CHAPTER 30: CHAPTER 30: WRECKING THE WEDDING

On the big screen, a scene of two men and one woman played, with stimulating and titillating sounds coming from the speakers, making everyone blush with embarrassment.

All the guests were stunned. If the groom and bride weren’t standing on the stage, they really doubted if this was a wedding venue or an X-rated cinema?

"Isn’t that Michelle Monroe from high school?"

A female relative pointed at the screen, exclaiming in surprise.

"Oh my god! It really is Michelle Monroe, and she was so young doing such things with two men? Unbelievable."

"Her mom was a mistress, what good could come from what she raised?"

Voices of ridicule, disdain, and insults came from all directions.

Especially the female relatives on Michelle’s side, who successfully shifted all attention onto Michelle. Perhaps one could say that compared to Ivana trying to compare Michelle’s scandalous scene with two men, it was insignificant, not something they bothered to curse.

Caleb Monroe followed Ivana’s line of sight and saw the scene playing out on the screen. Blood rushed to his head, his vision went black, he was dizzy, almost experiencing a stroke and fainting.

He swayed, holding onto the marble flower pot on either side of the red carpet, barely steadying himself.

"Turn it off, turn it off now!" Michelle screamed shrilly, her face pale, her expression frantic, as if she’d lost her mind, crazily throwing things at the big screen playing the climax.

This video was sent last month by one of the men in the video. He had lost a lot in gambling and constantly blackmailed her with the video for money. Until last month, his demands grew bigger, asking for ten million.

He also said if she didn’t pay, he would upload the video online for all to see, questioning if Zachary would still marry her?

Michelle kept the video intending to hand it over to the police because she knew, sooner or later, she wouldn’t be able to satisfy that disgusting man’s demands.

He would eventually expose her, ruining her reputation, beyond repair.

But she feared the police would not catch him in time, enraging him and wrecking her wedding, so she kept stalling, paid him five million, hoping to at least marry Zachary first, perhaps get pregnant. With a child from the Heston family, she’d have some security, and even if the scandal broke, she could use the child to maintain her status as Mrs. Heston by crying, making a scene, or threatening suicide.

But it all happened too suddenly, catching her off guard.

Zachary’s handsome face turned dark upon seeing the video. His fists clenched tightly, as if becoming the biggest joke on stage.

Mrs. Heston, infuriated to the verge of fainting, pointed at the screen, trembling, her eyes reddened, angrily stating, "So disgraceful, the Heston family will never marry such a despicable person. I declare today’s wedding void."

Mr. Heston experienced a cardiac spasm, his eyes fixated on the screen, his body stiff, continuously twitching...

"Dad." Zachary, seeing Mr. Heston about to collapse, hurriedly supported his back, shouting, "Ambulance, quick, call an ambulance."

Jean Shaw was dumbfounded, her attention all on the muscular, tattooed men on the screen, seeing them make her daughter almost deliriously ecstatic, she swallowed hard, thinking of Caleb Monroe’s age, unable to satisfy her in bed, and the ten-year age gap, making her desires too hard to bear.

Mrs. Heston’s resentful voice brought Jean Shaw back to her senses: "Michelle Monroe, you shameless harlot. If my husband suffers because of this, I’ll have your life in return."

Jean Shaw, protective like an old hen, immediately shielded Michelle, crying, "Who are you calling a shameless harlot? Watch your mouth! This video is unclear in origin, could just be some third-rate starlet who looks like my Michelle."

Jean Shaw nudged Michelle beside her, Michelle reacted, crying, "Yes, Auntie, I didn’t do such things, I’m being wronged, you must believe me. Zachary, don’t you misunderstand like others? Have you forgotten I gave my first time to you?"

Who she gave her first time to, Michelle herself wasn’t sure, but to snatch Zachary from Ivana, she had virginity restoration surgery.

Zachary, supporting Mr. Heston, faced with a relative’s sudden collapse, was overwhelmed, now incapable of discerning if Michelle was truly wronged?

Seeing Zachary’s dazed look, Michelle, ignored by him, suddenly turned her vicious gaze towards Ivana, hysterically shouting, "It’s you, you hired a third-rate actress who looks like me to create this disgusting video to ruin my wedding with Zachary."

"Ivana, how vicious you are, first you had your son face surgery to look like Leon Keane, trying to cling to him, now you fabricated this video to ruin my wedding, Ivana, with such vile means to revenge on me, are you trying to drive me to death?"

Michelle, ever the actress, lowered her head about to run into a pillar as if dying to show Ivana.

Ivana watched Michelle’s performance coldly.

Jean Shaw, behind Michelle, hugged her, crying, "If you die, what will I do? Never do foolish things! Don’t fall into Ivana’s vile trap, I can’t live without you, sob..."

Ivana chuckled, amused at the acting duo, curious about the video’s origins. The video she intended to play wasn’t of Michelle with two men but rather...

Suddenly, a shadow approached, brought down a stormy slap on Ivana.

Ivana’s head turned from the hit. Her fair face rapidly turned red and swollen, blood trickling from her mouth, as another heavy slap was about to come down, Ivana’s eyes flashed with coldness, raising a hand to intercept it.

"You vile person, Michelle is your blood sister, how could you do this, you won’t rest until you ruin your own sister?" Caleb Monroe, shaking with rage, eyes glaring at her as if to tear Ivana to pieces.

Facing Caleb’s unconditional trust in Michelle, Ivana repeatedly reminded herself not to care, he always only treated Michelle as his biological daughter, she was just an irrelevant outsider.

Then she heard her grandpa’s cane tapping on the red carpet tiles, speaking, "Everything’s not clear yet, how can you, as her father, hit my granddaughter? Don’t forget, she’s the child of your first wife, your firstborn! Caleb, how could you hit her?"