‘The Groom Is a Fraud! Here’s the Proof!’ Stranger Woman Interrupts Bride’s Vow — Story of the Day

"Please, stop the wedding!" Ally bursts into the church when the bride is about to finish saying her wedding vow. Ally introduces herself as the groom's ex-girlfriend and accuses him of being a con man.

Ethan could not take his eyes off his bride as he finished his heartfelt vow. The church fell silent, and all eyes turned to Jodie, Ethan's 22-year-old fiancée, wrapped in an elegant A-line white gown.

"I, Jodie, take you, Ethan, to be my beloved...." Jodie blushed as she started saying her wedding vow when all of a sudden, the church door burst open, and a loud voice cried out:

"STOP! Please, HOLD ON!"

Jodie stood shaken, unable to understand what was going on and who the interrupter was. Everyone turned around as Ally's desperate voice continued to tear the serene gathering like a thunderbolt.

"Please, stop the wedding! The man you're about to marry is a scam artist!" Ally screamed as she bolted to the bride…

"The groom is a fraud! Here's the proof! Jake and I were about to get married just a month ago. He just disappeared from my life after scamming me. And today, I don't have a cent in my bank account because of this guy."

Everyone was stunned as they exchanged curious glances. Meanwhile, Jodie...she froze like a statue.

"It's her!" Jodie then turned to Ethan. "That's the psycho who tried to break our relationship recently, Ethan! Don't you recognize her?"

A chorus of whispers rumbled among the guests as they stared at Ally.

"No, wait! Please, you have to listen to me. This man you are going to get married to...he's not Ethan or Jake! He is a fraudster!" Ally shouted, pointing a finger at the groom.

"I...I don't know what she's talking about. I don't even know her!" Ethan shrugged, pretending he did not know Ally or what she was talking about.

Ally's bold accusation left everyone in utter shock while Jodie tried to diffuse the situation and proceed with her much-awaited dream wedding. "Okay! You know what? You've gone crazy, lady. I think you need serious help. You can't just walk into my wedding and accuse my fiancé. GET OUT!"

But Ally refused to back down or leave without shattering the bride's illusion. "Look, you should know how this scoundrel has been conning vulnerable women. And I was one of them…." Ally argued.

"...it all began a few weeks ago when I last saw this man who claimed his name was Jake..." Ally began recounting her story...

A month ago...

Ally and her boyfriend Jake were talking in the kitchen, happily planning their future together. Ally could not hold back her tears of joy when Jake mentioned their dream beach-themed wedding, which was set to arrive in a week.

"And babe, today I made the last advance payment for the restaurant! And the wedding cake will be the best, trust me!" Jake told Ally as he gently kissed her hand.

"...everything will be great, just like how you wanted! All the guests at our wedding will be awestruck and just keep saying, 'Wow!' I'm so excited!"

Ally blushed and was happier than Jake was. "Oh, sweetie…Our big day is finally here. And I can't wait to be yours officially!"

As Ally poured black coffee into Jake's mug, she remembered about the real estate project he had long mentioned and wanted to know the progress.

"By the way, love, how is your project? Did the investor say something about your fee? How much did he quote?" Ally turned to Jake. "I still have money. But the thing is, I need this money to buy a second-hand car...and it's all I have left. So I don't want to spend it on anything else."

An eerie worry cloaked Jake. "Babe, I thought we already discussed this. I told you I would get you a brand new car for our wedding," Jake said with a smile as he hugged Ally from behind.

"Everything's going to be okay. It's just the last payment, babe...and I won't bother you again. I promise."

"I know, love. But I'm just worried. We have so much to plan for the ceremony..." Ally replied.

"Oh, don't worry, honey. My project is doing great...the investor is thrilled with my idea. And you know what? I'll be paid $130,000 in a week! And we don't have to worry about working for several months once I get my paycheck."

"By the way, are you doubting me?" Jake stared Ally in the eye before kissing her. "It's okay if you don't want to give me the money. I'll borrow from my friends or maybe take a loan."

"No, no...not at all!" Ally rushed to respond. "I trust you more than anybody else, love. You've been handling everything so perfectly. And I'm so proud of you!"

Jake pulled Ally into a tight embrace and kissed her again. "You're the love of my life, and I can't wait to be your husband, sweetie pie!" he said. "And you know what else I can't wait for? Any guesses?"

"Ummm…what?" Ally grew curious.

"Our honeymoon, baby!" Jake told her with a chuckle. "We need to make that prepayment for our trip to the Maldives. It's going to be just like how you wanted...blue waters, oceanfront resorts, and all the fresh seafood we can eat!"

Jake then looked Ally in the eye and assured her that this would be the last money she would ever have to spend. Ally thought for a while and nodded with a smile as she gave Jake her bank card.

