All Chapters of Replaced at the Altar: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

"Meredith, do you have any idea what you're saying?"My knuckles had gone white around the phone. My voice was shaking. "We're getting married today! The invitations have gone out. Our families and friends are all out there, and you want another man to put on a groom's suit and marry you at my wedding?""Hayden, calm down. Stop making a scene, okay?"On the other end of the line, Meredith Soames' tone carried a thread of impatience, as though all of this were perfectly reasonable."I already registered the marriage with you. Legally, I'm Mrs. Rourke. Royce is just a kid from nowhere who never had anything. He struggled through years of hardship with me, and all I want is to give him one day as a groom."You're an educated man from a wealthy family. Are you really telling me you can't be generous enough to allow that?"The line went dead. She hung up on me.I stood frozen in place. All the blood drained from my body. My hands and feet went cold."Oh, all done with your little ph

Chapter 2

"Meredith! They're bullying me!" The second Royce saw Meredith, his whole face crumpled into a picture of wounded innocence. He pressed close to her side, eyes already going red."I just wanted to borrow the styling table for a minute, but they started yelling at me..."Meredith's brow furrowed. She pulled Royce behind her without thinking and looked up at me, her gaze sharp with blame."Hayden, Royce came all the way here from his little hometown. He doesn't know anyone. You're the host. How could you let your friend treat him like that?""The host?" I laughed in disbelief, the kind of laugh that had nothing to do with finding anything funny. My eyes were burning red as I stared at the woman I had loved for five years. "Meredith, I am your legal husband! Today is our wedding day! You brought your first love here to hijack my ceremony, and you're asking me why I'm not nicer to him?"A flicker of guilt crossed Meredith's eyes, but it vanished just as quickly, buried under whateve

Chapter 3

"Hayden, are you okay?" Jace walked over with red-rimmed eyes and caught me by the arm before I could sway any further. "That woman is unbelievable. Absolute garbage. I'm calling my sister right now. She'll bring people, and we'll handle this.""Don't call your sister." My voice was cold. "I'll deal with trash like her myself."I picked up my phone and dialed. It connected before the first ring had even finished."Hello? Sweetheart, your aunts and I are already seated in the VIP section. When are you coming out? I can't wait to see you in your groom's suit!"The sound of Mom's voice hit me somewhere deep, and for a moment the sting behind my eyes nearly won. I forced it back."Mom." I took a long breath and made every word count. "The wedding is off. Meredith just took another man, tried to give him my groom's suit and my boutonniere, and went out to the ballroom to hold the ceremony with him. She said she owes him a wedding from when they were young, some unfinished business sh

Chapter 4

The sound hit the ballroom like a thunderclap, loud enough to set the crystal chandeliers swaying overhead. The room went silent in an instant. The orchestra cut off mid-note. Every guest in the hall turned as one toward the doors.I walked through them in that sharp black couture suit, polished shoes hitting the floor, flanked by Mom, Jace, and a wall of several dozen bodyguards and lawyers.My face gave away nothing as I crossed the threshold and walked step by step into what was supposed to have been my wedding."Is that... Isn't that Ms. Harlow?"One of the sharper-eyed guests in the crowd recognized my mother immediately and nearly fell out of his chair."My God, it really is Gwendolyn Harlow. Why did she bring so many people? And the man next to her... Wait, if that's Mr. Rourke, then who's on the stage?"A ripple of stifled gasps swept through the crowd. Everyone could tell that something was very wrong, and they shrank back in their seats, not wanting to be anywhere near

Chapter 5

"Yes, sir!"Mr. Lawson looked like a man who had just been let off the hook. He snatched up his radio and barked into it. "Security! Catering! Lighting crew! All operations cease immediately! Clear the venue!"What happened next was something Meredith and Royce would remember for the rest of their lives.The romantic spotlights that had been bathing the stage in a soft glow cut out all at once. In their place, the harsh white overhead work lights snapped on across the entire ballroom, ripping the dreamlike atmosphere to shreds.The wedding march flowing through the speakers died mid-note. The host's microphone let out a single piercing whine and then went dead.Uniformed hotel staff poured into the venue. They walked straight onto the stage without hesitation and began tearing down the rose walls, arrangements worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that had been flown in from overseas.Waitstaff wheeled their carts to the guest tables and, without so much as a word of warning, st

