Before Wedding, Fiance Must Bathe Seven Days With Sweetheart

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The wedding was almost here, and my fiance was holding a knife to his wrist.

I was shaking all over. I lunged to stop him.

He pushed me away, his face gone weak and pale. Penny, don't stop me. Let me do it.

Why? Why would you do this?

I wouldn't let go, not for anything. Then one of his buddies told me, his eyes red.

"Our village has this wedding custom. For the seven days before a man marries, he has to bathe with his childhood sweetheart for seven days, to wash away his bad luck, so he can bring good luck to his wife."

"If he doesn't do it, he has to cut off seven pieces of his own flesh as punishment."

"Sy loves you so much, and he's so loyal to you. There's no way he'd ever do anything to hurt you."

Hearing it felt like a blade dragging through my heart. To keep him from hurting himself, I took the knife out of his hand and told him to follow the custom.

I trusted him. I trusted that he was loyal, that he wouldn't do anything wrong.

But on the third day, I couldn't stand it and went to find him, and what I heard through the door was a room full of laughter.

"Sy, that was a stroke of genius!"

"Playing the self-harm angle to fool soft little Penny. There's no such thing as that wedding custom, no such thing as slitting your wrist, all of it fake."

"If I hadn't made it up, she never would have believed me."

And with that, Simon Gilbert pulled Letitia Finch into his arms, and the two of them kissed like they were on fire.

"I'm going to make the most of the days I've got left. Enjoy myself all the way to the end!"

...

"Sy, aren't you afraid Penny will figure out you were lying?"

"Camelback Hollow doesn't have any custom like that. If she goes and asks around, how are you going to talk your way out of it?"

Simon couldn't bear to pull his mouth away from Letitia's, letting her keep both hands locked around his neck.

Like the words they had to say were just an interruption, and they meant to pick right back up.

The other men watching them tangled together like that swallowed hard, envy on every face.

"She trusts me too much. She won't come checking up on me."

"Besides, she's a city girl. She can't understand a word of the Camelback Hollow dialect, so she has no idea what the rules are here."

When he finished, a flush spread over his face, like a boy fresh out into the world who'd never touched a woman.

Letitia let out a deliberate little coo, and only then did the others notice one of her hands, brushing up and down Simon's thigh like it might be an accident.

"Damn! Careful you two don't screw yourselves to death!"

"Right, you only came out of that room this morning, and now you're already"

"What? Jealous?"

Letitia looked around at all of them, pleased with herself. The next second she took a mouthful of red wine and, right in front of everyone, poured it straight into Simon's mouth.

"Damn, now that's how you do it!"

"I bet Penny doesn't get any of this fun stuff, and that's why Sy went and found himself a little fox like Letty before the wedding."

"I'm telling you, Sy, why don't you just break it off with Penny already? Why put yourself through all this?"

Simon's face went cold all at once, and he turned and glared at whoever had said it.

"In this life, no, in three lifetimes over, I would never break up with my Penny."

"Because she's the only one who really loves me. For me, she gave up a bright future overseas and stayed here in the country."

"If I so much as nick my finger chopping vegetables, she'll worry about it all day long."

"I play around, sure, but I know exactly how much Penny means to me."

Hearing that, Letitia was not happy at all.

Her arm snapped tight around Simon's waist, pulling him closer against her.

"Sy, and what, I never loved you?"

"Ha. Your love is too cheap. Good enough for a hookup. Not good enough to be my wife."

The others still didn't quite follow what Simon meant by that.

But they were friends of many years, so they let him say what he wanted.

"Still, you'd better be careful anyway."

Simon waved it off. "Relax. I'm more careful than any of you."

"Every time Penny comes to see me at the set time, she's really checking whether I've stepped out of line. So Letty and I both put on faces like we can't stand each other, sit apart, and don't say a word."

Outside the door, every drop of blood in me froze solid.

My hand was on the door handle, and I still couldn't find the courage to push it open.

The pain rising up from the bottom of me was almost enough to crush me and swallow me whole.

"All right, it's time for us to go bathe."

"Time's up."

I fought down the panic and let go of the door, ducking out of sight.

The whole group came out of the KTV room in good spirits.

I hesitated, then followed close behind anyway.

We reached Letitia's place, and after the friends horsed around for a while, they left.

Once they were gone, Simon scooped Letitia up and carried her into the bathroom.

The huge tub had already been filled with water.

Scattered with rose petals, and some perfume meant for setting a mood.

The kind of scent that goes to work on you the moment you breathe it in.

"You little vixen, you really know how to play!"

Simon flicked Letitia on the nose.

Then Letitia laughed and darted away across the wide bathroom. "Come catch me! Every time you do, I take off a piece."

The door hadn't latched properly. My hand shook on the handle, and my throat felt like someone was squeezing it shut, my breath coming wrong.

