mumbled accusation from the groom, and tears from the bride.

But today, we are not looking at Gabrielle. All eyes are on the stranger....

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I met Gabrielle in my second year in college at the Vet's office in the city. It was one of the many jobs I took to cover my tuition expenses. She was a beauty. I knew I did not stand a chance with her - girls like her never dated guys like me. But Gabrielle did not play by anyone's rules but hers. And she wanted me; she always joked that I reminded her of a guy back home who loved her almost as much as I loved her. She also joked that her parents would die if they ever found out who she was dating. And then one day she asked me to marry her.
I thought it was another one of the cruel jokes she played on everyone for her own enjoyment, but she was serious. We loved each other and she was willing to defy her parents for me. We were married secretly, and we gave ourselves a one-month Honeymoon before we would tell everyone and face the consequences. Gabrielle disappeared 3 weeks later. I never heard from her again. Her friends who only tolerated me when I dated her could not hide their disdain for me as they made it clear that my wife was gone, and she did not want to be found.
I spent months trying to deal with losing her. But when my older brother who ran our family's paper factory was killed outside a bar, I gave up on finding her and returned home to run the business. And here she was marrying the one man who murdered my brother in cold blood and killed my mother with grief.............

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Coming soon: All in The Family (Encore)