My husband’s best friend wanted the perfect wedding venue and chose our property. I gladly let her have her big day at our home, free of charge. I spent months helping with decorations, vendors, and even the cake. But the day before the wedding, she UNINVITED me… for the most ridiculous reason.
I stood in our backyard, surveying the space where Nancy’s wedding would take place the next day. The white chairs were arranged in neat rows facing the oak tree, where she and Josh would exchange their vows against the backdrop of rolling hills and a glistening lake…
A breathtaking wedding venue | Source: Midjourney
Peter and I had bought this property three years ago, and it truly was something special.
“It looks amazing, Evelyn,” he said, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. “Nancy’s going to be thrilled.”
I leaned back against his chest. “I hope so. I’ve been planning this for months.”
“You’ve gone above and beyond. Most people would have just offered the venue.”
“Well, she’s your best friend. And I wanted her day to be perfect.”
A delighted woman | Source: Midjourney
Peter kissed the top of my head. “That’s why I love you… you always think of others.”
“They should be here soon for the rehearsal. I just want to make sure everything’s ready.”
“Trust me, it is,” he said, giving me a reassuring squeeze. “You’ve thought of everything.”
“You really think so?”
“I know so… you’re amazing.”
A man smiling | Source: Midjourney
The sound of tires on gravel interrupted our moment. Nancy and Josh arrived.
“They’re here!” I said, feeling a rush of excitement. “I can’t wait to show her everything.”
Nancy stepped out of her car, and her fiancé followed, looking slightly overwhelmed as always.
“There’s my beautiful bride!” I called out, walking toward them with open arms.
A woman standing near her car | Source: Midjourney
Nancy gave me a quick, stiff hug. “The chairs are all wrong.”
I blinked, taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“I wanted them in a semicircle, not straight rows. Did you not get my text?”
I pulled out my phone, checking for messages. “I don’t see anything about a semicircle.”
She sighed dramatically. “Whatever. We can fix it. Where are the flowers?”
“They’re being delivered tomorrow morning, fresh as we discussed.”
A truck loaded with assorted flowers | Source: Pexels
Nancy frowned. “I hope they get the colors right this time. The sample bouquet was all wrong.”
Behind her, Josh gave me an apologetic smile. We had barely spoken since arriving. A delivery truck rumbled up the driveway, followed by two more vehicles.
“Finally,” Nancy muttered, then raised her voice. “Over here! Start unloading everything!”
She turned to me, her face suddenly serious. “We need to talk.”
“Sure, what’s up?” I asked, still smiling.
Nancy grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the others.
A frustrated woman looking at someone | Source: Midjourney
“What’s going on?” I asked, confused by her intensity.
Her expression hardened into something I’d never seen before. “Look, Evelyn, you gave us the venue… it’s nice and all. But listen, I don’t want you at the wedding tomorrow.”
“What?” I stared at her, certain I had misheard.
“You heard me,” she said, her voice cold and detached. “I don’t want you there.”
“I don’t understand. Why?”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh come on! You know WHY.”
I shook my head, genuinely confused.
A stunned woman | Source: Midjourney
“Why didn’t anyone tell me you used to date Josh?” she demanded.
The realization hit me like a slap. Josh and I had a brief college fling, but it ended, and we went our separate ways. We never spoke again until Nancy introduced him at their engagement, and even then, our conversation never went beyond a simple “hi” or “hello.”
“That? That was nothing. A stupid college thing over a decade ago. We weren’t even serious… it didn’t last, and we stayed acquaintances. It wasn’t even worth mentioning.”
Silhouette of a romantic couple | Source: Unsplash
“Well, I don’t care,” Nancy snapped. “It’s MY day, and I don’t want some woman who used to sleep with my fiancé standing around, making it weird. So yeah, you’re NOT coming.”
The words hung between us as my mind struggled to process what was happening.
After everything I’d done—the months of planning, the countless hours spent helping her choose decorations, the cake tastings, and the vendor meetings… she was uninviting me from a wedding on my OWN property?
A picturesque outdoor wedding setting | Source: Unsplash
“Nancy, you can’t be serious. This is my home.”
“And I’m grateful you let us use it,” she replied with a dismissive wave. “Peter can still come, of course. Just not you.”