"Babe, thanks a bunch! I'll make the prepayment for our dream honeymoon tomorrow! And then, we can fully focus on the preparations for our big day together!" Jake assured Ally.

Ally was over the moon, and, in her mind, she had already started making the checklist of things to pack for their honeymoon to the Maldives.

"I'm so excited, love! I can't even tell you how happy I am now!" she cried, and they coiled into a tight hug before retiring to their bedroom that night.

But when Ally woke up the next morning, she was in for a heartbreaking surprise.

Ally's eyes fluttered open as the morning rays spilled into the room. "Morning, babe!" she turned to her right side, but the space Jake usually slept beside her was empty.

Ally's heart sank with growing unease. "Jake? Babe?" she called out, sitting on her bed. When her loud cries went unanswered, she jumped out of bed and checked the bathroom. But Jake was not there.

Ally then checked the balcony, assuming Jake had gone out for a smoke. But it was empty, and there were no signs of Jake anywhere in the house.

Wasting no time, Ally reached for her phone and rang him. To her shock, the call went straight to voicemail.

"Jake, honey, where are you? Please call me back," Ally pleaded, leaving a voicemail.

Frustration and worry gnawed at her. Ally's heart sank further when she checked the closet she shared with Jake and found all of his things gone.

"No...no, please don't do this to me…" Ally broke down as she turned to social media, only to find all of Jake's social accounts had been deleted. It was as if he had vanished off the face of the earth with all traces of his existence.

"This can't be happening," Ally whispered as she opened her email with trembling fingers to check a notification.

Blood drained off her face when Ally found an unexpected and devastating message in the inbox — her bank account had been completely emptied, and the $30,000 she had saved was missing from her account.

Ally was shaken and sank into her bed, clutching her phone tightly. Her heart was shattered, her trust broken. She could not grasp how someone she loved to the core could do this to her.

Ally hurried to Jake's office to see if he was there. But another painful blow awaited her.

"Hello, I'm looking for Jake," Ally told the receptionist. "...he works here as the project manager. Can I please meet him?"

The woman glanced up from her computer with a friendly smile. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. But there's no one by that name working here."

Ally's heart skipped a beat. "What? No…no, there has to be a mistake or something. Could you please check again? My fiancé Jake told me he works here. I know this is the company he works for...."

The receptionist shook her head. "I'm sorry. We don't have a project manager by that name, Ma'am."

Confusion and disbelief clouded Ally's thoughts. She pulled her handbag closer and clumsily walked out of the building. Standing on the sidewalk, Ally tried to make sense of the string of nightmarish discoveries surrounding Jake.

His sudden disappearance from her house, his missing belongings, and her empty bank balance...it all boiled down to just one thing — Ally had been conned by a man who was not who he claimed he was!

Ally's mind raced as she pieced together all those times that Jake borrowed money from her, promising to repay her. Could it all have been a lie? Was Jake nothing more than a con man?

Several thoughts sprang into Ally's mind, and she immediately rushed to the nearest police station.

As she entered the station, Ally's eyes were red from tears. "I need to report a fraud," she told the officer at the front desk. "Please, you must find him."

The cop looked up and gestured for Ally to take a seat first. "Of course, Ma'am. Can you tell me what happened?"

Sighing a deep breath, Ally poured out all the details of how she met Jake on a dating site three months ago, their relationship and upcoming wedding, his sudden disappearance, and her emptied bank account.

"Please, officer. I just want to find him and get my money back," Ally pleaded.

"I understand how difficult this must be for you, Ma'am," the officer looked up at Ally after rummaging through the database for records of convicts named Jake.

"...but unfortunately, it's not a very straightforward case of fraud. You voluntarily gave him your bank card. And there's no record of a 'Jake' in our databases. He likely used a fake name or something...and it's challenging for us to investigate or find a man with a fake identity."

Tears welled up in Ally's eyes once again. Frustration and disappointment started consuming her as she grew unsettled by the cop's reply.

"But he took everything from me, officer. How can you not do anything? He could be doing the same thing to some other woman out there. You need to find and arrest that guy before he deceives someone else."

"We're sorry, Ma'am. We'll do what we can," the officer told Ally. "No scams have been reported based on similar scenarios you mentioned. We'll anyway file your report and call you once we get a lead."

As Ally disappointedly left the police station, she felt like a fool. She had been duped by someone she had loved and blindly trusted. Upon reaching her apartment later that evening, Ally sat in despair, thinking about how to find Jake.

As Ally looked for a clue that could help find her way to Jake, she remembered the business trips he had often taken when they were in a relationship. Ally understood that those could be trips Jake took to con more women, and an idea struck her.

Ally opened her laptop and created a fake dating profile using Jake's hot photos to catch the attention of women who were looking for a partner online. This was one risky plan, but for Ally, it was her last hope to track the conman down and expose his lies.

