Chapter 1: The Jilted Bride

He left her, or so to speak, he ditched her.

On the most awaited day that Daphne Collins had been looking forward to, Maverick Powell, her groom, abandoned her in front of the aisle—in front of everyone. She never thought that Maverick would do this, especially on the day of her wedding. Like in movies, Daphne believed it was always the bride who ran away, not the groom. It was ironic to think she would be the ‘Bug Guy’ to Maverick’s Julia Roberts.

And yes, it fucking hurts. Not entirely because of utter humiliation, but rather the man who promised her a happy-ever-after life scammed her real bad. He should have told her sooner or at least before the day of their wedding. It felt like a part of her dignity and pride bogged down into a plunge as she looked at the disappointing faces of their guests. Daphne tried to wait the entire day, however, even the priest who would officiate their (or more likely her) wedding even resigned to the possibility of the groom coming back.

Eventually, as the hour passed by quickly, a more significant portion of her guest decided to leave the church with nothing but dismay on their faces. On the contrary, her to-be mother-in-law, Tatiana, didn’t care if their son philandered away on his wedding day. Frankly, she was absolutely delighted that Maverick was not there and was nonchalant about Daphne’s feelings. Even more, Tatiana was not concerned with the humiliation that Daphne had experienced. She never was akin to Daphne and was completely indifferent to the woman’s existence.

As much as Daphne wouldn’t want to include Tatiana in her seething anger with the groom, it was imminent for her to ignore the budding feeling of irritation toward Maverick’s mom. However, right now, Tatiana was not the issue, and it was her son, Maverick Powell, who had a lot of explaining to do.

When each of their relatives and friends had come to her to sympathize, one of Maverick’s friends, Alice, came by to show her commiseration with Daphne’s unfortunate situation.

“We’re so sorry, dear. We didn’t know Maverick would do this, Daphne!” Maverick’s friend hugged Daphne so tight, sympathizing with the bride’s frustrations.

She chewed her lip and bit the inside of her cheeks. “You don’t have to apologize, Alice. It’s not your fault.” She breathed in. “I should have known as well.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “Just tell me if you need anything, alright? You’ve become my friend, Daphne, and that wouldn’t change even if you and he broke up.”

“Thanks, Alice. I will.” Forcing a smile, I nodded.

Meanwhile, her friend Clara came forward to her. “Hey, Daphne...” Hesitation was clear in her voice, as though it was airy and unsure.

Daphne’s eyebrows rose. “You should also go home, Clara. The wedding will not happen.”

“It’s not that, Daphne.” She gulped, giving her phone to Daphne. “There are some articles about Maverick. He was seen earlier, before the wedding had started, with another woman.”

The bride’s shoulder trembled with shock. Daphne felt her limbs jellied, buckling in lapses as she saw Maverick’s picture with another woman on some kind of beach.

“W-what is this?” Daphne struggled to form the words into her mouth as she felt like her tongue rolled in weakness.

Softly, Clara grabbed back her phone from Daphne. She patted her friend’s limping back and wrapped her arms around it. “It was posted five hours ago. Maybe that’s the reason he was not here since the morning. Maverick had already left yesterday without telling you.”

Daphne didn’t know what to say. Her mind was still trying to process everything that had happened today. It was as though fate had chucked her into a massive plight and circumstance like a thunderstorm that had struck her to be utterly flabbergasted. She wanted to cry, to scream, and to hit Maverick, Tatiana, and the woman who was with him; and yet, Daphne knew she couldn’t.

Her emotions even left her dumb to the point that her tears precipitated in the air like dry ice. Who would have thought that this would happen to her? Even she couldn’t accept the daunting reality that life is unfair as it was deemed to be.

She then clamped her fingers, and before Clara could say anything to her, Daphne dashed out of the chapel in her wedding dress, running towards the bridal car. As she pulled out the door on the driver’s seat, she shouted to the driver.

“Get out . . .”

“Ma’am Daphne—” The driver was stunned to see her in a disorientated state.

“I said, get out of the car!” she hissed.

Immediately, he got out of the car, perplexed. The driver tried to ask Daphne, but it seemed like she had none of it. She just got inside the vehicle and drove away from the church. Behind them was Clara, running to their location when Daphne had already drifted away without their knowledge of where she would head to.

Looking at the driver, Clara asked, “Did she tell you where she was going?”

The driver shook his head. “She didn’t. She pulled me out of the car and drove out, saying nothing.”

Clara palmed her head in concern. “Oh, God. I hope she won’t do anything drastically stupid to God-knows-where the hell is she.”

***

Daphne was uncontrollable. She had been sulking herself with alcohol and spirits that she was already drunk and inebriated. The bartender had tried to refrain her from imbibing again when she shot her back with a grimace and a shout. Because of this, the man deferred to stopping her from doing any crazy shit.

By the time when Daphne was completely unhinged and drowsy, she chugged the last glass of tequila and then dropped her feet to the ground, dragging herself to the private area of the club that was exclusive only to high-profile guests.

Quickly, the big stout bouncer stopped her from going inside. “Hey ma’am, you’re not allowed here. This is exclusive for Reserved-VIP.”