“After everything I’ve done for your wedding??”
“Which I appreciate. But this is non-negotiable.”
An annoyed woman looking at someone | Source: Midjourney
Before I could respond, she turned toward the delivery crew and snapped her fingers. “Go ahead and start unloading everything!”
The casual way she commanded people on my property, right after uninviting me from the celebration, was surreal. I stood frozen, unable to form a coherent response.
Then I felt Peter’s hand on my shoulder. The warmth of his touch grounded me.
“Everything okay here?” he asked, his eyes moving between Nancy and me.
Nancy’s smile returned instantly. “Just girl talk.”
A suspicious man | Source: Midjourney
“She doesn’t want me at the wedding,” I said flatly.
Peter’s posture stiffened. “What?”
“Don’t make it a big deal,” Nancy sighed. “It’s just that I recently found out she and Josh used to date, and it makes me uncomfortable.”
“Hold on,” Peter said, his voice sharp. “So let me get this straight… you’re fine using our home for free, my wife has spent months helping you with this wedding, but now you’re BANNING her from attending?”
Nancy huffed and crossed her arms. “Don’t be so dramatic. It’s not a big deal. She just needs to respect my wishes on my wedding day.”
An angry woman | Source: Midjourney
Peter let out a cold laugh that sent chills down my spine. In the seven years we’d been together, I’d rarely seen him angry.
“Then maybe you should find somewhere else to have it.”
Nancy’s eyes widened in outrage. “You’re JOKING, right? The wedding is tomorrow! Where else am I supposed to have it?! You can’t just kick us out like this!”
“Actually, I can,” Peter replied. “And I just did.”
A man smirking | Source: Midjourney
Nancy’s face flushed red. “You two are the MOST selfish people I’ve ever met! After everything I’ve been through, you should be GRATEFUL I even invited you in the first place! This isn’t about you! It’s about ME! You owe me this!”
Her voice rose to a screech, attracting attention from the delivery crew and Josh, who hurried over.
“What’s going on?” he asked, looking concerned.
“They’re kicking us out!” Nancy cried, tears suddenly springing to her eyes. “They’re ruining our wedding because your ex-girlfriend is JEALOUS!”
A startled man | Source: Midjourney
I gasped at the accusation. “That’s not true! You just told me I couldn’t come to the wedding… in my own home!”
Josh looked confused. “Wait, what? Why wouldn’t Evelyn come?”
“Because you dated her!” Nancy snapped. “And no one thought to tell me until I heard it from your best friend, Willie!”
Josh’s expression shifted from confusion to disbelief. “You mean our two-month thing freshman year of college? Before I even knew you existed?”
A man overwhelmed with disbelief | Source: Midjourney
“You think you can just pull this at the last minute?” Nancy ignored him, focusing her rage on Peter and me. “Do you know how much money I spent on planning this? You can’t just ruin my wedding because you’re bitter!”
I felt like I’d been slapped. “Bitter? ME?! After I helped with everything?”
Peter stepped forward, placing himself slightly between Nancy and me.
“No, Nancy. You ruined your own wedding the moment you thought you could treat my wife like garbage in her own home.”
Nancy let out a dramatic scoff and turned to Josh. “Do something!”
A woman yelling | Source: Midjourney
Josh shifted awkwardly, his eyes fixed on the ground. It was clear he wanted no part in this.
“JOSH?!”
“Maybe we should talk about this calmly,” he suggested weakly.
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Peter said firmly. “I want you off our property. NOW.”
Nancy’s face contorted with rage. “Fine! I’ll SUE you for this! You can’t do this to me! I will make you both regret it!”
“Good luck with that. Now get off our property.”
A furious man asking someone to leave | Source: Midjourney
For a moment, I thought Nancy might physically attack one of us. Her hands were clenched into fists, and her entire body trembled with fury.
“Nancy,” Josh said quietly, “let’s go.”
“You’re taking their side?” she whirled on him.
“I’m not taking sides. But this isn’t helping.”
She looked around wildly at the half-unloaded trucks, the arranged chairs, and the scattered boxes of decorations. “What am I supposed to do now? The wedding is TOMORROW!”
A furious woman arguing | Source: Midjourney
I felt a twinge of sympathy despite everything. Then I remembered how quickly she decided to ban me from my own home.
