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Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Temple Madison

I was sitting in the Presidential Suite of The Pierre, wearing a Vera Wang gown worth more than most people earn in a decade. It was supposed to be the wedding of the century, the final move to merge two of Manhattan's most powerful empires. Then my phone buzzed. It was an Instagram Story from my fiancé, Jameson. He was at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with a caption that read: "Fuck the chains. Chasing freedom." He hadn't just gotten cold feet; he had abandoned me at the altar to run across the world. My father didn't come in to comfort me. He burst through the door roaring about a lost acquisition deal, telling me the Holland Group would strip our family for parts if the ceremony didn't happen by noon. My stepmother wailed about us becoming the laughingstock of the Upper East Side. The Holland PR director even suggested I fake a "panic attack" to make myself look weak and sympathetic to save their stock price. Then Jameson’s sleazy cousin, Pierce, walked in with a lopsided grin, offering to "step in" and marry me just to get his hands on my assets. I looked at them and realized I wasn't a daughter or a bride to anyone in that room. I was a failed asset, a bouncing check, a girl whose own father told her to go to Paris and "beg" the man who had just publicly humiliated her. The girl who wanted to be loved died in that mirror. I realized that if I was going to be sold to save a merger, I was going to sell myself to the one who actually controlled the money. I marched past my parents and walked straight into the VIP holding room. I looked the most powerful man in the room—Jameson’s cold, ruthless uncle, Fletcher Holland—dead in the eye and threw the iPad on the table. "Jameson is gone," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Marry me instead."

Billionaires Revenge Kickass Heroine Revenge Female-centered Ex-wife

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Ava could see her world crashing down before her eyes, tears flowed down her eyes as the doctor words echoed in her head.

"I'm sorry, we lost her" The words rang like a bad nightmare she could not forget.

To the hospital staffs, they lost just another patient but to her she lost her lifeline - Her mother, the only person who had kept her going, she had begged Janet - her boss for a loan, something she did not believe she could do, especially not after Janet's endless bullying.

She could still remember Janet laughter as she went on her knees pleading, she even went as far as to beg her scumbag of a father and yet... She was gone... Like she wasn't here yesterday... Like she wasn't the woman she talked to last night.

She could feel the pain in her heart, her world has ended and no one could see it - they didn't care. She clenched her chest as she squatted on the floor.

Indistinct chatter floated into her ears but she wasn't there, she was with her mother.

The smiling woman who handed her cookies when she was young, that strong woman who fought for her rights when she was forced to get a divorce, that woman that left her father without looking back. That woman that always told her. "Ava, you are a great child". Gone...Just like that.

In her subconsciousness, she caught sight of the nurses rolling her mother out of the room all covered in a white cloth. She rushed over to her side yanking the cloth off her face.

"Mother, mother" She called with choked voice. "Please don't do this, Mom don't leave me" She cried out.

"Poor child" she barely heard a passerby say.

"Mum" She sobbed.

"Ma, you have to take it easy" A nurse said coming over to her and pulling her in her embrace.

"Mother" Ava bent down to plant a kiss on the forehead of her mother's lifeless body. The coldness she felt rudely reminded her that the only person in the world that do care is gone - dead forever.

She turned to look at the nurse who held her and nodded at her.

"Thank you ma" She said her eyes following the strecher used in carrying her mother to the morgue.

"You have to be strong child, even if it's for your mother" The old nurse said and she nodded wiping her face with a tissue.

She had to be strong, her mother had no one else except her. Casting a glance at the stretcher, she nodded at the doctor and walked out of the hospital trying to convince herself that it did not hurt but... no it hurt so bad.

Her tears flowed down her eyes like a river. The bitter taste of the tears served to remind her of the death of the only person she had left. Her heart felt hollow and she found herself craving solace.

Heading to the bus station, she boarded a bus going to her fiancée apartment, he was the only one who could comfort her of her loss.

She pushed the door open and looked around the house not seeing him. She walked towards the bedroom and she could hear noises coming out of the bedroom... More like moans.

She shook her head refusing to believe what she was hearing, her tears that had just ceased found their way out of her eyes.

With her heart in her mouth, she pushed the door open and she could feel her already broken heart shattering again when she saw her fiancee, Shane in bed with...Clara her stepsister.

"Shane" She shrieked, eyes wide open before bolting out of the room.

Her legs burned as she ran far away looking for somewhere to let her emotions out. Looking backwards, there was no signs of Shane coming after her. She laughed - a heart wrenching sound.

"Did I really thought he would come after me?" She let out a sad smile.

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