Using her other bank card, Ally invested in the most expensive advertisement for the fake profile. She wanted to make sure it was visible as a top priority to as many potential women as possible.

Several hours passed as Ally constantly checked her laptop for any responses from the dating site. But nothing had turned up so far, and her hope had slowly started to fade.

Then, just as Ally was about to call it a night and go to bed, a message popped up on her laptop screen:

"Ethan? What the hell's going on here? I will call Jodie now. How can you cheat on her when you two are getting married in a week?"

Ally's heart pounded when she realized the response was sent by a woman who recognized Jake on the dating site.

A surge of excitement rushed through Ally's body as she quickly typed a response to the woman, seemingly the friend of Jake's new victim.

"Hi, I'm not Ethan or the guy you saw on the dating site. I know this might sound strange, but I need to talk to Jodie about this man who claims he is Ethan. It's urgent. This guy is a con man. Can you please give me Jodie's phone number? I need to warn her about him."

Although the woman on the other end was initially skeptical about trusting Ally, she agreed to give her Jodie's phone number after Ally explained everything in detail.

With trembling hands, Ally then called Jodie. The phone rang continuously, and then a woman finally answered.

"Hello? Who is this?"

Ally's heart started to race. "Is...is this Jodie? From Springfield?" she asked, trying to steady her quivering voice.

"Yes...but who is this? I don't seem to recognize this number?" Jodie replied.

"My name is Ally. I live 45 miles away from you, Jodie. I know this may sound strange...but I believe we know the same person...a man named Ethan, I knew him as Jake…the guy you are going to get married to in a week…."

"Jake? I don't know any Jake," Jodie told Ally. "My fiancé's name is Ethan."

Ally's voice tinged with disbelief. "Look, Jodie. There's something important I want to tell you about your fiancé, but not over the phone. Can we please meet?"

A moment of silence hung as Jodie replied. "About my fiancé? What about him?"

"Jodie...look, this is really important. I want to meet you, and we can discuss everything in person. Send me the location of a café we can meet tomorrow evening."

"Alright. I'll send you the location…let's meet tomorrow at 5," Jodie said, hanging up.

The following evening, Ally arrived in the town Jodie lived in and nervously waited at the table by the window in the bustling café.

Minutes turned into hours as Ally kept waiting, her mind haunted by the truth she was about to share with the stranger. Finally, a woman wearing a black and white polka dot dress, resembling the one Jodie said she would be wearing, approached Ally's table and waved at her.

"Ally?" Jodie said. "We spoke last evening."

"Hey, there! Nice to meet you." Ally greeted Jodie, who was looking visibly upset.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, Ally," Jodie then said. "...my grandmother Diane passed away this morning...and I had to handle some legal matters. So I had to rush to the lawyer's office."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that," Ally shared her condolences. "...I'm not sure if this is the right time to tell you everything."

Jodie nodded as she composed herself. "No, it's okay. So, what did you want to tell me about my fiancé?"

Taking a deep breath, Ally plunged ahead. "It's about Jake...or Ethan, as you call him. He is…a conman. He targets young, vulnerable women looking for love online and swindles their money. I met him online some months ago via a dating site."

Ally then recounted her story with Jake — their whirlwind romance, the wedding that never happened, and the financial fraud.

"I know it's hard to believe. But this guy is not who he claims to be. I suspect he's done this to the other women too…and you are potentially his next target."

Jodie sat back in shock, trying to process everything she had just heard about her fiancé. "I...I don't know what to say. This is all so overwhelming. Are you sure this is true? God…I am shocked!"

Ally nodded. "I wouldn't have come to you if I wasn't sure."

Taking a moment to process the information, Jodie then made a decision. She reached for her phone and called Ethan.

"I need you to come to the café right now. It's important," she said firmly.

A short while later, Ethan hurried into the café with a look of surprise on his face. "Hey, babe, what's going on? I was in the middle of an important meeting with my investor, and you just...."

Ethan paused when he saw Ally sitting opposite Jodie and staring him in the eye.

"Ally here has some very serious accusations against you, Ethan," Jodie snapped at Ethan, looking him square in the eyes. "She claims that she knows you...and that you are a fraudster who cons women you meet online and swindles their money."

Ethan's eyes widened in shock, and his face turned pale as he pretended. "What? Don't be ridiculous. I've never seen this woman before. She…she is lying."

A knot of desperation tightened in Ally's chest. She knew that Jake was a master manipulator, capable of fooling anyone with just his charm and sweet talks. And now, he was putting on his act in front of Jodie.

"Fine, if you're innocent, then prove it," Jodie told Ethan. "Show me the receipts of the payments you made recently..."

Ethan's face remained calm as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the checks and receipts.

"Here..." he said with a smirk, handing them over to Jodie. "I have receipts for every payment I made on your behalf. See, I told you she's a liar. And you're trusting her and not me? How could you, babe?"

