CHAPTER 5

Hudson

I straightened my tie in the bathroom mirror, checking my reflection with satisfaction. I was perfectly composed and there was not a strand of hair out of place. 

No one would ever know I had just spent the last twenty minutes balls-deep in my fiancée's best friend.

Maribel emerged from the stall, smoothing down her bridesmaid dress. Fucking finally, the woman took forever to make herself presentable. 

Her lipstick was smudged and her hair was mussed. She looked properly fucked and satisfied.

“That was amazing,” She purred, pressing herself against my back. “We should do it again after the reception.”

“Maybe,” I said dismissively, moving away from her touch. I had gotten what I wanted. Maribel was hot enough to scratch an itch, but she was also clingy as hell. 

“Fix your makeup. You look like you've been crying.”

Her face fell slightly, but she obeyed, pulling out her compact. Good. I liked women who knew their place.

Jane knew hers too, even if she occasionally forgot. Walking in on us had been unfortunate timing, but she would get over it. She always did. 

A few tears, some moping, then she would fall back in line like the pathetic, desperate thing she was.

Because the truth was, I liked having Jane around. She was useful. Devoted. Obedient. The kind of woman who made me feel powerful just by existing in my orbit. 

She worshipped me, hung on my every word and bent herself into whatever shape I demanded. That kind of control was addictive.

And she would never leave. Where would she go? Back to her middle-class parents and their modest little life? 

Jane had tasted what it was like to be with someone like me, wealthy, successful and important and she would never give that up. 

She needed validation too much. She needed to feel like she had landed someone out of her league.

The wedding was set to start in fifteen minutes. Jane would be down there already, waiting at the altar like a good little bride. Probably still sniffling, but she would pull herself together for the cameras. She always did what she was told in the end.

“Come on,” I told Maribel. “Time to put on a show.”

The wedding hall was spectacular. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city, hundreds of white roses, crystal chandeliers casting prismatic light across the assembled guests. 

My family had spared no expense, and it showed. This wedding was a statement. A display of the Armstrong name and everything it represented.

I took my place at the altar, my best man, Carter, some guy from company standing beside me. 

The string quartet played softly. Guests murmured in their seats. Everything was perfect.

Except Jane wasn't there.

I frowned, checking my watch. Five minutes past the scheduled start time. Where the hell was she?

“She's probably just nervous,” Carter whispered. “Cold feet, you know?”

I gritted my teeth. Jane didn't get to have cold feet. This wedding was happening whether she liked it or not. I had spent years molding her into the perfect, compliant wife. She wasn't going to ruin it now.

Ten minutes late.

The murmuring grew louder. People were starting to shift in their seats, checking their phones and whispering behind their hands. I felt heat crawl up my neck. This was embarrassing. She was embarrassing me.

Fifteen minutes.

I gestured sharply to Maribel, who was seated with the other bridesmaids. She hurried over, concern written across her face, or at least, a good approximation of it.

“Go check on her,” I ordered quietly. “Find out what's taking so long.”

Maribel scurried off, still playing the concerned best friend to perfection. I watched the doors, my jaw clenched, fury building in my chest. 

When Jane finally showed up, I was going to make her regret this little power play.

Twenty minutes.

Maribel returned, looking genuinely confused. “She's not in the bridal suite. Her things are still there, but she's gone.”

“Gone?” My voice came out sharper than intended. Several guests turned to stare. “What do you mean, gone?”

“I mean she's not there, Hudson. No one's seen her since—” She stopped abruptly, her eyes widening slightly.

Since she caught us. Since she walked in on me fucking her best friend an hour before our wedding.

No. No, Jane wouldn't. She didn't have the backbone for that.

The guests were openly talking now, craning their necks to see what was happening. I saw Jane's parents stand up in the third row, her mother's face pinched with concern, her father looking confused and angry.

This couldn't be happening. Jane wouldn't dare. She was weak and broken in all the right ways after months of careful manipulation. She didn't have the spine to walk away from me.

Thirty minutes.

