Chapter 3 - The Groom at the Altar
"Ethan, stop!" Caroline’s shriek echoed across the estate. She hitched up the front of her lace train, stumbling after him in her diamond-encrusted heels. "Ethan, don't you dare walk away from this altar! Think about the press! Think about my father!"
Ethan didn't even turn his head.
To the world, Ethan Montgomery was a ruthless real estate mogul, a man who had built towers across four continents and crushed rivals without blinking. But as he stopped five feet from where I stood, the titan looked like a man who had been hollowed out from the inside.
His gaze dropped to the grass, where Noah and Caleb were watching him with identical expressions of cool evaluation. Liam, however, stepped slightly in front of me, his small jaw set.
"Are you the guy from the picture?" Liam asked bluntly.
Ethan dropped to one knee. He didn't care that the damp turf was soaking through the fabric of his eight-thousand-dollar trousers. He didn't care that two hundred members of Chicago high society were taking photos on their phones beneath the tables.
His broad chest hitched, his throat working violently as he reached out a trembling hand, stopping inches away from Liam’s shoulder as if he were terrified the child might turn to dust.
"I..." Ethan choked on the syllable. He dragged his eyes up to mine, tears visibly rimming his lower lids. "You told me you lost them. You told my mother... she brought me the hospital report, Avery. She told me you took the settlement, aborted the pregnancy, and moved to Europe with some tech investor!"
"Is that what she told you?" I asked, my voice devoid of pity. "And you believed her, Ethan. Just like you believed her when she said I stole her diamond brooch. Just like you believed her when she told you I was only after your trust fund. You signed the divorce papers without looking up from your phone."
"I was dying!" he choked out, his voice cracking with raw agony. "I thought you killed our child! I hated you because I couldn't bear the thought that you had looked at what we made and thrown it away! I signed those papers because if I looked at you, I would have begged you to stay even after what you did!"
"Ethan, get up!" Eleanor hissed, rushing to his side and grabbing his arm with frantic force. "Get up this instant! You are making a spectacle of yourself! The Hastings family is watching! The press will ruin us!"
"Get your hands off me, Mother," Ethan said.
The tone wasn't loud, but it was laden with pure poison. He didn't look at her. He shoved her hand away with a violent jerk of his elbow, his eyes never leaving the three boys.
"Ethan..." Noah spoke up this time. He took a single step closer to Ethan, tilting his head. "Mom has a picture of you in her desk drawer. She told us our father was a man who got lost in a dark forest and couldn't find his way out. Did you find your way out yet?"
A sob—thick, ragged, and completely uncontained—ripped from Ethan’s throat.
The ruthless CEO of Montgomery Global collapsed entirely, burying his face in his hands right there on the grass.
Caroline Hastings finally reached them, her face flushed with humiliation and rage. She grabbed Ethan’s shoulder, trying to haul him upward. "Ethan! Stand up! This is a scam! Look at her! She’s an opportunist who showed up to ruin the biggest merger our families have ever planned! Do you really think these are yours? In this day and age, anyone can buy a child who looks like someone else! Dad, do something!"
Senator Hastings was already moving, flanked by two private security guards. "Ethan. Stand up. We finish the vows, we deal with this... *domestic dispute* behind closed doors. You have an election campaign to fund, and you have a contract to honor."
I took a slow, deliberate breath, reached into my small emerald clutch, and pulled out a slender, gold-embossed folder.
May you like
"There won't be any contracts honored today, Senator," I announced, my voice cutting through the tension with surgical precision. "And as for the merger... I believe you’ll find the Montgomerys aren't in any position to buy a cup of coffee, let alone fund your senate campaign."
***
