Epilogue
Ding, ding, ding, goes the slot machine, making my heart beat faster. "Pick a magic diamond!" An overenthusiastic computer voice urges me, and I lean forward, picking random diamonds as they shower down the large screen. More noise comes out of the machine when I pick an especially loaded diamond.
Adrenaline shoots through my body; I've been here already five times so far tonight.
The jackpot sits at seventy thousand, four hundred eleven dollars and sixty-five cents.
The old Violet inside me is kid-locked-in-a-candy-store excited over it, whereas the new Violet is a bit more somber, reminding me that I just spent double that amount on new light fixtures for the house I'm renovating.
That voice tells me that Marcello will laugh at me for being excited over winning seventy thousand, four hundred eleven dollars and sixty-five cents.
It's pocket change to him. Honestly, it is to me, too.
Before we left for Vegas, Marcello gave me cards to all his bank accounts, telling me that I could spend whatever I wanted, whenever and however I wanted to.
My heart palpitated, seeing all those zeros at the end of the numbers.
It took some time to even register that I was looking at billions, not millions.
Yes, with a B! And yet, here I am, bubbling over with excitement.
"Go Violet!" Gigi claps onto my shoulder, "You've got this."
My bachelorette party is in full swing. After a private striptease show by the Chipmonks, we ventured out into the casino area of my father's hotel.
I should feel bad that, for the past hour, I've neglected my new friends, but honestly, real-life slot machines are a lot more fun than the ones on your phone.
Even more so when you have unlimited funds and when the casino belongs to your father.
"Get the red one," Elaine cheers.
"No, the green, the green," Sophia exclaims, even more animated than the last time I saw her.
It seems with every passing day, her self-confidence is returning, and she is finding herself again, most likely because of Raffael.
That man is so in love with her that if I weren't head over heels with Marcello and he with me, I would be jealous.
It's like the two were made for one another.
It's even more romantic because Raffael waited over eight years to claim Sophia, and she had no idea that her knight in shining armor was out there, waiting in the wings until he was powerful enough to save his princess. Yeah, I know, I'm a hopeless romantic.
My finger hovers between the red and the green one.
It reminds me of an old movie whose name I've forgotten, but in the end, the guy has to either cut the red or the green wire, saving the world or destroying it.
My choice isn't quite that dramatic, but it kind of feels that way.
If I pick the right color here, I'll advance to the next level, where three little wheels will keep turning, allowing me to either go on to the final stage for a chance to win the jackpot or cash out with whatever money I won. About five grand right now, I think.
Scarlet, standing behind me, grabs my hand and pushes my finger on the red diamond. "There!"
I turn and shake my head at her, "Not fair."
She shrugs. "I need to pee and I'm getting hungry, so let's get this going."
Cat laughs, "I would have said red, too."
I hope Sebastian and Lee are having as much fun as Elaine and I are. Marcello took the two to his bachelor's party, which he's holding in a private high-stakes poker room, setting them both up with the funds to play.
The screen in front of me explodes in colors, "You picked red." The machine announces happily, before the screen changes into the spinning wheels.
"Go, go, go," Pippa yells.
"Where did you come from?" I look at my maid of honor, who'd abandoned me and the Chipmonks to play poker with the men.
"I kind of threw my hand. I felt bad leaving you here." She shrugs, "No biggie."
I grin. It is a biggie to me that she did that.
"Alright," I rub my hands in glee and push the Repeat Bet button to start the wheels. "Here goes nothing."
The girls behind me cheer and jump as more people gather, lured in by all the noise. There's nothing that brings a crowd together like a potential big win.
The wheels align just like they're supposed to, and I finally, finally, get to go to the last round. Impatiently, I hop up and down on the plastic chair.
"You got this," Elaine says, squeezing my shoulder and kissing my cheek like she used to before a big test or exam. I blow her a kiss and push the Repeat Bet button one more time.
Lots of noise, very loud noise, comes out of the machine, and every eye is glued to the screen.
The machine flashes, lights spinning like a Vegas firework show, and then—
Nothing.
A low buzz hums from the screen, and the lights flicker once… twice… and then cut out completely. The entire display goes dark.
A collective groan rises from the crowd behind me.
"What the hell?" I blink at the blank screen. "Did I… did I break it?"
