Chapter 6 - You Destroyed Your Own Wedding
Victoria spat a mouthful of cloying vanilla frosting onto the terrace floor and clawed her way to a sitting position.
Her diamond necklace was twisted sideways around her neck, caked in sticky red preserve that looked grotesquely like blood.
She raised her wild, mascara-smeared eyes to look for sympathy among the crowd of prominent socialites and business tycoons.
Every single person she looked at averted their eyes or met her gaze with expressions of icy, undisguised contempt.
Her gaze finally settled on Marcus, whose towering silhouette commanded the center of the terrace like a judge presiding over a trial.
The billionaire groom tightened his grip around Maya, drawing his innocent child closer against the warmth of his tuxedo jacket.
Slowly, deliberately, Marcus raised his right hand and pointed a single, steady index finger at the catastrophic wreckage around her.
He let the crushing weight of his gaze bore into Victoria’s skull until she stopped whimpering and stared back at him in terror.
Then, with a voice that was utterly devoid of warmth, mercy, or hesitation, Marcus delivered his verdict to the entire assembly.
"You just destroyed your own wedding," he said, each word landing like an iron sledgehammer upon the silent terrace.
The words did not carry anger; they carried the terrible, absolute finality of an irrevocable sentence.
Victoria froze completely, the murderous rage in her blue eyes instantly shattering into absolute humiliation and sheer horror.
The reality of what she had done finally pierced through the fog of her malignant narcissism.
She had not just thrown a tantrum; she had physically assaulted a beloved daughter, attacked a billionaire, and demolished her own dream in public.
The cameras of the society journalists invited to document her grand coronation were still rolling, capturing every inch of her disgrace.
A cold, suffocating shudder traveled down Victoria’s spine as she realized her life of luxury had evaporated within sixty seconds.
Maya lifted her head slightly, her brown eyes wide as she heard the total rejection in her father’s voice.
For months, Victoria had privately threatened Maya, claiming Marcus would always choose his glamorous new bride over a pathetic daughter.
Now, the truth stood illuminated beneath the Connecticut sun for all the world to see without a shadow of doubt.
Marcus had chosen his daughter instantly, violently, and permanently, casting his bride into the dirt without a second thought.
"Marcus, please..." Victoria choked out, her voice reduced to a pathetic, rasping whine as tears carved through the frosting on her cheeks.
Marcus did not even deign to respond to her plea.
He turned his back on the fallen bride completely, presenting her with an impenetrable wall of broad black wool.
With gentle, agonizing care, he used the edge of his sleeve to wipe a final smear of cream away from his daughter’s eyelashes.
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"You are safe now, Maya," Marcus whispered so only she could hear, his voice cracking with protective emotion.
"No one will ever lay a hand on you again in my house, I swear to God."
