The Wedding Gift - Chapter 8 - Caroline

Perhaps I shouldn’t have brought up the lottery at the wedding reception. Who would’ve expected things to play out the way they did?

I have to admit that I didn’t check the numbers that night because I was desperate to be the first to deliver good news to the newlyweds. The truth is that the ticket was in my purse this whole time. Well, not the lottery ticket. I had no idea who, if anyone, stole Paulina and Harrison’s ticket.

It was Jack’s idea that we buy two identical lottery tickets so that if they won, we would win, as well. I have to give it to my fiancé, it turned out to be the best idea he’s ever had. We became millionaires overnight. And so did Paulina and Harrison.

It was impossible to keep such good news a secret, so I told Paulina about it as soon as I found out. I didn’t tell her about us winning the money, though. I thought it would be best to keep it between Jack and me for the time being.

After Conor and Harrison had gotten into a fight, Jack was seriously considering splitting the prize between the four of us. He wanted to split our money. No way they were going to get half of what we won. I mean, I really like them; Paulina and Jack are good friends, but Paulina is well off. She doesn’t need our help.

My family, sadly, isn’t as wealthy as hers. On the contrary. My parents are decent, hard-working people, but life wasn’t easy on them, so I never had it all handed to me on a silver platter.

That kind of money is life-changing for us, but I’m also going to set some aside for my parents. I don’t want my mum to stress about paying the bills while I’ll be shopping for bathroom tiles for my new house.

It is a lot of money, but I had to remind Jack that there are more important people in his life than Paulina and Harrison. I really felt for them, but at the same time, it wasn’t my fault they lost the ticket. I kept mine well hidden.