"Noooo," Cat cries loudly, leaning in like she's trying to intimidate the machine with her presence. "Tell me this thing did not just die."
Pippa kicks the base. "You've got to be kidding me."
A grainy message suddenly appears on the screen in pixelated red:
System Error. Please contact casino attendant.
"NO!" I shout at the machine. "I was one spin away from glory!"
"Do we call security?" Elaine asks, half-laughing, half-scandalized.
"I'm not leaving this chair," I say, gripping the sides of the seat like a woman fighting for her life. "If they try to take me off, I swear I'll glue myself to this plastic."
Scarlet leans over to whisper, "Do you think Marcello could, like… buy the machine?"
"I think he'd buy the whole damn floor if I asked him nicely," I mumble, still staring at the screen as if sheer willpower will revive it.
A flustered casino attendant arrives, headset askew, breathless. "Uh… ma'am, did you say this machine just shut down during a jackpot trigger?"
"Yes," the girls say in unison, nodding frantically.
Gigi holds up her phone; she'd been going to film my big moment. "I have proof. You better fix it or bring her a check."
The poor guy blinks like he's facing down a mafia don in lipstick and heels. "We'll, uh… We'll need to call a technician. But don't worry—if it hits, we'll see it in the system. Could take an hour."
"An hour?" Scarlet says.
I sigh, glance at the crowd still watching, and rise from the chair like a woman leaving behind a battlefield. "Fine. But someone bring me a pizza, a coffee, and a lawyer. I'm not leaving this floor until I get my spin."
As we walk off to wait, Elaine threads her arm through mine. "At least you're not the bride who got banned from the casino before her wedding."
"Yet," Pippa mutters with a grin.
I glance back at the machine one more time and whisper under my breath, "You owe me." I'm determined to have a word with my father about this later.
"You look beautiful," Elaine beams at me. She looks a bit distorted because both Gigi and Sophia have insisted I pull the freaking veil down.
"I look like a white marshmallow," I complain, looking in the mirror.
The other girls ran out to find something blue when we realized that this was the one thing I was missing for my big moment.
Other big moment. According to casino records, I would not have won, but Papà handed me a check for a hundred thousand dollars, with the casino's apologies, after both Gigi and Pippa caused a bit of a riot.
It wasn't the same as winning would have been, but I took the money and donated it to the victims of violent crimes fund. Seemed like poetic justice.
"Do you miss Mom?" Elaine asks. This is the first time either of us has mentioned Mom since arriving in Vegas.
Besides mom's swearing she would never set foot in Vegas again, I didn't even invite her.
Papà missed Elaine's wedding, so I figured it was only fair for Mom to miss mine.
Besides, I'm still too mad at her over everything to have her here; it would have ruined the day for me, looking at her.
I do feel terrible. A bride should have her mom beside her, and a mother should be part of her daughter's wedding. Nothing about this is fair, for any of us, but it is what it is, I suppose.
"I do," I admit to Elaine.
"Well, if it's any consolation, she made me more nervous on my wedding day than Dad seems to make you."
It is actually consoling. Sharing this day with Papà is like a dream come true. He has declared that he won't kill Mom, but I don't think he'll ever forgive her or allow her to share a room with him. Not that I can fault him.
"Here, we found something," Scarlet says, entering first, holding up an anklet with tiny blue dice attached to it.
"No, this one," Gigi basically throws a kitsch necklace at me with a fake blue diamond the size of a golf ball.
"My brother is going to like this, trust me," Sophia says, holding a blue garter in her hands, stitched with Viva Las Vegas.
"Na-ah, this takes the cake." Cat is wearing her find, a kitsch tiara, filled with rhinestones, playing the Viva Las Vegas song, while blue LED lights shine in the rhythm, lighting up the words, Here cums the Vegas Bride.
I laugh, "Girls, I have no idea how to choose."
"Take them all," Elaine decides, grabbing my foot to help Scarlet put the anklet on it.
Cat uses the moment to press the tiara on my head, while Gigi puts the fake diamond around my neck.
Sophia is a bit more timid, pushing up the damn garter, but it's fine.
We're all toppling over laughing, and that's all that matters.
"Are you girls alright in there?" Papà's loud voice penetrates the door.
"Coming," I yell back. The others think that's even more hilarious, and the giggles begin anew.