CHAPTER 46: CHAPTER 46 STOLEN GROOM

*ALORA*

“You look so beautiful, honey.” My mother said to me as she and three women made last minutes tweak on my wedding dress.

I stood in front of the mirror staring at my reflection.

The dress was exquisitely simple.

It was a strapless dress, and it fell in a simple fitted silken sheath to the floor. Tiny diamonds sewn into a lace overlay sparkled and shone when I moved. And on the back of my head was an antique silver clip which held the long veil in place.

Leave it to my mom to choose a very gorgeous dress.

She was glowing with happiness, and her happiness was contagious, it made doing this feel worth it.

Joan, who was my chief brides maid walked closer to me.

“Are you sure about this?”

I already told her the real reason behind the marriage but she still wasn’t in support of it.

I nodded.

If I wasn’t so much of an over-thinker, maybe if I was getting married for love instead, then I’ll feel the kind of happiness brides felt on their wedding.

The happiness wasn’t there, perhaps this was the price I had to pay for being too practical.

“Let’s go now. We wouldn’t want to keep your groom waiting.”My mom cooed, holding my hand.

I smiled at her and then we headed for the church.

Just as our cars pulled up at the back of the church, Oscar and Mrs Rita ran up to the car.

They looked tensed. We had gone in through the back gate because at the front, there were a barrage of press waiting.

I opened the door.

“What is it?”

“There’s a problem, Damon isn’t here yet.”

“What?”

The groom was already supposed to be waiting at the altar for the bride.

I stared at Mrs Rita.

“He was already dressed and he told me I could go ahead and he’d meet me at the church but I can’t get a hold of his best man or even Damon, I don’t know what’s going on.”Mrs Rita panicked.

“You can’t go in yet if he’s not here.”Joan said to me.

I sighed.

I had spoken to Damon yesterday. He still seemed pretty in on this.

I shook my head.

He couldn’t back out now. This was his idea in the first place.

We were helping each other and it was too late to back out.

There were guests waiting at the church, the reception garden was already set up.

No!

Maybe he got stuck in traffic.

And just like that, an hour went by.

An hour of me waiting in my car for my groom.

Now, I was beginning to panic.

This wedding had been the talk of the internet for a week, getting it canceled with all the guests already seated would be too scandalous.

Damon wasn’t picking anyone’s call including mine and his mother’s.

Suddenly, a text came on my phone. I frowned seeing Vanessa’s name, we had each other’s number but we barely spoke as we obviously disliked each other.

She had sent a picture.

I tapped on it, my jaw dropped to see that it was a picture of her and Damon.

Damon was on a suit, he looked awake and well as he pressed a kiss against Vanessa’s cheek.

Vanessa sent a video next.

It was a video of her and Damon literally kissing each other, passionately.

A text came up next.

Vanessa: Sorry, I found your groom cute so I stole him.

Was she fucking with me right now?

“Mrs Rita, why didn’t anyone tell me that Damon was in a relationship?”I asked, getting pissed as I shown the phone to her.

Her eyes dilated when she saw it.”What...Damon wasn’t in a relationship? How? What the hell?” She looked perplexed.

And then I came to a deduction, after seeing the announcement that I was getting married, Vanessa must have tried by all means to find out who the groom was, she did and now she somehow seduced him and stopped him from coming to the wedding so she could humiliate me.

“Damn it!”

I was fucking pissed.

No!

I barely had scandals. I avoided scandals with everything in me, I wasn’t about to have one.

I was a fucking celebrity, my high-profile guests were all waiting.

The press was everywhere.

“Mrs Rita, I am not about to send all my guests back home, I don’t care who your son is with, but you must get him to come here today!”

I glanced at my mom and she was looking guilty.

Yeah, she should and after today, she had better not try to set me up with another man.

“Alora, how about you just cancel the wedding?”Joan suggested.

“It’s too late for that. I’ll go in first and wait for him. Oscar, you go with Mrs Rita and find him. This was his idea, he has no right to humiliate me like this.”

I was still certain that I could save my face today.

I was still not believing that Damon could stand me up.

We had a plan.

He couldn’t treat me like this!

I got out of the car and headed inside the church.

The wedding march was playing and everyone stood up as I walked in.

After today, he could go be with Vanessa, I didn’t care, I didn’t even like him.

But he had to show up so this day could go as planned.

I was a perfectionist, I couldn’t accept this day not going my way.

So I thought him knowing I was already waiting for him at the altar would give him a bit of a conscience to show up so we could go through with this.

But he didn’t. Another hour passed or maybe more passed, I didn’t know how long but I was still waiting at the altar.

People were starting to take picture of me at the altar.

And I realized I might have just made things worse.

I might’ve just become the bride who got stood up at the altar.

Suddenly, the church doors sprang open, everyone turned to look.