Her eyes nictitated. She looped her lips into a smirk and while fuddling at a giddy gait, Daphne slapped her hands to his cheeks. “This is a free country, mister! I have a right to go there!” She said, pointing at the doorway that the bouncer was blocking.

“Please ma’am. As much as we wanted to—”

He was cut off when Daphne abruptly rebutted, “Come on! Let me in!” She pushed him and added, “I don’t care about your shit policies!”

Then, when the bouncer was about to block her again, she circumvented out of his way, turning to the spot of his blindside, and slipped inside the VIP area. Laughing like a madwoman, she sprinted across the commodious area until she reached the VIP rooms. Without thinking, she burst into a private room on the left side of the hallway.

The moment she had pushed the door to open, a dark-haired man in the blue suit greeted her with bewilderment. Squinting her eyes and opening them back again, she noticed people who looked like they had no fun in their life. Wearing the same boring suit as the tall man, their eyes went to her as though they had seen a ghost.

Daphne scrunched her nose. “Hey, there! What’s up?!”

“Excuse me? Who the hell are you?!” the man in the blue suit sneered. “How dare you interrupt me!” He roughly snatched her arms, pulling her away from the people in gray and black suits.

Daphne wiggled her arms out of the man and tilted her head to take a good look at his face. With her blurry and hazy vision, she scrutinized him intently. His eyebrows were arched, but not naturally curved upward. His nose was straight, aquiline, and refined; while his eyes, somehow, looked familiar, as though she had seen them before.

She then leaned closer to the man, peering at him like he was a man’s version of Venice De Milo. Rubbing her eyes back and forth, her vision went vivid and as the sight in front of her became clearer, Daphne was taken aback by what overwhelmed her.   

Maverick?! How could you, asshole! She gritted inwardly while her inner self moaned from devastation.

Spouting at him, she slapped him on the cheeks. “How dare me?! How dare you leave me on that altar, Maverick?!” 

“What the hell do you mean? Are you crazy?” He lightly hissed as he took a glimpse of the people who were looking at them. “Get away from me, woman!” The man added, pushing her off him.

Meanwhile, a man in his fifties stood up from his seat and went toward him. With a dismal expression on his face, he asked the dark-haired man. “Is everything alright here, Mr. Kelly? If this is how unprofessional you are, then I guess I have to rethink our deal”

 “Sir, I apologize for this.” Nathan wiped his mouth in frustration and splayed his hands on his hips. “I swear, I don’t know this woman. She— “He was then cut off when suddenly, Daphne, who was beside him, slapped his cheeks again.

“You don’t know me?! I’m your fucking fiancée! You’re my fiancée whom you’ve cheated on!” she cried, clinging to his shoulders as she buried her face in his chest.

Another investor came up to him. Looking perplexed by what was happening, he walked toward Nathan and said, “This is reprehensible, Mr. Kelly! We don’t care about your problems in your personal life, but this is preposterous! We change our mind and we can’t continue this deal with you!”

“Sir, let me explain. This is all a misunderstanding!” He tried to explain as he tossed Daphne from the side.

Everyone's heads rolled around the room. As they stood from their respective seats, each of them walked out into the room, having none of Nathan’s explanation.

“We expected great things from you, Mr. Kelly. Yet, I guess we’re wrong.” The old man in a gray suit patted his shoulders before he went out of the room.

When the two of them were the only two people who were left inside, Nathan Kelly just looked at Daphne with indignation. On the other hand, Daphne was just already out of her normal self and was on the couch, looking disheveled and sloshed.

Nathan quickly grabbed Daphne on the couch. Pulling her towards him, he spat, “What the hell and who the hell are you? You just ruined my best chance of getting that deal!”

Daphne looked up at him. Her tears began to run down from the corners of her eyes. “This is all your fault, you asshole! How could you do this to me? I hate you!” She punched his chest so hard that it made him stop doing whatever he was about to do.

He wanted to let the girl know how distraught he was, but as soon as he saw the glob of tears shining from her forest-green eyes, he couldn’t do it. Nathan felt sorry about it. Although he really didn’t care what happened or how did this woman end up in this situation, he felt pity.

Slowly, he moved his hands away from her and stepped back, giving her a little space. In just a minute or so, he saw the guards and the bouncer coming inside the room and dragging the girl away. By the time she was out of sight, the manager of the bar went to him and apologized.

“We apologize for this, sir. We assure you that this won’t happen again.”

Nathan nodded at him, releasing a deep sigh. “Fuck, it's fine. What done is done.” To be honest, he didn't want to complicate things more and just wanted to end this day. Besides, the lady looked like a mess and he surmised that once she’s back to her ‘normal’ sober self, she’ll be horrified at the chaos she had just done.

“We’ll fix this right away, Mr. Kelly—“ The manager was instantly cut off when Nathan spoke 

“God, it’s fine. Just take her away. I don’t care . . ." He then grabbed his coat from the table and as he went outside, he saw Daphne in handcuffs with two police officers on her side.

Her head was down while her face was buried beneath her palms. Nathan had a quick glimpse of her and then he decided to dash out of the bar with nothing but a disappointment to bring with him on his way home.

Meanwhile, as Daphne was brought to jail for trespassing, she spent her time inside the cell, while still wearing her wedding dress while crying her heart out for the word, a drastic day that had happened to her today.