Chapter 4 - The Million-Peso Receipt
The walk down the center aisle felt longer than the walk I had taken on my own wedding day.
Every head turned as I moved toward the stage. I wasn't wearing a designer gown; I was wearing the same modest, slightly wrinkled dress I had worn while setting up chairs at seven in the morning. But my shoulders were back, and my chin was held high.
Mark saw me first. His smile faltered, his eyes widening in warning. He made a subtle motion with his hand, telling me to go back.
Teresa, still holding the microphone, noticed the shift in the crowd's attention. She looked down the aisle and saw me approaching the steps of the stage. Her eyes flared with sudden, vicious anger.
"Elena," Teresa said, her voice carrying over the microphone, though she tried to keep it light. "Dear, if you have a request for the kitchen, please speak to the coordinator in the back."
I didn't stop. I walked up the three carpeted steps and stood on the stage, just five feet away from the bride and groom.
"Elena, what the hell are you doing?" Chloe hissed under her breath, her face twisting in disgust. "Get off the stage! You're ruining my photos!"
I reached out and calmly took the secondary microphone from Teresa's hand. She tried to hold onto it, but I pulled it with a firm, steady grip that shocked her into letting go.
"Good afternoon, everyone," I said into the microphone. My voice was clear, resonant, and completely devoid of fear. "I apologize for the interruption. But since my mother-in-law, Teresa Santos, just spoke so beautifully about her 'family legacy of pride, honor, and paying her own way,' I felt it was only right to clarify a few details before the main course is served."
The room went dead silent. The string quartet stopped playing.
"Elena, stop this right now!" Mark yelled, lunging forward to grab my arm.
Before he could touch me, Jonathan Sy stood up from his seat at the VIP table. "Let her speak," the patriarch said, his voice carrying an immense authority that froze Mark in his tracks. "I would like to hear what the Judge's daughter-in-law has to say."
"Thank you, Mr. Sy," I said, bowing my head slightly. I turned to look at Teresa, whose face had gone from pale to a ghastly, greenish-grey.
"Three months ago, Teresa Santos came to me on her knees," I said, my voice echoing off the crystal chandeliers. "She begged me to fund this wedding. She told me that if I didn't provide the money, the Santos family would be exposed as bankrupt, and the Sy family would call off the engagement due to their lack of dowry and standing."
"That’s a lie!" Chloe screamed, her face turning red. "David, she’s crazy! She’s just a jealous, poor girl from the province!"
"Is it?" I asked.
I tapped the screen of my phone, which was connected to the venue’s main projector system—the same system they had used earlier to show a slideshow of Chloe and David’s childhood photos.
With a soft click, the massive screen behind the stage flickered.
But instead of romantic photos, it showed three documents in high-resolution clarity.
The first was a bank transfer receipt from my personal account to the Plaza de San Jose for the amount of ₱450,000 for the venue rental.
The second was a receipt to the gourmet catering service for ₱300,000.
The third was a legally binding, notarized promissory note signed by Teresa Santos, agreeing to pay me back the total sum of ₱985,000 within thirty days of the wedding, using her family home as collateral—a home that, as the documents also showed, was already under bank foreclosure.
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The crowd gasped. A low, thunderous murmur broke out among the three hundred guests.
"And finally," I said, turning to look at Teresa, whose hands were shaking so violently she dropped her champagne glass, the crystal shattering on the stage floor. "Earlier today, my mother-in-law struck my five-year-old son across the face because he took a cupcake. She called him a 'poor child' who needed to learn his place. Well, Teresa... this is his place. This is the wedding paid for by his mother’s money. And as of five minutes ago, I have officially revoked the payments."
