This Heart of Mine

Ch. 34: Revelation

Naina hadn't heard from MJ in a while. A few weeks had passed since she last saw the joyful soon-to-be bride. Maybe she was busy with the preparations.

But one lovely Wednesday, Naina found herself in a meeting room in the town's library. Xavier, Ian and she sat on one side.

Lauren, Ollie, Gigi and some guy Naina had never seen before sat on the other. Lauren smirked at Naina but it melted when Ollie started speaking.

"So, we've called the two of you here today to see if we could settle the disagreement."

Their lawyer, who still hadn't introduced himself, pushed a sheet of paper over to Xavier.

Xavier's deep brown eyes looked like a typewriter; quickly, they scanned the entire sheet, before he handed it to Ian and Naina to look over. One of the listings was the grievances that Lauren had endured during her 'horrible, nasty, mental-taxing time' with Naina as her wedding planner. She had apparently suffered emotional damage. A witness, aka Carmella, corroborated her story.

On it, a hefty five figure sum was highlighted and an inventory of all costs was listed.

"If you agree to pay the sum, we will drop the case." Their lawyer finally spoke. He had a deep, yet raspy voice that drilled the chill in Naina's spine further into her body.

Naina couldn't believe it. They really didn't think she knew everything.

A laugh escaped her mouth, and with it, she lost her mind. If she couldn't cry from the ridiculousness of the situation, she'd laugh her head off.

For a few moments, everyone stared at her; the ones across from her glared at her with a withering gaze capable of combusting her on the spot and the ones next to her had an oddly amused expression. Ian snorted a little.

With difficulty, she broke off laughing and wheezed a few breaths out. Her stomach and lungs burned like she'd just run five miles and took a few moments to catch up.

The room felt like they'd walked into winter in Chicago; every now and then, a cold breeze from the air conditioning smothered her ears and neck.

The shivers wouldn't stop. They'd transferred to her legs, which bounced like an automatic pogo stick.

Ian reached over and held her left hand, giving a cute small, side smile when she turned to him.

She took a deep breath. Her confidence slowly returned, like air filling a balloon, and she spoke. "First off, I refuse your offer of settling. I did not do anything wrong. As per the contract, I gave you a wedding that you wanted to the best of my abilities."

Their lawyer opened his flabby mouth to give a counter argument, but Naina was on a roll.

"I do, however, know that the day before the wedding, Ollie logged into my computer using the master password with her username and changed the documents. I called the catering vendor and they agreed to it by saying Lauren had also called them last minute to change her food. For some reason, they also found it odd that not only I had not known, but also that Lauren and Dominic did not want me to know. Despite me being the planner."

Ollie's face lost it's arrogance instantly. Her sneer drooped to the floor, while Gigi sat forward, furrowing her eyebrows, and looking confused.

Lauren squirmed in her seat. "So? That doesn't explain the confetti and nasty colors. I didn't pay for that!"

"No, you didn't," Naina agreed. She angled her head towards Ollie, who had a blank expression. "Ollie did. She paid a few hundreds to Cassie and her college buddies to 'play a prank' on Gigi. Instead, what happened was I was missing a few thousand dollars' worth of goodie bags and the entire set up had been ruined. I've seen the texts and camera footage proving this."