Ally's heart leaped in her chest. She had assumed Jake would not show Jodie any proof of payment. But it seemed to her that Jake had forged the checks and receipts beforehand to keep Jodie in a web of lies if she ever happened to question him about the payments.

Ally was now at a dead end, with no solid evidence to prove the truth. No one would believe her, and Ally was afraid her last gamble had failed.

"You liar! Were you trying to break my marriage? You told me Ethan would hesitate to show me the receipts. But he just showed them! Stay away from us, do you hear me?" Jodie barked at Ally and stormed out with her fiancé.

However, Ally was still determined to expose Jake's schemes and took on another daring risk. As soon as she returned home, Ally sold her possessions, borrowed money from her friends, and bought an expensive $100,000 diamond necklace.

She then searched online for a make-up artist in town. "Bingo! Found her!" Ally exclaimed when the search yielded contact details of a professional make-up artist she was looking for.

She rang the woman. "Hello, is this Kelly, the make-up artist?"

"Yes! How may I help you?" the woman replied.

"Great! I need your help with something..." Ally nervously added. "Can you make me look like an 80-year-old woman? It...it's for this themed party...and we're supposed to dress up as old people."

The make-up artist agreed, and Ally immediately arranged a meeting for the following afternoon.

The next day, Ally visited the make-up artist and transformed herself into an older woman with the help of professional make-up. The gray wig, wrinkled, saggy skin make-up, and the outfit made Ally look exactly like an 80-year-old.

Ally, disguised as Jodie's late grandmother's cousin, then arrived at Jodie and Ethan's house that evening and knocked on their door.

"Oh, hello. Can I help you?" Jodie answered as Ethan stood behind her, wondering who the older woman was.

"Hello, dear," Ally said in a shaky voice. "I know we haven't met each other in years...but I'm your Grandma Diane's cousin, Helen. I wanted to congratulate you on your upcoming wedding, darling. And I just arrived in town."

Jodie was baffled and looked at Ethan. "I don't remember Grandma ever mentioning you."

"Oh, that's a long story, dear. Diane and I lost touch a long time ago. But when I heard about your wedding, I couldn't resist coming to see you and bringing you a special gift — this diamond necklace!"

Jodie and Ethan's eyes glowed with delight when they saw the glistening jewelry 'Grandma Helen' was holding and invited her to tea.

"It's a family heirloom — this necklace has been passed down for generations. But I must confess...it was the reason for a quarrel between me and your Grandma all those years ago. She wanted it, but I rightfully inherited it from our late Grandma. I'm getting older, so I wanted to pass this necklace on to you, my dear," Ally feigned nostalgia.

"...but according to our old family tradition, it'll be passed on to you only after your wedding!"

As Ally weaved a web of lies about her shared past with Jodie's late grandma, she noticed Ethan's eyes lighting up and fixed on the diamond necklace displayed in the jewel box on the coffee table.

"That's very sweet of you, Ms. Helen," Ethan told the '80-year-old woman' with a smile.

"It's getting dark and cold. Why don't you stay with us tonight? Our guest room is empty. We would be honored to have you...don't you think, honey?" he turned to Jodie, who nodded in agreement.

But Ally was as cautious as a deer. She knew Ethan would go to any extremes to steal the jewelry if she stayed with them in their house.

"Oh, you're too kind, son!" she waved her hand at Ethan. "...but I don't want to bother you youngsters! I'll meet you after the wedding with this heirloom...and then we can celebrate properly. But now, I've got to meet an old friend."

Ally left the house, smiling, knowing that Jake had taken the bait. She knew he would proceed with the wedding to get the necklace because he would not forgo the opportunity of making four times the money he would otherwise make by conning four women.

However, there was a catch — Jake did not have an ID that legally identified him as 'Ethan,' because he was never going to marry Jodie. But now, he needed to forge an ID immediately to marry her and claim the diamond necklace.

There was no way Ethan would marry Jodie under his real name, as it would make it easier for the cops to track him down if he ran away with the necklace and Jodie's money after the wedding.

Time was running out, and with just two days left for the big day, the conman had to think real quick and come up with a plan.

Present day: The wedding...

"...and I'm damn sure your so-called 'Ethan,' aka my ex-boyfriend-turned-scammer Jake has made the arrangements already to prove his identity!" Ally turned to a stunned Jodie.

"Tell me, please, did the groom provide you with his ID before the wedding commenced?" Ally asked the officiant who was taking the bride and groom's vows.

"Yes, he did provide his ID with the name Ethan. W.," the man replied.

"Ah, there we go!" Ally exclaimed with a satisfactory smile. "So, we're dealing not only with the purchase of forged documents but also their use, right Jake? Oh, sorry, Ethan?!"

Just as Ally was about to say more, the piercing sirens of police cruisers filled the air, and the cops entered the wedding venue with handcuffs.

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