Chapter 4: I Want to Break Off the Engagement
Nicole's POV
All eyes instantly fell on me, filled with judgment and suspicion.
Shier strode up to me and cursed angrily: "Damn it! Nicole, you bitch! Tell me! Which man were you messing around with just now?!"
Wendy looked at me with innocent eyes, unable to hide the hint of smugness in them.
I looked at them and laughed sarcastically: "Messing around? Shier, it was you who abandoned your bride and went to hang out with someone else. What right do you have to blame me?
Wendy's face instantly turned deathly pale, tears immediately welling up.
A flash of guilt crossed Shier's face, but it was quickly replaced by more overwhelming anger.
He pulled Wendy protectively into his arms and shouted at me: "I was just worried about Wendy! She's not in good health!"
"But you, you just disappeared without a word. Where did you put the dignity of the Hall family and the Gerald family?!"
"Shier, don't talk to me about things you don't have," I said calmly, looking at him.
Shier and Wendy, this pair of despicable people, actually had the right to discuss dignity with me?
"You..."
Shier was suddenly choked by my words, his face flushing red with anger.
Perhaps he would never understand why, in just one night, I had completely changed.
I was no longer the submissive, humble Nicole I used to be.
"Since you want to know so badly why I took off the wedding dress, I'll be generous and tell you."
"Because I don't want to continue this ridiculous wedding anymore."
"Shier Hall, I want to break off the engagement. Our relationship is over!"
The anger on Shier's face froze, replaced by disbelief.
"What did you say? You want to break off the engagement with me?"
"Slap!"
A crisp, loud sound.
Doris rushed up to me and slapped me hard across the face.
My face was knocked to the side, my cheek quickly swelling up, burning with pain. I even tasted blood at the corner of my mouth.
"Nicole! Shut up!" She trembled with rage, pointing at me and cursing: "The daughters of the Gerald family don't break off engagements unless they're dead!"
In that moment, I finally completely believed it.
Believed what Wendy had once said - my parents had never loved me. Their eyes only held profit. Bringing me home was only because I still had value to them.
Now, by unilaterally proposing to cancel the engagement, I had violated their interests.
"Nicole, you idiot!" Leighton said angrily. "Without the Gerald family's permission, you have no right to break off the engagement! Hurry up and apologize to Shier, make him forgive you!"
Looking at Shier and Wendy, I only felt disgusted, and wanted to vomit.
Leighton and Doris glared at me, but when they turned to face Shier, their faces showed fawning smiles as they begged for his forgiveness.
Wendy's crying grew louder: "Shier, please don't blame my sister anymore, okay?"
My biological mother, my fiancé, my sister——they all stood on the opposite side from me.
Not one of them cared whether I was hurt or sad.
They only cared about whether I still had my virginity, whether this marriage alliance could continue, whether I could still bring them benefits.
"Nicole!" Doris scolded me. "Tell us clearly, did you mess around with a man or not!"
I pulled at the corner of my mouth, revealing a mocking smile.
"Do you want me to strip naked in this hall, in front of everyone, to prove my chastity?"
This sentence successfully made them all shut their mouths.
Finally, my father spoke up, ordering a nearby waiter: "Go! Get the hotel manager!"
"Search room by room! I don't believe that wedding dress could just vanish into thin air!"
The hotel staff were quickly summoned and, under my parents' strict orders, began a carpet search of the bridal suite and nearby guest rooms.
I stood in place, my heart racing uncontrollably, my fingers nervously twisting together.
The room where the wedding dress was hidden - Wendy and Shier knew that Hodgson had rested there.
Once they found the wedding dress, Wendy's plot to drug me would succeed.
Time passed second by second.
Finally, the hotel manager came running back, sweating profusely, and respectfully reported.
"Mr. Gerald, Madam, all rooms have been searched. The wedding dress was not found."
My tense nerves finally completely relaxed at that moment.
It seemed that Hodgson had returned to the room after I left.
He must have had someone take away the wedding dress.
It wasn't until midnight that this absurd farce finally ended.
Even though Wendy was very unwilling and kept egging Shier on to find that man, without evidence, it could only remain unresolved.
Returning to the cold Gerald family villa was when the real nightmare began.
In the living room, all the lights were on, bright as day.
Doris sat on the sofa with a face like ice, holding a riding crop in her hand.
"Kneel down." she said in a commanding tone.
I stood in place, not moving: "Mother, I did nothing wrong. Why should I kneel?"
"You still dare to talk back?!"
Doris suddenly stood up, and the riding crop in her hand, carried by the wind, struck hard across my back!
Intense pain hit me. I grunted, my body swaying, but I still bit my teeth and stood straight.
This pain couldn't compare to the pain in my heart.
"I said, I did nothing wrong! " I glared at her viciously. "I want to break off the engagement! I want to leave this place!"
Doris approached me step by step, her voice extremely low.
"Leave? Nicole, have you forgotten why you came back to Astoria?"
My heart sank heavily.
"Your adoptive mother lying in the hospital, surviving every day only with huge medical expenses."
The corner of Doris's mouth curved into a cruel smile.
"And your adoptive father who jumped off a building and committed suicide in Gardella."
"Do you want your adoptive mother to die miserably like him?"
My adoptive father, when I was fifteen, jumped from a high building because his business failed.
My adoptive mother Vera was in a car accident and became a vegetative patient who could never wake up.
I had desperately begged my biological parents to bring Vera from Gardella to the best hospital in Astoria.
Every day I looked forward to her waking up.
I suddenly felt cold all over.
Doris's hand gently brushed across my cheek: "Good child, can you bear to watch your adoptive mother die in that hospital bed?"
She looked at me trembling all over with satisfaction, and the riding crop struck my body again: "Kneel down!"
I clenched my fists and finally obediently knelt before her.
"Good child, do you still want to break off the engagement?" she asked me.
I looked at her and finally understood that I had no way to escape.