“That’s not our problem anymore,” I said.
***
The next hour was chaos. Nancy screamed, cursed, and threw a full-blown tantrum. At one point, she grabbed a box of table settings and hurled it to the ground, sending plates shattering across our driveway.
“You’ll pay for this!” she shrieked. “Both of you!”
Broken ceramic plates on the driveway | Source: Midjourney
Josh finally managed to guide her to the car, whispering something in her ear that seemed to momentarily calm her. As they drove away, the delivery crew stood awkwardly, awaiting instructions.
“You can take everything back,” Peter told them. “The wedding won’t be happening here.”
I spent the rest of the day in a daze, canceling vendors and requesting refunds for everything we paid for. The cake, flowers, and catering were all gone with a few phone calls.
That evening, Peter and I sat on our porch swing, looking out at the half-dismantled wedding setup.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly.
He looked at me, surprised. “For what?”
A heartbroken woman | Source: Midjourney
“For causing all this drama. If I had just told you about Josh…”
“Stop,” he interrupted gently. “You didn’t cause anything. It was such a minor thing, and it happened long ago. Nancy showed her true colors today, and that’s not on you.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Do you think she’ll actually sue us?”
“Let her try. We didn’t sign any contracts. This was a favor for a friend… a friend who turned out not to be one at all.”
A man comforting his sad wife | Source: Midjourney
“I still can’t believe how quickly it all fell apart.”
“Some people are only nice when they get what they want, Evie. The minute you stand up for yourself, the mask comes off.”
***
A week later, we heard through mutual friends that Nancy and Josh had gotten married in a rushed ceremony at a local hotel. The photos showed a much smaller affair than what had been planned at our home.
Surprisingly, Josh texted Peter a few days after.
“Nancy’s still upset, but I wanted to apologize for how everything went down. I should have spoken up more.”
Peter showed me the message but he didn’t reply. Some bridges, once burned, weren’t worth rebuilding.
A man holding his phone | Source: Unsplash
The thing is, I don’t regret a moment of what happened. Because that day taught me something valuable: never compromise your dignity for people who wouldn’t do the same for you.
Some might say we overreacted by canceling Nancy’s wedding at the last minute. But I’ll tell you what’s truly an overreaction—uninviting someone from an event at their own home because of a meaningless college fling from over a decade ago.
In the end, it wasn’t about that ancient history with Josh. It was about respect. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this whole experience, it’s that I deserve at least that much. We all do.
A confident woman smiling | Source: Midjourney
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
Newborn Baby Cries All Day No Matter What Parents Do, after a While They Check His Crib – Story of the Day
Walter returns home from work to find his baby son crying. His wife has tried everything to quiet their son, but nothing works. Walter decides to check the crib and is shocked by what he finds there.
An ear-splitting wail echoed through the house as Walter entered from the garage. His wife, Abby, sat in the kitchen, and by the distressed look on her face, he knew Logan’s cries were bothering her again.
“Oh, honey,” he says and hugs her from behind. “How long has he been crying like that?”
“I’ve tried everything, Walter!” Abby broke down into sobs. “He’s been fed, changed, bathed, and burped! I even took his temperature! I don’t know what to do now. He keeps crying!”
After becoming parents a month ago, everything in the couple’s lives changed. And if there was something that really distressed Walter, it was Logan’s cries.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Come, we’ll figure this out together,” Walter said and took Abby to Logan’s room.
He cheerfully approached Logan’s crib. But all he saw in the crib was a dictaphone and a note. Walter pressed the stop button on the dictaphone, and Logan’s cries stopped.
“What did you do?” Abby called from behind. Walter wasn’t listening. He held the note and zoned out. It wasn’t until Abby snatched the note from his hand and opened it that he realized what had occurred.
“I warned you that you’d regret being rude to me.
If you want to see your baby again, leave $200,000 in the luggage storage lockers near the pier.
If you go to the police, you’ll never see him again.”
“Oh my God!” Abby gasped. “What does it mean? Was I rude to someone? Were you? Who would kidnap Logan?”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Walter recalled the janitor he’d mistreated at the maternity hospital. He was bringing a cute bear-shaped pot for Abby while she was admitted to the hospital, but the pot broke when he tripped over the janitor’s broom.