Chapter 6

The words landed like a bomb going off inside Meredith's head. Her eyes went wide with disbelief. She stared at me, her voice trembling so badly it barely held together. "Pocket... pocket money? Hayden Rourke, who... Who the hell are you?"The lead attorney standing beside me stepped forward, adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses, and spoke without a trace of warmth."Ms. Soames, allow me to make a formal introduction. The man standing before you is the only son of Ms. Gwendolyn Harlow, chairwoman of Rourke Group, and the sole first-in-line heir to the Rourke empire, Mr. Hayden Rourke."Meredith's legs gave out. Her legs gave out, and she dropped to the floor, her face the color of ash. She had always believed I was just some lovesick fool with a bit of money, someone she could manipulate and control at will.She had spent years keeping me small to protect that pathetic self-made pride of hers. And now she was realizing that everything she had ever been proud of meant absolutely nothing

Chapter 7

"No! I didn't commit fraud! She gave me that money! I didn't know! I didn't know anything!"Royce finally grasped how serious this was. He stumbled backward, the color draining from his face, his boutonniere falling to the floor. He shoved Meredith away like she was contagious. "Meredith, you lying piece of garbage! You tricked me! You told me you were loaded! Are you trying to get me thrown in prison?"Just like that, the two people who had been calling each other their 'true love' minutes ago turned on each other like dogs.Meredith had completely lost it. She did not even register Royce's screaming. She crawled across the floor, threw herself at my feet, and tried to grab my legs."Hayden! Baby! I was wrong! I know I was wrong!"She was sobbing so hard that she could barely breathe, her whole body shaking as she pressed herself flat against the floor."I lost my mind for a second, and that lowlife manipulated me! I'll give back every cent. I'll send him back where he came fr

Chapter 8

The video of Meredith and Royce being led out of their own wedding in handcuffs did not need a full day to spread. Within half an hour, it had rocketed to the top of every major social media platform's trending list.#FemaleCEOArrestedForBigamyAndFraudOnWeddingDay#RourkeHeirPulls20MillionDollarWedding#SelfMadeQueenMeetsSelfMadeDownfallEvery single one was trending within minutes.None of this was accidental, of course. Mom's fingerprints were all over it. Rourke Group's PR department was the best in the industry, and all they had to do was nudge a few levers before every last detail of Meredith's dirty laundry was spread across the internet for the world to see.Public opinion was a landslide, and it was not in her favor.[Oh my God, is this woman missing part of her brain? She had the sole heir to a hundred-billion-dollar empire and she threw him away for a middle school dropout? You can't make this stuff up.][You don't get it. Women like her are insecure to the bone but c

Chapter 9

Two weeks later, I was sitting in Lynworth District Court. The gallery was packed. Apart from a handful of reporters from the major outlets, every seat was filled with creditors and former employees that Meredith had left holding the bag.I sat in the plaintiff's section in a clean, dark-patterned suit.The gavel came down, and the bailiffs brought Meredith and Royce in.Two weeks had aged Meredith by a decade. The long hair she had always kept immaculate had been cut blunt to her ears. She was wearing a blue detention uniform, her eyes sunken, her face gaunt. Everything about her radiated defeat.Royce looked even worse. Without the designer watch and the expensive suit to hide behind, he was sallow and rail-thin, his eyes darting around the courtroom like a frightened animal."Defendant Meredith Soames, the prosecution has charged you with embezzlement, contract fraud, and bigamy. How do you plead?" The judge's voice rang through the courtroom with cold authority."Your Honor!

Chapter 10

Three days after the sentencing, I went to Lynworth Correctional Facility.The visiting room was cold and damp. Through the thick bulletproof glass, I saw Meredith again.She shuffled out in heavy handcuffs. The moment she saw me, something ignited in those dead, ashen eyes of hers—a wild, desperate hope that had no business being there.She threw herself against the glass and snatched up the phone receiver, her voice shaking so badly it was barely intelligible. "Hayden! Hayden, you came to see me! I knew it. I knew you still cared!"I was wearing a tailored couture suit with my hair neatly styled. I picked up the receiver without hurry and looked at her with the calm detachment of someone studying a stranger."You had the guards pass along over a dozen letters begging me to visit. You said you had trade secrets about Rourke Group to share with me and that you wanted to see me one last time."My voice was level and cool. "So talk. What are these so-called secrets?"Meredith falt

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