Chapter 7

Stella received a message one day before the wedding.

It was short and to the point. "I'm going back. See you tomorrow."

The message had no name or remarks, but she knew who it was from.

It was him.

Eric Chilton.

Her unsettled heart finally settled down, and she had a good night's sleep.

A fleet of cars from the Chiltons arrived at the Judds at ten in the morning the next day. Cameras followed behind them.

This was a marriage alliance between two major families, and it was about to be streamed live for the entire city for the public to watch.

Noel got out of the car and went upstairs. He was stunned when he saw Stella in a white gown.

For some reason, he felt deja vu and was out of sorts for a while.

It was not until someone gave him a gentle reminder that he reached out his hand to her.

However, Stella did not take it. She looked at him calmly and said nonchalantly, "You came to the wrong place, Noel Chilton. You should be seated with the guests."

Her words infuriated Noel, and his face fell right away.

"Are you doing this again? Don't you know that the wedding will be live-streamed to the entire city? Are you really planning to continue making a fuss until both our families are humiliated?"

Stella did not bother to argue with him. She pulled up her skirt and headed downstairs.

Noel's empty hands clenched into a fist.

He took a deep breath and tried his best to force down his anger before following her out.

He was about to get into the backseat when his phone rang.

He closed the car door a minute later and looked at Stella, who was inside the car.

"I have something important to deal with. I can't be at the wedding. Head over to tell our parents and family to cancel the wedding."

He thought Stella would get upset and be humiliated after hearing it. She might even cry. However, all she did was look at him calmly.

"I told you before that it doesn't matter if you attend the wedding."

It was because he was not the groom.

Noel felt a tinge of panic when he saw how nonchalant she was acting, but he still growled, "I said to cancel the wedding! Do you want to end up the laughingstock of the city by having a wedding without a groom?!"

This time, Stella did not even bother to explain. She instructed the driver to start the car.

The fleet of cars quickly left.

Noel was not in the mood to talk her out of her decision. He stopped a car by the road.

By the time he arrived at the hot spring villa outside the suburbs, he saw Sophie surrounded by his buddies. He frowned.

"Didn't you say Sophie was in danger?"

His buddies dragged him inside while laughing.

"It was a trick. You wouldn't have run away from your wedding if we didn't lie to you."

"We just wanted to see how Stella Judd would humiliate herself today."

Noel's expression changed when he heard them. He quickly pushed away the hand on his shoulder and turned to leave.

"This is ridiculous!"

Sophie hugged his arm and blinked with tears in her eyes. She began to plead with him.

"I really have a headache, Noel. Please stay with me. This place is too far from the wedding venue. You won't be able to make it."

That was true, but Stella…

While he hesitated, his buddies were fooling around and turned on the live stream.

The wedding was going on as expected.

Everyone laughed sarcastically when they saw Stella was stubborn enough to keep the wedding going.

"She's really not going to stop the wedding? It will be so humiliating when the groom doesn't show up."

"Does she want to get married so badly? She's risking the respect of both families. What a joke it would be if this doesn't end well."

Noel had no idea what Stella was thinking. His expression was quite grim.

As he considered giving his family a call to inform them about the situation, he heard yelling from beside him.

"The wedding is starting!"

Noel looked up to see Stella's father holding her hand to walk her toward the center of the stage.

She stood under the spotlight alone for a long time. No groom appeared.

Comments started to pop up on the stream asking if the groom had run away from the wedding.

Everyone in the room with Noel started laughing so hard that they could hardly sit up straight.

Noel had expected this. There was a cold look on his face and anger in his voice.

"Moron!"

He could not stand to continue watching and reached out to click the button to leave the stream. That was when the host made an announcement.

"Let's welcome the groom!"

The door, which was shut tight, opened wide the next second.