I was also looking too. At this point, I didn’t even know if I should even expect Damon to come by.

He moved forward. He was on his suit.

As my eyes landed on his face. I gasped.

Caden.

At that point, it felt like I had just gotten saved by a Prince Charming.

*****************

*CADEN*

That morning, I woke up feeling sick. Literally unwell.

My head was pounding as the consequences of all the alcohol, but I was feverish. I was burning up so bad and my housekeeper, Darla had to get the doctor to come treat me.

I was placed on a drip.

Mason also came by. “I had wanted to help you change out of your wet clothes last night but you wouldn’t let me. Do you know how long you had spent crying in the rain? You were drenched last night, I had a feeling you would fall sick.”

I didn’t say anything to him.

I just felt numb.

“Are you sick from being drenched by the rain or is it because Alora is getting married today?”

I ignored him again.

“It’s not the end of the world, Caden.”

It felt like it.

I closed my eyes, just wanting to sleep for a long time.

Mason didn’t leave. He insisted on staying and looking after me but frankly, I just wanted to be alone.

“Damn! Alora’s wedding is making headlines.” He said after some time.

“I do not want to see or hear about it.”I snapped.

“It’s actually making headlines for the wrong reasons though. The groom still hasn’t showed up after more than two hours.”

Now, I was curious to see.

“Really?”

“Yeah, she’s even waiting at the altar at the moment, videos and pictures are circulating.” I glanced at the drip I was on.

My phone wasn’t in my reach.”Can I see?”

Mason walked up to me, he placed his phone in front of me.

I grabbed it with my free hand and scrolled through.

It was really true.

An headline line read;

“Did the A-list actress just get stood up on her wedding day?”

“Serves her right though. How can she kiss you and act like she cares about you and then get married to some dude she just met? For someone who acts as if she’s so smart, she sure got played by the dude. At the very least, your sorrows last night wasn’t in vain. She deserves this.”

Yeah, I should feel happy.

I should agree with Mason about how Alora deserves this.

I mean, how could she agree to marry someone she just met?

I had been in so much pain since hearing that she was getting married.

Now seeing her, standing at the altar, looking nervous as fuck, I didn’t know what to feel.

She was an A-list celebrity, she rarely had scandals, she had a perfect image, this would be the talk of the town for weeks, object of slander and ridicule.

“Caden, why aren’t you saying anything? Why aren’t you agreeing with me?”

Fuck!

No, Caden.

This is none of your business.

She chose that guy.

She said there was nothing between you two.

You can’t go saving her. How could I even possibly save her right now?

A idea struck me.

No!

You can’t go saving her every fucking time.

She doesn’t even give a fuck about me.

But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake off this feeling.

The feeling of helping her.

I realized now that while Alora could be my shot at happiness, she could also ruin me.

Because it seems that, with Alora, I had no common sense.

Summoning every bit of strength I had left, I tore off the drip from my hand and stood up from the bed.

“What are you doing?”Mason asked me.

“I need to go to her. I’d be her groom.”

“Have you gone mad?”

I honestly didn’t know.

I hurried into my walk-in closet and hurriedly went through some new suits I had.

I grabbed one and threw it at Mason.

“Get dressed, you’d be my best man.”

“No!”Mason refused.”Why would you go saving her again? It’s not as if this would put her life in danger. She’d just be humiliated and frankly, I think she deserves that.”

“She doesn’t give a fuck about you! Why would you even do this?”

I turned to face him.”I think you of all people should understand me, I mean you always talk about how you love yourself when you’re with Gigi.”

“Gigi actually loves me. Sure, you hurt Alora before, but it’s been eight years, she doesn’t care about you no more and frankly, I think you’ve done enough to make up for what you did to her before, Caden, I think if you keep doing everything for her without her reciprocating, you might be heading towards a big, a massive heartbreak.”

“Fine, maybe I’m not thinking straight. And yes, she doesn’t love me. But I love her and I cannot bear to see her getting humiliated. So for now, let me focus on helping her.”

“You’re still so fucking pale, you aren’t supposed to be out of bed right now.”

“I can manage.”I assured him. “Get dressed.”

As I hurriedly got dressed, I gave Vance a call.

“I need you to release two news right now. Firstly, release the news about Ford’s Group CEO, second, say Caden Ford got into a car accident and that was why he was late for his wedding.”

I hung up and said to Mason.

“I need you to go find me a cast. The public needs a good explanation about why Alora’s groom was late to their wedding.”

“God, if I wasn’t so in love and ready to do and be anything for Gigi, I would have thought you were a total psycho, but then I understand and I just hope everything you’re doing for that woman will be worth it.”

I didn’t know if it’d be worth it or not.

But all I knew was that I was willing to do anything for Alora.

And that was how I found myself walking up to Alora to become her groom.