All Chapters of After the Maid Test-Drove My Wedding, I Didn't Want the Groom: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

Cecilia was dressed in white, holding Orlando's arm as if she belonged there. At first glance, anyone would have thought they were the happy couple.The guests didn't know any better, and they crowded in to congratulate them.Orlando kept sneaking glances at me, as if he were afraid I'd be angry. He never once explained.At that moment, the last bit of light in me went out. It was my wedding, yet my fiancé was standing up there with another woman, accepting everyone's congratulations.For my protection, I couldn't step onto that stage. For my protection, he refused to tell anyone I was the bride. For my protection, my wedding had become his wedding to the maid.I gave a bitter smile, pulled off the engagement ring Orlando had given me, and dropped it into the courtyard fountain without a second thought.Orlando saw it. His expression darkened, and the air around him grew tense.He walked toward me, with Cecilia one step behind him.Before Orlando could say a word, Cecilia started in on

Only after Orlando finished accusing me did I realize that Cecilia had hurt herself to make her story believable and drive a wedge between us.Her version was that I'd seen her bringing Orlando home, gotten jealous, and pushed her down the stairs."Nadia, you hurt Cecilia, then threw a fit and walked out on me? I really have spoiled you. You have one hour. Get to Cleveland Hospital and apologize to her!" Orlando's voice was hard.He'd never used that tone with me before. He was beyond angry.I let all my contempt show in my voice. "Orlando, if I wanted to punish someone, if I wanted to get even, I wouldn't stop at pushing her down a flight of stairs."Orlando went quiet. I could only imagine how grim his expression must have been.When he spoke again, his voice was even harder. "Nadia, I could never do anything to you. But don't forget: that old woman you took in is in this hospital too."Every alarm in me went off.The old woman he meant was Sonia Ward. She'd pulled me out of the wate

Orlando couldn't reach me, and it drove him frantic.There was only one thing on his mind: Get back. Get back to Nadia.Cecilia saw how frantic he was and deliberately tugged on his arm. "Let's check out the shops up ahead."His face turned cold, and he pushed her away. "That's enough, Cecilia. We've been out long enough." Ignoring her pleas and every attempt to stop him, he went straight back to the funeral home.He didn't find Sonia's ashes, and he didn't find me.He overheard a few staff members talking and pieced together how the ashes had ended up with the wrong man. That was when he finally realized exactly what he'd done.Panic closed over him like rising water.Nadia had been angry with him over Cecilia before, but she had never blocked his number or made herself impossible to find.He thought about the time a gang of thugs had taken me. He'd been ready to tear the city apart, but I'd escaped and made it back on my own.When the person who mattered most to him came back, the we

When I came home, my father looked at me with all the authority of a Don, but beneath it was a father's tenderness. "Nadia, no one who hurts my daughter gets away with it. But above all, I respect my daughter's wishes."I knew what a man in his position was capable of. I thought about everything Orlando might soon go through, and I was surprised by how calm I felt.So it was true. What I'd felt for him, as fierce as it had once been, had been worn away long ago, one hurt at a time.I let myself smile a little. "Do as you see fit, Father. Your daughter won't spend her life enduring humiliation for a man."My father nodded, and he looked relieved. "I was worried you couldn't let that man go. Turns out you're still my Nadia."My father's men found Orlando quickly.Six or seven of them surrounded him and went at him with bats. They didn't hold back, but none of the blows landed anywhere fatal. They wanted him in pain, not dead.In the end, the proudest man I had ever known crawled through