Furious, Walter called the man awful names, and the janitor said, “You’ll regret it!”
“We’ll have to go to the police, honey,” Walter said, snapping out of his thoughts. “It must be him!”
“What? The note says we’ll never see Logan again if we go to the police, Walter. We should just pay the ransom!”
“We don’t know if he’ll return Logan if we do that. Think about it, honey. This guy is a janitor… there’s no way he’d know if we went to the police, and since we know where he works, they might be able to go straight to the maternity hospital, arrest him, and bring Logan home to us.”
Abby agreed.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Walter parked their car outside the station. He and Abby were about to exit the vehicle when Walter’s phone buzzed with a message.
“This is your first and last warning. If you enter that police station, your kid’s going into the bay. Get the money to the location mentioned below.”
Abby gasped as she read the message, and Walter looked around, trying to spot the kidnapper. But there were too many people. The only way to rescue Logan now was to pay the ransom.
Walter decided to drive to the bank right away, but Abby’s condition deteriorated. She threw up once and was about to throw up for a second time. It was better to drive her home, Walter decided.
“Don’t hate me for it, honey, but that’s the best for you,” he said. And Abby didn’t protest.
“Fine…But Walter…does that kidnapper even know about caring for a newborn?” she asked and broke down into tears.
Walter said nothing and drove her home. But his imagination wasn’t immune to dark thoughts. He kept imagining Logan in a dark room, crying for help that never came.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Somehow pulling himself together, Walter drove to the bank. Then he visited the storage locker mentioned by the kidnapper and placed the money inside it.
There were too many people around for him to spot the janitor, but Walter knew he would be somewhere nearby, watching him. So Walter returned to his car, drove a short distance, and parked around the lockers again. It wasn’t long before he spotted the janitor from the maternity hospital.
The janitor opened the locker. Walter sat up straighter, but then a tourist group walked past, hiding the janitor from view.
“Move it!” Walter snapped.
Painful minutes stretched out as the tourists headed toward one of the statues. After the last few people in the group eventually passed the lockers, Walter swore. The janitor had disappeared.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Walter barely dared to breathe as he scanned the crowd. The man had been wearing the sort of flashy shirt sold in the more eclectic, hippie-themed stores, so he shouldn’t have been hard to spot.
There! A wave of relief washed over him as Walter spotted the janitor crossing the road. He was carrying the bag of money Walter had placed in the locker. Walter leaped from his car and followed him.
The man led him around a parking lot, past a variety of restaurants and several museums before he turned into a bus station. They were heading toward another row of lockers.
The janitor placed the bag inside a locker. When he turned around, Walter was ready. He shoved the janitor up against the lockers and held him there with his forearm.
“Where is my son?” Walter demanded. “I’ve done everything you asked, you jerk; now return Logan to me!”
“Look, I was offered $100 to collect the package and then drop it off here,” the man said. “I don’t know about your son!”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Don’t you dare lie!”
“I’m not! Some guy paid me to deliver the package! I ran into him in the parking lot after work one day, but he was standing with the light behind him, so I didn’t see his face. I have two kids of my own. I’d never hurt someone else’s child.”
Something about the janitor’s eyes told Walter the older man wasn’t lying. He let the man go, then opened the locker. But it was empty. Somebody had cut a hole in the back.
Walter jogged around to the back of the lockers. The hole was covered from the back with a thin steel plate, loosely secured by two screws. Nobody around was carrying a bag like the one he’d placed the money into.
Walter didn’t know how to break the news to Abby. Logan was their miracle baby. They’d been struggling for years before they conceived him. And now, he had lost his only chance to get Logan back.
Walter entered his home. He checked all the rooms downstairs but didn’t find Abby anywhere. He went upstairs to check their bedroom and noticed Abby’s things were gone.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
At first, Walter suspected she was kidnapped. He called her. Countless times. But she never answered. Then it dawned on him that the kidnapper wouldn’t have taken all of Abby’s things. Even her hand lotion was missing.
Walter was crushed, to say the least. How could Abby do this to them? No wonder she’d been so eager to return home after feeling sick. She had also insisted they pay the ransom. Abby was Logan’s kidnapper. Did she have an accomplice?
