I Slapped My Fiancé—Then Married His Billionaire Nemesis
Chapter 119 - 120 Wedding Disaster

Chapter 119: Chapter 120 Wedding Disaster

‘I always wondered why my parents hated me so much. It wouldn’t have stung so badly if they were awful to everyone, but no, Franklin doted on Preston, his brother’s kid. Caroline smothered Catherine, and after Catherine left, she started lavishing all her affection on Serenna. Her niece. Not me.’

I smiled bitterly. ‘For a while in middle school, I actually wondered if I wasn’t their child. Maybe I was adopted. Like in those old telly dramas.’

Ashton nodded silently.

‘But Jace told me something that finally made it make sense. I wasn’t the swapped baby; Catherine was. Caroline didn’t know she’d given birth to a stillborn. She didn’t know Catherine wasn’t hers. But... maybe on some level, she sensed it. A few years later, she started having nightmares—babies crying, babies turning into monsters. Coincidentally, the dreams started after I was born.’

I stood up and started pacing, unable to keep still.

‘And I think she looked at me and felt it. Knew it, somehow. That I wasn’t hers. She must’ve done a DNA test at some point, confirmed I was Franklin’s, so I stayed. But that seed of doubt never left her. It haunted her. And every time she looked at me, she couldn’t love me. Not properly. Because she thought I didn’t belong to her. The facts may say one thing, but her heart’s telling her another.’

Ashton reached out and gave my hand a quiet, steadying pat.

‘I’m not sad,’ I said. ‘It’s just... nice to finally understand.’

‘Jace heard all this from Catherine?’

I curled up next to him and nodded. ‘Yeah. Catherine had her suspicions for years, even before her birth mother reached out. She overheard Caroline talking to Franklin once, voicing her doubts. So Catherine did what Catherine does—she stole hairs from their brushes, paid for a DNA test, and when the results came back... she kept them to herself. That’s why she was so ready to believe Jace’s mother when she turned up. She already knew.’

‘Franklin and Caroline made a mistake,’ Ashton said.

‘They did. They thought I was the swapped baby, but it was Catherine all along.’

‘Are you going to tell them?’

‘I don’t know. I need time to process everything.’

‘Take all the time you need. You don’t need to go to work. Nyx Collective is going to be in some upheaval for the next few days.’

‘You’re still buying it?’

He nodded.

‘What’s going to happen to Jace?’

Ashton checked his phone. ‘He’s been arrested as Violet Lin’s accomplice, but the charges won’t hold him for long. He’ll likely be out in a few weeks. Bail’s an option too.’

‘He’ll definitely call Catherine for help.’

‘I can block bail, if you want.’

‘Actually, no. Let him have it.’ I smiled faintly. ‘Imagine the kind of damage a man like Jace can do. Rhys and his family have no idea what they’ve married into... but they’re about to find out.’

***

Mid-afternoon, I was lying on the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling.

When my phone buzzed, I nearly let it go to voicemail until I saw the name.

I answered. ‘You wouldn’t believe what I just—’

‘You wouldn’t believe what I just saw!’ Yvaine shouted. ‘Wait, what? What did you say? How could you possibly already know? Am I not the first one calling you?’

‘Heard what?’

‘What happened at Rhys and Catherine’s wedding!’

‘You went to their wedding?’ I sat bolt upright.

Ashton glanced up from the dining table, where he was typing away on his laptop.

I covered the phone with one hand and said, ‘I’m taking this upstairs.’

He nodded.

I left. It felt wrong to gossip in front of a working man, even if he was technically on leave.

I tiptoed into my bedroom.

Yvaine hadn’t stopped talking the entire way.

‘... Mum didn’t want to go, so of course I got stuck with the honour. Appearances and all that. But it turned out to be the best decision I’ve made all week!’

‘What happened?’ I flopped onto the bed, flat on my back.

Yvaine let out another burst of laughter. ‘The wedding barely started, and both the bride and groom bolted! Can you believe it? Now everything’s a disaster. Half the guests are furious, the other half are rubbernecking. And I’m sitting here with a slice of top-tier wedding cake, calling you live from the scene. Wish you were here, babe.’

‘Start from the beginning. Why did they bolt?’

‘Well, technically, they didn’t. Catherine fainted. Collapsed right before the ceremony and got rushed to the hospital. Rhys went with her.’

‘Catherine’s sick?’

‘No clue. I only saw her being bundled into the back of an ambulance. But plenty of guests took photos. You should check online.’

I opened Instagram and X, scrolling through posts from mutual acquaintances, trying to piece together the story.

‘So,’ Yvaine said, ‘the ceremony was about to begin. Catherine and Rhys were waiting backstage for the music cue. I got bored and wandered off, stopped somewhere in the hall near them, which gave me an excellent vantage point for watching.’

‘You mean snooping.’

‘Semantics. Do you want to hear the story or not?’

‘Sorry. Please continue.’

‘One of Catherine’s bridesmaids handed her a phone. I couldn’t hear what was said, but her face changed. Dramatically. And this was from behind a pillar twenty paces away, so trust me, it was obvious. Whoever called had something big.’

‘When was this?’

‘Maybe two, three hours ago?’

That would’ve been when Jace tried to call her.

‘She looked completely rattled,’ Yvaine went on. ‘Then Rhys grabbed the phone from her and demanded to know who it was. I caught something about the police. He hung up. Catherine started pleading with him. Her phone rang again. And again. And again. Rhys got mad—really mad—and forced her to answer it. She did. No clue what she heard, but she went pale. And I mean ghostly. Then she doubled over and clutched her stomach.’

‘Morning sickness?’

‘Looked like pain. Rhys rushed her to a nearby sofa. Lucky for me they didn’t go back to the bridal suite, or I wouldn’t have heard what happened next.’

‘What did you hear?’