“Perhaps we should make an announcement,” The officiant suggested quietly. “Tell the guests there's been a delay?”

“No,” I snapped. Then, realizing how that sounded, I forced a concerned expression. “No, I'm sure she'll be here any moment. She probably just needed some air. You know how overwhelming weddings can be.”

But she didn't come.

Forty-five minutes late, and the whispers had turned to open speculation. I heard fragments of conversation—”left him at the altar” and “cold feet” and worst of all, “poor thing, I wonder what happened.”

My hands clenched into fists. How dare they pity her? How dare she do this to me?

Jane's parents approached, her mother wringing her hands and her father's face red with anger and humiliation.

“Hudson, what's going on?” Mrs. Parker asked, her voice trembling. “Where's Jane?”

“I don't know,” I said, fighting to keep my voice level. “But I'm sure there's an explanation.”

“There better be,” Mr. Parker growled. “Do you have any idea how this looks? The embarrassment—”

“I'm the one being embarrassed,” I cut in sharply. “I'm the one standing here in front of over two hundred people while my bride has apparently run off.”

An hour.

The guests were getting restless, some standing, others whispering in clusters. The sympathy that had been directed at Jane was starting to shift. I could feel the tide of public opinion turning.

I made my decision. Straightening my shoulders, I walked to the center of the altar. The room fell silent, all eyes on me.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” I began, my voice heavy with false devastation. “I'm afraid there won't be a wedding today.”

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

“It seems that Jane has... left,” I paused, letting the shock settle. “I don't know why. This morning, everything was fine. We were happy. I thought we were building a life together,” I shook my head sadly. “But I suppose I was wrong.”

I saw the sympathy blooming on faces throughout the crowd. Perfect.

“I'm as shocked as all of you,” I continued. “Heartbroken. To be abandoned like this, without a word, without even the courtesy of an explanation…” My voice cracked. “I gave her everything. My love, my devotion, my future and she threw it away.”

Jane's mother was crying now and her father's face was dark with fury.

“I don't understand it,” I said, my eyes shining with false tears. “Jane has always been fragile and insecure. I tried to be patient with her, tried to build her up, but she pushed me away and now this,” 

I gestured helplessly at the empty space where she should be standing. “I can't marry someone who runs when things get difficult. Someone who would humiliate herself and everyone who cares about her like this.”

The murmurs were sympathetic now. Poor Hudson. Poor abandoned groom. What a terrible thing Jane had done.

“If anyone knows where she is,” I said, wiping my eyes. “Please, let us know. Her parents are worried sick. We all are.”

Mr. Parker was already on his phone, dialing furiously. “She's not answering,” He spat. “Ungrateful girl. After everything—”

“Try her friends.” Someone suggested.

But no one knew where she was. Jane had vanished completely.

My phone buzzed with texts from Maribel, Carter and various relatives all asking what they should do. I responded mechanically, playing the devastated fiancé, but inside, rage was building.

How dare she embarrass me like this? How dare she walk away after everything I had done to shape her into what I needed? Did she really think she could just leave? That there wouldn't be consequences?

“We'll find her,” Jane's father said grimly. “And when we do, she'll answer for this.”

“I'm sure she just needs time,” I said, injecting false understanding into my voice. “She's probably scared and confused. When she realizes what she's done…” I trailed off meaningfully.

When she realized what she had done. When she came crawling back, begging for forgiveness and desperate to fix the mess she had made.

Because she would come back, and when she did I would make sure Jane learned her lesson. 

I would make sure she never forgot who held the power in our relationship. I would make sure she understood that embarrassing me and humiliating me in front of everyone I knew, came with a price.

“Find her,” I told everyone within earshot, my voice hard beneath the concern. “Find her now.”

But even as I said it, something nagged at me. The look in Jane's eyes when she had caught us. It was not just devastation. There was something else.

Something that looked almost like freedom.

I shook my head vehemently, refusing to believe it. No. That was impossible.

Jane was nothing without me and she would figure that out soon enough.