Through the crack, I froze.

Simon pinned Letitia down, and one piece of clothing after another went flying.

And then they started doing what couldn't be put into words.

The tears spilled over at once, and that scent of theirs drifted out through the crack too.

It nearly made me throw up on the spot, and all I could do was flee.

I stepped out the door into deep night.

I didn't know which way to go, didn't even know where I'd ended up.

Then a motorcycle roared behind me.

It was coming straight at me, fast. Whoever it was, they meant harm, so I picked up my pace and hurried away.

"Hahaha, block that out-of-town girl!"

"Letty said to teach her a lesson if we saw her, so she'll never dare set foot in Camelback Hollow again."

I couldn't outrun a motorcycle. In the end it slammed into me.

I hit the grass, and pain shot through my thigh.

They didn't leave. They kept jeering at me in dialect.

The moment they weren't watching, I bolted.

They were in no rush to chase, as if they wanted me to get a little farther first before they ran their prey down.

My face went white, and I grabbed my phone and called Simon. He was from Camelback Hollow, after all.

But the call rang and rang and never connected.

When the motorcycle knocked me down a second time, I heard my rib crack.

Just as I was giving up, the call went through.

"Penny? Why are you calling at a time like this?"

"Simon, someone hit me with a motorcycle on purpose"

"Sy, we've got ten minutes left in the bath. Don't tell me you want to break the rule and start over!"

My cry for help was cut off by Letitia's voice pitching a few notes higher, and Simon wavered.

"Simon, come find me first. Those people are from your Camelback Hollow. I never provoked them. Unless it's the locals"

"Penny, the people in our village are very kind to outsiders. You mustn't go smearing Camelback Hollow's name."

"Don't worry! They're just having a little fun with you."

"Here's what we'll do. Put me on speaker and let me talk to them."

I quickly hit the speaker button, and Simon switched into the local dialect to talk to the man.

"Clay Clayton, it's got to be you, right!"

"Heh heh, yeah, it's me!"

"Here's the thing, I'm in the bath with your Letty right now, doing things I can't say out loud!"

"You get me, right?"

Clay caught on instantly and answered with a snicker. "Heh heh, I get it, you're rolling around with Letty right now, huh!?"

"Yeah!" "So stall for me. We've got about ten minutes left."

"Heh heh, you got it!"

"Have a good time with my Letty!!"

I froze on the spot like I'd been struck by lightning.

Simon assumed I couldn't understand the dialect. What he never knew was that before I turned ten I'd lived in Camelback Hollow, so of course I understood every word.

"Simon, you"

I hadn't even finished asking before he hung up in a rush.

Clearly, my call had interrupted whatever he was busy with.

The man smiled, and then, all at once, his face turned vicious.

"Come on. Sy said we've got to make sure this one can't walk out of here."

I was trapped in an instant. My leg and my ribs were both hurt; there was no way I could get away.

What chilled me most was this: he'd used the dialect to fool me, sending these people to hold me back so I couldn't come looking for him.

But what he didn't know was that I'd already seen him and Letitia together, and that I could understand the dialect.

The men in front of me were brazen, and just as they were about to come at me a second time, my friend arrived.

The moment they saw someone coming, they jumped on their motorcycles and fled.

Elena Swanson saw how badly I was hurt and helped me up, worry all over her face. "Penny, are you okay?"

"Weren't you off looking for Simon?"

"Good thing I came to find you, or you'd have been done for."

She got me into the car and called the police right away.

Then she took me to the hospital to have the injuries checked. They were serious enough that I had no choice but to be admitted.

When Simon came to see me, a crowd of friends trailed behind him, Letitia among them.

"Penny, how are you feeling?"

I lifted my head and looked at him, perfectly calm.

None of the old warmth. None of the old longing.

I suppose my heart had finally died where he was concerned.

"I'm fine."

My sudden coldness caught him off guard, and something he couldn't name lodged uncomfortably in Simon's chest.

"I'm sorry. I never imagined those people would go so far, that they'd dare lay hands on you that hard."

The moment he finished, he whipped his head toward Letitia, seething.

"Call the police!"

"I'll make those people pay."

Letitia curved her lips into a faint smile. "But we don't even know who they were, and there's no camera at that spot. How exactly are the officers supposed to catch them?"

This whole thing had been arranged by Letitia herself, so of course she knew how to set up an attack.

That Simon had gone and cheated with trash like thishe really was blind.

To make it up to me, he decided he'd stay with me all day and go nowhere else.

"Penny, I'm not going anywhere today. I'm staying right here with you."

"I'm sorry. I should have come to you first thing last night"

"Then where were you last night? What were you doing that kept you from coming to me?"

I not only cut him off, I asked him outright why he hadn't come for me last night.

