CHAPTER 12: CORNERED

A sharp gasp erupted from the hall.

Heads snapped. Eyes widened as they stared in the direction where the voice came from.

"Pam, pam, ram." My voice blew the entering trumpet because it really needed to.

"This wedding cannot take place," the voice stated again, but this time it came with the face that held it.

Cameras turned.

Eyes wrinkled into frowns the moment they faced the person behind the voice as he stepped forward into the hall fully.

Murmurs began.

"Isn't that Prosecutor Avon, the highest law...?"

"What is he doing here?"

"Could it be that this marriage is against the law?"

The camera left Avon and landed on Emma's face.

Her face was all flushed out with something like fear and confusion.

Without anyone telling me what's on her mind, I already knew she must be asking, "What's happening?"

A smug smile appeared at the corner of my lips.

Five years. It took me five good years to come up with this plan.

Let's see how it goes.

Avon walked slowly to the almost newlyweds, each step deliberate, with an aura that could shrink them both.

"What's happening?... What do you mean by this wedding will not hold?" Dad... oh, I meant Mr. Armstrong, stepped forward, his jaw tight with anger.

Mr. Avon cleared his throat.

"According to the marriage law, one cannot marry another person while still legally married to someone else."

Emma's eyes grew bigger beneath her veil.

"What do you mean?" she shouted, her neck veil almost popping out.

Ethan remained calm, too calm from what I expected... The anger feeling that was supposed to be in his eyes wasn't there, and I wondered why.

"Mr. Ethan, you got married to Elena Armstrong on the 15th of August 2019..."

"And so? What does that have to do with my wedding?" Emma shouted.

Her words, "my marriage," stirred something in me.

Just seven years ago, she refused to marry him... so what changed? Why was she claiming that same man she refused to marry? I found myself wondering.

"It is against the law to get married without divorcing his previous wife," Avon replied firmly.

"Elena Armstrong was and still is the legal wife of Ethan Marcus!"

There, Ethan finally said something.

"This is my life, and I choose whom I want and whom I don't... so, you have no right nor evidence that I married that vile thief." He said, his voice spiteful with anger and a little laced with pride.

Then silence descended.

My stomach knotted.

Vile thief?

Is that how low he thinks of me?

I wouldn't blame him entirely because he was made to think that way.

"Yes, you own your life... but the law knows it stands!" Avon's voice cut through the silence.

"And talking about evidence, who said I had no evidence?"

His hands went straight to his briefcase and brought out a file.

I needed no one to tell me what that was before concluding that it was my wedding certificate.

Ethan's eyes dilated in their sockets the moment they dropped on the certificates.

"How did you get those?" His voice dropped.

I thought as much. How did he get those documents?

"Like I said before, it took me five years to plan this through. Amidst those years, I had someone planted at Ethan's mansion, Clara. She stands as my personal informant from the mansion. She delivers all the news in that mansion and all that I needed."

Hope that answers your question.

"Ah, oops, you can't hear." My lips slowly rounded into a pout.

"This is the ordinary copy from your wedding day, so do you deny the fact that you got married to Elena Armstrong?" Avon asked as he shoved the certificates onto their faces and the cameras.

Mom stepped out.

"The Elena you're talking about is dead... so what do you have against my daughter's wedding?" Her voice rang throughout the hall.

My chest tightened around my chair handle.

The casuality in her voice while she said those words made me want to throw up immediately.

How can a mother talk about her own biological daughter's death like it meant nothing?

A reporter stepped forward.

"Ma'am, I thought she's your biological daughter. Why mention her death like it meant nothing to you?" he questioned.

That question was enough to raise further questions.

Mom's... Mrs. Armstrong opened her mouth but quickly pinned both lips down as if she lost the right words to say.

"Yes, tell us!"

"It seems like you don't care about her at all."

"It's obvious you love your adopted daughter over your own birth daughter."

"Say something... Mrs. Armstrong."

Different questions bombarded her from different corners.

Her eyes rotated, not knowing where or how to start her explanation.

I released a satisfying smile.

The helplessness in her eyes gave me that sensation I can't explain.

"Don't question my wife that way... unless you want to lose your licence," Mr. Armstrong jabbed his finger at all as he stepped in and shielded his wife.

"Stop all of this! Elena is dead... she died seven years ago, so..."

"How did you know she's dead?" Avon asked, then silence descended like a dove.

Eyes etched on her, waiting for her reply.

Including me, I really wanted to hear her response.

"I... I... she..." She swallowed hard as if a cat had caught her tongue.

"She died while trying to run away with Ethan's money," she said quickly, as if she were racing against someone.

"And how did you know that?" He hitched his brows.

"Unless you know something..."