Chapter 5 Alone At The Ceremony

CHAPTER FIVE — HER POV

Alone at the Ceremony

I stepped into the hall, and my heart dropped instantly.

This was supposed to be a joint ceremony.

The wife and the husband were meant to be present together.

That was how it was announced.

That was how it was planned.

But the truth was standing right in front of me.

Only I was alone.

Lucien was not there.

No Blackwood representative.

No elder.

No car outside.

Nothing.

Just me.

Across the hall stood Lydia, glowing in gold, her hand wrapped possessively around Ethan’s arm—my Ethan. The man I once loved. The man who once promised me forever. His family stood behind them, smiling proudly, whispering admiration.

And then there was my father.

Standing beside them.

Not beside me.

Not once did he look my way.

I felt like I had walked into the wrong life.

Or maybe… this was the life they had always planned for me.

Lydia noticed me first.

Her lips curled slowly, deliberately, like she had been waiting for this moment.

“Well,” she said sweetly, her eyes cruel, “look who showed up alone.”

Ethan chuckled.

A soft, careless laugh.

“Guess the billionaire couldn’t even bother to come,” he said, glancing at me like I was something embarrassing. “That tells you everything, doesn’t it?”

My chest tightened.

I took a step forward, my heels feeling too loud, too weak.

“He’s busy,” I said quietly. “This ceremony—”

Lydia laughed loudly, cutting me off.

“Busy?” she repeated. “Or ashamed?”

She turned to Ethan, squeezing his arm. “Imagine marrying a man who won’t even show his face for you.”

Ethan nodded in agreement.

“Honestly, Susan,” he said, shaking his head, “you always aimed too high. This suits you. Being hidden.”

I looked at my father then.

Surely… surely he would say something.

“Dad…” my voice trembled. “This is humiliating.”

He finally looked at me.

Not with pity.

Not with regret.

With annoyance.

“You should be grateful,” he said flatly. “At least someone agreed to marry you.”

The words hit me harder than a slap.

Grateful.

For being abandoned in public.

For being laughed at.

For standing alone while my sister stood proud with the man who betrayed me.

Lydia stepped closer, lowering her voice just enough to sting.

“Look at you,” she whispered. “Same face, same blood… yet I got the man, the family, the respect. And you?” She smiled. “You got sold.”

Ethan leaned in too.

“I never really loved you,” he said calmly, like he was talking about the weather. “You were just convenient. Lydia was always the better choice.”

I felt something inside me crack.

Not break.

Crack.

My knees weakened, but I refused to fall.

“I loved you,” I whispered. “I trusted you.”

He shrugged.

“You shouldn’t have.”

Lydia laughed again, louder this time.

“Don’t cry,” she mocked. “You’ll ruin your makeup. Though I guess it doesn’t matter. No one important is here to see you anyway.”

I felt my throat close.

I couldn’t breathe.

That was when the thought hit me.

My mother.

If she were alive…

She would never allow this.

She would be standing beside me now, her hand warm around mine, her voice steady in my ear. She would look my father in the eye and remind him of who I was. She would protect me.

But she was gone.

And without her… I was nothing here.

My fingers shook as I reached into my dress and pulled out the small locket I always carried. I opened it slowly.

Her smile looked back at me.

Soft. Kind. Loving.

“Mum…” I whispered, tears finally spilling. “If you were here… they wouldn’t do this to me.”

Lydia scoffed.

“Still clinging to a dead woman?” she said cruelly. “No wonder no one wants you.”

My father didn’t stop her.

Didn’t correct her.

Didn’t defend me.

He just looked away.

That hurt more than anything else.

I pressed the locket to my lips, silent tears dropping onto the floor.

I had been betrayed by my sister.

Used by the man I loved.

And discarded by my own father.

I was alone.

Completely alone.

“I trusted the wrong people,” I thought bitterly.

“They all betrayed me. I’m nothing to them… nothing at all.”

My body trembled as I straightened.

I wiped my face.

“I am still me,” I whispered. “Even if none of you see it.”

They laughed.

All three of them.

And just as my heart reached its breaking point—

I heard it.

A deep, powerful engine outside.

Low.

Expensive.

Unmistakable.

The laughter died instantly.

Lydia froze.

Ethan stiffened.

My father turned pale.

The sound grew closer.

Then stopped.

Silence swallowed the room.

I clutched my mother’s locket tightly as my heart thundered in my chest.

Lucien Blackwood had arrived.

And for the first time that day…

I was no longer the only one trembling.