Chapter 7 The Wedding Cancelled
Daniel immediately replied: [Chase, Serena's going to see this.]
Kevin Geller chimed in: [So what if she sees it? A woman should stay home and take care of her husband. Is Chase supposed to coddle her forever?]
Jack Clark added: [Good point. Women can't be spoiled too much. Sometimes you gotta put them in their place.]
Kevin replied: [Exactly! I'm an expert at this. I do whatever I want outside, and the one at home doesn't dare complain. Chase, want some tips on how to properly discipline Serena?]
The comments kept getting more vicious. Chase had liked the post just to needle Serena a bit, but he hadn't expected his friends to go this far. He was about to tell Brielle to delete the post when he noticed Serena had also liked it.
With a comment attached: [What a party! Since everyone's here, let me make an announcement too: Chase and I have broken up. From now on, we're strangers—marriages, funerals, and everything else, we go our separate ways. Please don't put my name next to his anymore, or may he rot in hell!]
After that bombshell, the entire comment section went silent.
Chase's face had turned dark as thunderclouds. He immediately pulled out his phone and messaged Serena: [What the hell is this supposed to mean? Now you're announcing a breakup? How far are you planning to take this?]
No response.
After posting that comment, Serena had started deleting Chase's friends from her contacts one by one. That's when Jessica called.
Jessica launched right in with cursing. "Are these guys insane? And Chase is even worse—that bastard just let his bros trash you like that?"
Serena found herself laughing, her tone cold. "Got money, got an ego. Gotta let the guy enjoy his sycophants, right?"
"Sycophants my ass! When he finds out who you really are, he's gonna regret it till his dying day. And to think you gave up Adrian for this piece of trash! Do you know what Adrian is? He's leagues above this loser. Were you out of your mind?"
At the mention of Adrian, Jessica couldn't help but tear into her best friend again. After all, Adrian was basically every woman's dream man.
Hearing that name made Serena fall silent. A strikingly handsome but aloof face floated before her eyes. Adrian.
"Seriously though, do you ever regret giving up Adrian as your fiancé for Chase?"
Serena paused for a long moment before answering slowly. "Even if Adrian and I had gotten married, it would've just been a business arrangement. You're from a wealthy family—you should know that arranged marriages are miserable nine times out of ten. I can't assume I'd definitely be happy with Adrian. The only thing I regret now is hurting Grandpa and my sister because of Chase."
"Fair point. After all, you were already with Chase when the engagement was arranged. If you'd ditched your boyfriend for money and status, I'd probably lose respect for you too." Jessica shifted gears. "Anyway, forget about that. Did you get Chase to sign the share transfer consent?"
"Yep."
"Damn, girl!" Jessica was impressed. After all, the Chasey Group had excellent growth prospects and its valuation kept climbing. There was no way Chase would willingly hand over more than half the shares.
Jessica laughed. "Maybe you're not completely useless after all."
Serena played along with an exaggerated sigh. "My stellar reputation, all destroyed by that scumbag Chase."
Jessica cracked up. "Alright, hang tight. I'll be back tomorrow. There's an auction tomorrow night—I booked a room. We can hang out and catch up."
"Sounds good!"
After hanging up, Serena got another call from the photography studio, reminding her not to forget tomorrow's wedding photo shoot appointment.
Serena's voice was ice-cold. "Cancel it. Keep the deposit as compensation for your trouble."
The studio employee sounded shocked. After all, Chase and Serena's wedding preparations had been extravagant, including a big-budget photo shoot. The staff had been preparing for ten days.
Now it was suddenly canceled?
The employee asked tentatively, "Ms. Rothwell, may I ask why? When you say cancel, do you mean postpone or actually cancel?"
"Cancel."
The employee couldn't figure out what was going on and didn't dare ask more questions. After a pause, they asked, "What about Mr. Whitmore? Should we let him know?"
"No need."
That man was probably too busy being lovey-dovey with his mistress to remember the photo shoot anyway.
In fact, Chase really had forgotten. After dinner with Brielle, he'd taken her out drinking with friends until three in the morning.
The next day, Tom's phone call woke him up.
"Mr. Whitmore, today's the scheduled wedding photo shoot. It's at nine o'clock—one hour from now. Don't forget."
"Got it."
Chase tossed his phone aside, his brain taking a minute to process. Then he sat bolt upright in bed.
The wedding photo shoot. Serena hadn't even reminded him. But that was fine—she'd been preparing for this wedding for three months. She was so eager to marry him that she was probably already at the studio waiting.
He needed to hurry so she wouldn't get anxious.
He quickly showered, put on his groom's suit, and styled his hair to perfection. But when he walked into the downstairs living room, Nancy stared at him like she'd seen a ghost.
"Sir, dressed like that, are you going to a wedding? You should wear something more low-key, or your friends will think you're there to cause trouble."
"What trouble? I'm going for wedding photos!"
Nancy looked even more shocked. "But Ms. Rothwell burned her wedding dress. I thought you two weren't getting married anymore."
"What did you say?" Chase couldn't believe it, his expression darkening instantly. "You're sure she burned the dress?"
"Yes." Nancy nodded seriously.
Chase's vision went black and he nearly lost his balance. He immediately called the photography studio to confirm whether Serena had gone.
The studio employee said, "Ms. Rothwell already canceled the photo shoot."
Chase panicked. He immediately tried calling Serena, but the call wouldn't go through.
Serena had blocked him!