The only thing that consoled Walter’s heart was that the ransom money was fake. He would find a way to get his son back.
Walter drove to the maternity hospital where Logan was born, and near the vending machine, he found the man he was looking for—a doctor.
“Hi,” Walter approached him. “I hope you can help me. I need someone to call my wife—”
“I’m not a phone service,” the doctor replied sharply.
“You don’t understand. I’m willing to pay you handsomely for your assistance, doctor, and your silence.”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
The doctor studied Walter through narrowed eyes. He slowly smiled as Walter explained his situation and told him what he wanted the doctor to tell Abby.
Walter then retrieved his wallet and furtively showed the doctor the dollar bills inside it. The man nodded. “Okay, we have a deal. Come with me!”
Walter followed the doctor to a nurse’s station on the second floor. All the nurses were checking on their patients, judging by the activity in the hallways. Nobody took much notice as the doctor lifted the phone and dialed Abby’s number.
“Good morning, Mrs. Taylor; this is Dr. Jones from the maternity hospital. I’m calling to inform you that we just discovered something very serious in one of the routine tests we performed on your son after he was born. He needs to come in for treatment immediately.”
Walter heard Abby’s emotional outcry from the other side of the nurse’s station but couldn’t make out her exact words.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t discuss the details over the phone. All I can say for now is that he has a rare genetic condition. I’m sure he does seem fine now, but that could change at any moment. He’s at a higher risk for SIDS and several other life-threatening conditions. You really need to bring him in today, Mrs. Taylor.”
Dr. Jones ended the call a few minutes later and showed Walter a thumbs-up.
“She’s going to bring the baby in ASAP.” Dr. Jones held out his hand and wriggled his fingers. “I did my bit. Now it’s time for you to pay up.”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Walter paid the doctor and went back downstairs. He wandered around for a few minutes before his phone started ringing. His lip curled in disgust when he checked the caller ID.
“You have some nerve to phone me after what you did, Abby,” Walter said. “Where’s Logan? I demand you bring him back.”
“Says the man who doesn’t even care enough about him to pay the ransom!” Abby shrieked. “That money was all fake, you tight-fisted jerk. Logan needs to see a doctor urgently, and I can’t take him because of you. Where’s the real money, Walter?”
“In my account, where it’s been all along. What’s wrong with Logan, or is this just another scheme to get my money?”
Abby swore at him and began to cry. “I told you; he’s sick! You’ve got to send me the money so he can receive treatment. He’ll die without it.”
“I won’t let my son die! I’ll pay,” Walter replied and hung up.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Hearing Abby confirm she was behind Logan’s kidnapping broke his heart all over again. It took a few minutes before he pulled himself together enough to send her an immediate payment via his money transfer app. Now, all he had to do was wait.
***
Tears trailed down Walter’s cheeks when his little brother, James, entered the hospital with Abby. James held Logan against his chest while Abby spoke to the receptionist.
It seemed like everything was moving in slow motion as the police officers and FBI agents came forward and surrounded Abby and James. Walter had informed the cops beforehand.
“You’re under arrest for kidnapping!” an FBI agent called out. “Hand the child over, nice and slowly, and raise your hands.”
“Get away from us!” Abby shrieked as she moved to stand between the FBI agent and Logan. “My son is sick. He needs to see a doctor.”
“No, he isn’t,” Walter called out as he approached the group. “There’s nothing wrong with Logan at all.”
Abby’s gaze locked onto him. Walter watched as the fear and uncertainty in her eyes shifted into red-hot fury. She rushed forward as though to attack him. But the police tackled her. She and James were arrested.
Walter hugged his son, relieved to have him back. But Abby wasn’t done yet.
“You think you’ve won? Logan isn’t even yours! You couldn’t get me pregnant, remember? But whatever’s wrong with you clearly doesn’t run in the family!” she yelled.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Walter froze. He looked at his brother, who wouldn’t even raise his head to look at him. It pained Walter. But nothing mattered because he had Logan with him.
“I will adopt him if that’s what I have to do!” he shot back. “I will watch him grow up while you two rot behind bars!” he said and left with Logan.
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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a woman who spots her husband taking his wedding ring off before leaving for work. She decides to follow him, only to discover something shocking.
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