Evelyn's words drew laughter from the crowd.

Seraphina's eyes bore into Evelyn. "You—"

But Evelyn didn't give her a chance. "Let me ask everyone here: on your wedding day, would you abandon your own ceremony for a friend—not even a boyfriend or girlfriend? After taking someone to the hospital, would you be so worried you'd forget your wedding entirely and stay with them for an entire day and night?"

Seraphina's voice trembled with indignation. "It's different for us! Julian and I grew up together—we're like siblings! You're the one with the filthy mind!"

Julian clenched his jaw, his gaze fixed on Evelyn. He admitted he'd been wrong on their wedding day, but he'd never had feelings for Seraphina. Never.

Evelyn refused to be dragged into Seraphina's narrative. She turned back to the crowd.

"On your wedding day, would you abandon everything for a childhood friend—for an entire day and night? And mind you, this is a friend who had family perfectly capable of caring for them?"

"If your husband or wife spent their wedding day and night with someone of the opposite sex, would you be alright with that?"

Mabel's expression darkened. "No way!"

Hazel agreed. "Absolutely not."

Others joined in, one by one. "No."

But Mark spoke up. "Demanding two thousand dollars for a dowry, cleaning out your family—that's going too far, isn't it?"

Evelyn's smile held no warmth. "I did ask for two thousand. But does anyone know why I asked for it?"

"Under normal circumstances," she continued, "when a groom is absent on the wedding day, shouldn't his family send someone to the bride's home in his place to escort her?"

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd. "That's right." "That's how it should be."

Evelyn's lips curved into a bitter smile. "But Julian's family did nothing. No explanation. No acknowledgment of wrongdoing. No apology. It was as if that wedding belonged to me alone—to my family alone."

Mark acknowledged the injustice. "Julian's family was wrong. But what does that have to do with you demanding a dowry?"

Evelyn's eyes turned glacial, her voice stripped of emotion. "Because I wanted out. A family that wouldn't lift a finger for me. A husband who didn't give me a second thought. I didn't want to marry into that. I wouldn't stoop to it."

Julian's gaze locked onto her. In that moment, a painful truth crystallized in his mind.

Evelyn... truly didn't want him anymore.

His chest constricted, threatening to burst. Tears he couldn't control slid down his cheeks.

Evelyn's voice remained detached. "I'm not without prospects. I could find a decent husband without Julian. But my parents wouldn't hear of it. They claimed it was for my own good. My father's a workshop supervisor—he's been angling for deputy factory director for years. He couldn't afford to offend Julian's family. He couldn't stand up for me. He couldn't demand answers from them. Instead, they forced me to go to Julian's house alone that very night—to grovel, to earn their favor, to be their servant."

"Even though their future son-in-law had already taken up with another woman before the wedding, to them, how I'd fare in that marriage didn't matter. Whether I could survive it didn't matter. None of it was as important as my father becoming deputy director."

"If I didn't go, they'd disown me. They raised me, gave me life. However unwilling, I had to swallow my pride and my tears and go to Julian's family. Because as a daughter, I had no choice..."

Several women's eyes glistened. They dabbed at their tears quietly. As daughters, as women, they understood. Some had lived through stories not so different from Evelyn's—marrying off daughters to secure bride prices for sons. It happened everywhere.

Seraphina's eyes widened. She's actually admitting this? She wasn't afraid of shaming her father? She didn't care if her family became a laughingstock? She was airing her family's dirty laundry for everyone—abandoning all pretense of filial piety?

"Mark," Evelyn called out, "you have sisters, don't you?"

Mark nodded. He had a younger sister.

Evelyn smiled faintly. "Under what circumstances would your family empty their savings for her dowry?"

Mark's expression shifted. Normally, his sister wouldn't receive that kind of treatment—she wasn't that cherished. But even if she were, they wouldn't drain everything for her dowry.

Unless... her marriage would bring even greater benefit to the family.

Mark wasn't the only one who understood. Most of those present grasped her meaning.

Seraphina kept her voice low but couldn't contain her fury. "If you didn't want to marry him, why demand the dowry? Did you deliberately cheat your family?"

Evelyn's gaze swept over her, icy and contemptuous. "That night, I went to Julian's alone. I'd already resigned myself—since my own family didn't value me, with that money I could at least take care of myself. One day at a time. What difference did it make where I ended up?"

Humiliation and rage grew like weeds in Seraphina's chest, spreading and choking her.

Evelyn continued, her voice flat. "But the Julians' attitude dealt me another blow. A daughter-in-law they couldn't be bothered to fetch. A woman they saw as desperate, throwing herself at their family. You can imagine how they treated me."

Here, the women understood. They could picture it all too clearly—the Julians' contempt for Evelyn, the casual cruelties. The nightmare of a spiteful mother-in-law haunted every unmarried woman's dreams.

"They refused to admit Julian's absence was wrong. They wouldn't acknowledge he'd been at the hospital with Seraphina. They saw nothing wrong with failing to collect the bride. To them, I was just a desperate woman who'd chased after their son—cheap, worthless."

"I thought they didn't know about Julian and Seraphina. But they knew everything. They'd covered for them. They even lied, telling me Julian had been in a car accident. How could I entrust my life to a family with no sense of right and wrong? I was terrified I'd end up dead in that house one day, and they'd simply slot someone else into my place without a second thought."

Evelyn's expression dripped with bitter irony.

Seraphina's heart lurched. Her gaze wavered as it met Evelyn's—those dark eyes held depths of emotion. A chilling thought surfaced: Does she know what I was planning? She dismissed it immediately. Impossible. Evelyn couldn't know. Couldn't guess. But whatever Evelyn said, Seraphina had to refute it.

"You're lying!" Seraphina's voice rose. "Slander! None of this is true!"

Evelyn's expression remained indifferent, her gaze mocking.

"Think about it," she said, turning to the crowd. "Why do you suppose Julian's family agreed to pay me five thousand dollars? If your fiancée called off the wedding, would you pay that kind of money?"

Everyone shook their heads. Most didn't have that kind of money, but even if they did, they wouldn't part with it. So why had the Julians?

With the dowry situation fresh in their minds, connecting the dots wasn't difficult. Evelyn must have held something over them—something serious. Something worth paying for.

All eyes turned simultaneously to Julian and Seraphina. In a small community, a scandal involving... impropriety... was no small matter.