Chapter 3

Today was Damian and Serena's wedding day.

All of Southport was buzzing about the lavish union between two powerful families.

The ceremony was extravagant down to every last detail.

Serena stood at the center in a custom-made gown.

Guests streamed in without end.

Everyone said she and Damian were a perfect match.

Perhaps still not trusting that I wouldn't try to leave,

Damian had threatened me into attending his wedding to Serena that very morning.

I stood alone at the edge of the crowd, separated by a sea of people.

Watching a grand, blinding ceremony that had nothing to do with me.

Halfway through the wedding, the unexpected struck.

The large screen, which had been playing highlights of the newlyweds, suddenly cut to something else.

It was filled with the Whitmore family's secrets.

Slanderous claims that my mother had been a homewrecker who schemed her way into the family.

Ugly accusations plastered across the entire screen.

The guests erupted. Whispers exploded through the room.

Damian cut the power immediately.

He sent security to make sure every guest deleted any footage they had recorded.

But gossip among the wealthy can never be contained.

By that same day, the scandal had become the talk of the town.

Both the Ashford and Whitmore families took a hit. Stock prices fluctuated.

I was dragged back to the old family estate.

Every Whitmore elder was seated. Damian's parents sat nearby.

Damian stood at the front of the room, looking at me with nothing but disappointment.

Serena leaned against him, her eyes red.

"It's my fault for making the wedding too flashy. That's what caused all this trouble."

"Amelia has every right to resent me. I deserve to have my wedding ruined."

"But you shouldn't drag the entire Whitmore family into this. And Damian has been so good to you. What you did will hurt the Ashfords too."

Everyone assumed this had been my act of deliberate revenge.

Mrs. Ashford spoke first, her tone cutting.

"We never approved of Damian being involved with you. An illegitimate daughter with no proper status was never good enough for the Ashford family."

"And now you have the nerve to sabotage the wedding. Someone like you shouldn't even dream of setting foot in our home."

Mr. Ashford's stern voice followed right after.

"The Ashford family expects a daughter-in-law of equal standing, not a petty, small-minded woman like you."

My throat tightened.

"It wasn't me..."

Before I could finish, my father cut me off sharply.

"I always knew you and your mother were nothing but trouble."

"If I'd known you two would bring this much disaster to the Whitmore family, I never should have let you be born."

He jabbed his finger at me, his face flushed with rage.

"And that shameless mother of yours. She was nothing but trouble back then, and she's still dragging me down."

I stared at him, overwhelmed by disbelief and a bone-deep chill.

"You know perfectly well what really happened back then."

"Who was the real homewrecker?"

The truth was, my mother had been the one the Whitmore elders had formally chosen as the family's bride-to-be.

Her background was impeccable, her temperament gentle and composed.

She and my father had loved each other, and she was pregnant with me, waiting to be married.

Back then, Serena's mother had been nothing more than a distant relative working as hired help for the Whitmore family.

But she was wildly ambitious. She slipped drugs into my father's drink at a banquet.

She schemed her way into his bed.

The cruelest part was that she had carefully timed it to coincide with my mother's daily walk.

She made sure my pregnant mother walked in on them half-undressed.

The shock sent my mother into hemorrhaging. She nearly died giving birth to me.

She survived, barely, but only just.

But the damage was done. Her health never recovered, and she’d been bedridden for over twenty years.

My father had come to her at first, wracked with guilt, begging for reconciliation.

But my mother was too proud to settle for that.

Humiliated and furious, he abandoned my mother, who had just given birth, and me, still an infant.

He turned around and married the woman who had crawled into his bed.

The next year, she gave birth to Serena, who was raised as the family's precious, pampered princess.

While my mother and I scraped by for over twenty years, and now we were the ones bearing the blame.

Every elder in that room had witnessed what happened all those years ago.

But for their own interests, every single one of them chose to stay silent.

When I exposed the truth, my father's disgust only deepened.

"Insolent! Spreading slander and refusing to repent!"

"Get her out of my sight! Teach her a lesson!"

The servants seized me, pinning my arms.

The blows fell on my body. Skin split open on impact.

I clenched my teeth and endured in silence.

By the time my consciousness was fading, I was roughly dragged to a remote attic in the estate.

Damian followed close behind.

He stood over me, looking down at my broken, bloodied state, his eyes ice-cold.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"That dinner three years ago. Your mother taught you to drug me, didn't she?"

"You tried to crawl into my bed while I was out of my mind, copying the same disgusting trick your mother pulled."

I froze, staring at him in disbelief.

He continued, his voice detached.

"The drugs made me lose control that night. I wasn't myself."

"Serena put herself on the line to protect my dignity."

"She was so pure and innocent, and my loss of control left her covered in bruises."

The tenderness in his voice for Serena was so thick it practically overflowed.

My heart felt like it was being torn apart. The pain was suffocating.

But I held on, forcing my voice to stay level.

"I didn't—"

Before I could finish, Damian cut me off.

"I gave you chance after chance."

"If you'd just stayed by my side and behaved, I would still have given you and your mother a place to live."

He paused briefly, then continued.

"But you ruined the wedding Serena had been dreaming of. That crossed my line."

"If it weren't for this disaster, I never would have seen your true colors."

"Leave. I don't want to see you again."