Chapter 3 - The Unraveling at the Altar of GreedThe ballroom downstairs was still echoing with the distant sound of clinking glasses and laughter when the music abruptly cut out.
Through the open door of the bridal suite, we heard the heavy thud of the DJ’s microphone feedback screeching through the speakers. A moment later, my father’s best friend, Arthur—who also happened to be the senior managing partner of our family’s holding company—took the stage downstairs. His voice boomed up the grand staircase, sharp and authoritative.
"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Tonight’s celebration is officially concluded. Please make your way to the exits. Security will assist you with transportation."
An immediate wave of murmurs and confused gasps rippled through the estate. Upstairs, Julian flinched as if he’d been physically struck.
"What did you do?" Julian hissed, grabbing my wrist. "Are you crazy? Our families are down there! Our business associates! You’re humiliating me in front of everyone!"
"Let go of her wrist," Robert warned, his hand closing around Julian’s collar like a vice, lifting him slightly off his feet before shoving him back against the wall. "Touch her again, and you won't need a lawyer—you’ll need an orthopedic surgeon."
I rubbed my wrist, staring at the man I had spent five years believing was my soulmate. How pathetic he looked now, stripped of his bravado, whining about his reputation while standing in stolen clothes with his mistress.
"You humiliated me first, Julian," I said calmly. "You thought you could stage a public display of dominance, treat me like a stranger, and gaslight me into submission. You forgot one crucial detail: I am not the naive girl you met in college. My grandfather built this empire, and my family doesn't lose."
Savannah was frantically trying to strip off my grandmother’s crystal necklace, her fingers trembling so badly she couldn't unlatch the clasp. With a frustrated cry, she yanked it hard, snapping the vintage silver chain. The crystal pendant fell, hitting the hardwood floor with a sharp, sickening crack.
A piece of the antique chipped off.
I didn't yell. I didn't cry. I simply walked over, knelt down, and picked up the broken pieces of my grandmother’s legacy. The gemstone was ruined, fractured down the center.
"That," I said, standing up and holding the shattered crystal out toward Savannah on the flat of my palm, "is the exact value of your friendship and his loyalty. Irreparably broken."
Thomas pulled out his phone, tapping a screen twice. "The police are downstairs, Julian. Along with process servers carrying emergency injunctions freezing all joint business accounts, revoking your access to the corporate credit lines, and filing an immediate petition for an annulment based on fraud."
Julian’s knees buckled. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, his designer tuxedo jacket rumpled, staring blankly at the ruined dress on Savannah.
May you like
"You can't do this," he whispered, his voice cracking. "We’re married. We have a life together."
"We had a scam," I corrected him, turning my back on both of them as my mother wrapped a warm, steady arm around my shoulders. "And business hours are over."