Seemy question left him stunned.

What he didn't realize was that the kiss marks below his throat were still visible, even under a layer of foundation.

My gaze went cold in an instant.

Seeing that I was truly angry, Simon quickly put on a wounded tone.

"The reason I didn't come last night is that my grandmother was ill."

"I had to stay home and take care of her. That's why I couldn't come to you right away."

He'd barely finished when Letitia stepped up too, laying the blame on me.

"I'm telling you, Penelope, we're not the ones who hurt you, so what gives you the right to talk to him like you're interrogating a criminal?"

"Exactly! You think you're so important? What, his grandmother doesn't matter?"

I watched them coldly, but I didn't get tangled up in it with them.

I only looked at Simon, so disappointed. He'd done nothing but spin lies to deceive me.

Seeing me go quiet, Simon finally spoke up to stop his friends.

"That's enough. My Penny didn't know my grandmother was sick."

"Ease off, all of you."

"Tch, you haven't even married her yet and you're already playing favorites."

Simon lifted his chin, smiling smugly. "I'm the only one who gets to give my Penny a hard time. Nobody else should even think about it."

Words like that used to reach my ears and move me to the heart.

Hearing them now, all I felt was sick.

I didn't want to look at them anymore, so I lay down to rest, using tiredness as an excuse.

To my surprise, they didn't leave. Instead they started ribbing Simon in the dialect.

"Heh heh, come on, tell uswhat were you up to last night?"

Simon glanced at my back, but Letitia laughed and waved his worry away before it could take hold.

"What are you scared of? Penelope isn't from Camelback Hollow. Of course she can't understand our dialect."

Only then did Simon relax, turning to meet one curious pair of eyes after another.

"Don't play dumb!!"

"Come on, we want to hear it straight from your mouth. Wouldn't that make the story of your little affair even better?"

Letitia spoke up first. "So do you all know who hired that crowd?"

"Waitwas it you?"

"Smart." "Who told her to come around getting in the way? We were right at the good part, and I didn't want anyone interrupting."

The room burst into loud laughter.

Some laughed at how pathetic I was, and some said Letitia's people had come down too hard.

And Simon, who'd sworn over and over that no outsider would ever push me around, forgot every one of those promises now, laughing right along with them, smug as could be.

I gripped the blanket tight, but I didn't have the courage to sit up and face them.

Because I knew I couldn't win against all of them. Even if I fought, I couldn't make a single one of them pay for it.

"You two are living the dream, teaming up to hurt poor Penelope."

"Wearing a set of horns and none the wiser, lying there fast asleep."

The most sickening part was Simon sitting beside me, reaching over to stroke my back to lull me to sleep while he kept up the banter with them, easy as anything.

"Right now the thing I worry about most is the baby in Letty's belly."

The room went quiet for a few seconds, and I froze hard.

"What do you mean?"

"She's pregnant. It's mine."

Letitia laughed, proud of it. "We already, two months back, over at Penelope's place heh heh!!"

Someone jabbed an elbow into Simon's chest.

"You dog, look at you!"

"That thing's got some stamina."

"Simon, don't worry."

"She doesn't know anyway. When the time comes we'll just say my baby is somebody else's, and it's done!"

"That's the only way, really!"

When I heard that, the last shred of an image I had of Simon crumbled to nothing.

From the pure, lovely picture I once held to this ruin now, it took him only a few sentences.

I thought my heart would ache again, but it stayed quiet, same as ever.

I didn't choose to have it out with him. I accepted a friend's invitation to work overseas.

The flight I booked was for the wedding day. That wedding would have a groom and no bride.

Seven days later, it was the wedding day.

Simon was in the dressing room, letting Letitia's hands roam over him.

"Simon, won't you really think about me?"

"My love for you is no less than hers!"

Simon liked every touch of Letitia's, and his body responded.

He didn't hold back. The two of them ended up together again.

When it was over, he straightened his groom's suit.

"From now on, whatever's between us is finished. You're not to come around bothering our lives again."

Letitia sniffed at his hair, unbothered, not taking a word of it to heart.

Once Simon finished speaking, the groomsmen came in to walk him out.

Inside the hotel, a full house of guests was already seated, but the bride was nowhere in sight.

Simon picked up his phone and called me, and the call wouldn't go through.

"What on earth is Penelope doing? Turning off her phone now, of all times."

The words had barely left him when my friend came in carrying a box.

"Simon, Penelope has a gift for you."

"She told me she hopes you'll open it the moment you get it."

The Gilberts smiled, pleased, sure their future daughter-in-law knew how to keep their son happy.

But when Simon tore off the wrapping and saw what was in his hands, he was so terrified he flung it away.

"Hey! What's wrong with you? Didn't Penelope ever tell you she used to be from Camelback Hollow too?"