Chapter 191: Chapter 191

Nicole

I started after him, my wedding dress hampering my movement, but Madison and Veronica appeared on either side of me, grabbing my arms.

"Nicole, stop," Madison said urgently. "Everyone's watching. What's left of the guests are all staring. You need to…"

"I don't care!" I shrieked, trying to pull away from them. "Let me go! I need to talk to him! I need to explain!"

Madison and Veronica exchanged glances, something that looked like concern or maybe pity passing between them.

"Nicole," Madison said carefully, like she was talking to someone unstable. "Elijah doesn't want you. You still have Nate."

"Nate?" I laughed, the sound harsh and borderline hysterical. "You think I care about Nate? You think any of this was ever about Nate?"

I looked around the ballroom. The decorations I'd spent months planning looked garish now.

Everything I'd worked for, everything I'd planned, reduced to ruins.

"Nicole—" Veronica started, but I was already walking away, heading toward the exit.

I made it to one of the private rooms off the main hallway before Nate caught up to me.

"Nicole, wait," he said desperately. "We need to talk about this. We need to figure out how to salvage…"

I wrenched my arm away from him. "Salvage what, Nate? The wedding? There is no wedding. Or did you miss the part where I confessed my love for another man at the altar?"

"I know you're upset," Nate said, moving closer. His hands reached for me, landing on my waist. "IBut baby, we can work through this."

He pulled me closer, his mouth descending toward mine.

I shoved him away hard enough that he stumbled backward.

"Don't touch me," I snarled.

"Nicole, come on." Nate tried to recover, tried to smile like this was all just a lover's quarrel. "I know how to help you relax and relieve all that stress."

I bent down, and yanked off one of my heeled sandals, the expensive designer shoe that had cost more than most people made in a month. I threw it at him with all the force I could muster.

It hit him square in the chest, making him grunt and step back.

"You think sex is going to fix this?" I screamed. "You think I want your pathetic attempts at intimacy right now?"

I reached up and ripped the remaining veil from my hair, not caring that I was probably pulling out chunks of carefully styled curls along with it. The delicate fabric tore in my hands, the sound satisfying in its violence.

"This is your fault," I spat at Nate. "All of this. You were supposed to make him jealous. You were supposed to be enough of a threat that he'd realize what he was losing. But you're not man enough. You're not alpha enough. You're nothing compared to him!"

"That's not fair," Nate protested, his face flushing. "I did everything you asked. I played my part perfectly. It's not my fault Elijah didn't take the bait the way you wanted him to."

"Everything I asked?" I laughed bitterly. "I asked you to be a man, Nate. I asked you to be someone worth being jealous over. But you can't even manage that, can you?"

"I can still be useful to you," Nate said desperately. "Nicole, please. Don't throw this away. We can still get married. We can still—"

"Why would I marry you?" I interrupted, my voice cold. "You lost Violet. You lost any leverage you had over Elijah. You're useless to me now."

I saw the moment the words landed, saw Nate's face crumble with the realization.

"You never loved me," he said quietly. "This was always about him. I was just a tool."

"Congratulations on finally figuring it out," I said acidly. "Only took you being left at the altar to realize what everyone else already knew."

"You're insane," Nate said, shaking his head. "None of this is my fault.”

He breathed deep and started again. “Look, we can still get married. You give me my share of some of the Deveraux property like you promised and…”

"Get out," I said, my voice dangerously quiet.

"Nicole—"

"GET OUT!" I screamed, and Nate finally listened, backing toward the door with his hands raised.

"You're going to regret this," he said.

"The only thing I regret," I said coldly, "is wasting my time with you. Now leave before I have security throw you out of MY house!!"

He finally left like the useless tool he was as I stood alone in the room, looking like a disaster.

But I didn't care because this wasn't over. Not by a long shot.

Elijah was angry now. But now that I had ensured that little bitch would never return to him, he would realize I was right here.

And when it did, when he calmed down and realized what he'd lost, when he remembered what we'd had together, he'd come back to me.

Elijah was mine and I would get him back by hook or crook.