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On My Wedding Day, My Husband Had Two Other Ceremonies
Novelix
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On her wedding day, Verity discovers three welcome signs in the hotel lobby—all bearing her husband Cassian's name. Floor one hosts her wedding, floor two his daughter's baptism, and floor three his...
章節（3）
第1章
On my wedding day, I saw three welcome signs in the hotel lobby, all printed with my husband Cassian's name.
The manager explained that the printer had made a mistake.
Cassian laughed and coaxed me gently. "What are you imagining now? It's not like there could be two more of me."
I believed him.
Until I went upstairs to change into my second dress and accidentally wandered onto the second floor, where security guards hired by the Ashcroft family stopped me at the door.
"The Ashcroft family's daughter is being baptized. No one else is allowed inside."
I was about to identify myself when the guard's radio crackled.
Cassian's voice came through.
"Dilute the formula a little. I'll come down after the prayer."
I froze.
Just last night, he had held me and said that when we had a daughter, he would take better care of her than I ever could.
He would take care of a child.
The only problem was that the child wasn't mine.
I didn't open the door. I turned around and pressed the button for the third floor.
The moment the elevator doors opened, I saw a family portrait of Cassian with another woman.
The caption read: [Happy first birthday to Rowan, eldest son of the Ashcroft family.]
At last, I understood the three welcome signs in the lobby.
The first floor was for my wedding to Cassian.
The second floor was for his daughter's baptism.
The third floor was for his son's first birthday party.
And all the Ashcroft relatives who had just wished me a happy marriage were now upstairs celebrating.
I turned to leave, but Cassian caught up with me and dragged me into the emergency stairwell.
"Vee, those women can't enter the Ashcroft family's home. You're the only Mrs. Ashcroft."
I nodded and called the manager.
"The sign that was printed incorrectly was the one on the first floor."
"Take my name off it."
I no longer wanted the position of Mrs. Ashcroft.
"Everyone, today's wedding is canceled."
I tore my hand away from Cassian and grabbed the microphone from the host.
Only when my voice came out did I realize that my entire body was shaking.
Hundreds of guests fell silent.
A flash of panic crossed Cassian's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.
He took the microphone and gave the guests a slight bow.
"I'm sorry. Verity isn't feeling well today."
He looked at me, his voice gentle, as though he were soothing a child throwing a tantrum.
"The wedding will continue as planned. There's been a small misunderstanding between us, but we'll sort it out later."
Cassian even made his lies sound dignified.
Someone laughed and called out that no newlywed couple went through life without arguing.
I dug my fingernails into my palms to keep my tears from falling.
When I turned around, I saw that more than half of the newlyweds' table was empty.
That morning, Cassian had told me his mother's blood pressure had spiked and she had been admitted for observation. Yet now, the entire Ashcroft family was on the third floor, throwing a birthday party for his "heir," surrounded by balloons and cakes.
Only I had been left downstairs like a fool, waiting to raise a glass of champagne to his parents.
Cassian followed me into the dressing room and locked the door.
"Vee, you can throw a fit whenever you want, but do you know what kind of day this is?"
"I gave you the wedding you wanted. You're the only real Mrs. Ashcroft. Isn't that enough?"
My eyes fell on his cuff.
The platinum cuff links were the wedding gift I had saved half a year to buy him.
Today, he was wearing them while moving between three women.
"Cassian, how many families do you have?"
He frowned and reached out to straighten my veil.
"Odessa gave me a son. Linnea's father once saved my life. I had to give them something in return. But I gave you the biggest ballroom. How much more could I favor you?"
I stumbled backward, suddenly sick.
Odessa's child was turning one today.
They had been together for two years—the same two years since my mother was diagnosed with cancer.
I had stayed beside her hospital bed every night. Cassian came only after midnight, took my hand, and told me the company was too busy for him to stay with me all the time.
Only now did I realize that during all those so-called late nights at work, another woman had been carrying his child.
The baby girl upstairs was only a few weeks old.
And a month ago, on the very day I had tried on my wedding dress, she had been born.
I had sent Cassian the photos one by one.
He had replied with only one sentence: [You look beautiful in anything.]
It turned out he had been waiting outside Linnea's delivery room, waiting for his daughter to be born.
"I can't afford your favor."
I tore off my veil and slammed it onto the floor.
A sudden cry came from outside.
"Someone fainted! Call 911!"
I rushed out and saw my father collapsed beside his wheelchair, his face deathly pale.
The phone on the table was frozen on a photo of Cassian holding a little boy, smiling with tender affection.
People around us whispered, "The one upstairs is the real heir. The one downstairs doesn't even have a marriage certificate."
A roar filled my ears, and my legs nearly gave out.
When the ambulance arrived, Cassian grabbed my arm.
"You can't leave. Your father told his assistant to keep an eye on you. The media is here. The Ashcroft family's reputation can't be ruined."
I stared at him in disbelief.
My father was lying on the stretcher, and all Cassian could think about was his reputation.
At that moment, the last trace of hope in my heart shattered completely.
"Cassian, let go."
Outside the emergency room, I prayed over and over again. My nails dug into my flesh, but I felt nothing.
Three hours later, the doctor came out and slowly shook his head.
In that instant, the world seemed to be hollowed out.
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
A nurse handed me a crumpled greeting card.
"Your father was holding this before he fell unconscious."
The card read: [May you love each other for the rest of your lives and never be separated.]
Clutching the card, I crouched down and finally broke down sobbing.
Even in death, my father had never understood how the daughter he loved most had become the punchline of a joke.
Late that night, Cassian sent me a message.
"Everything upstairs is responsibility. You downstairs are the one I chose. Stop being stubborn."
I stared at the words until my tears slowly dried.
I took off my wedding ring and placed it in a wooden box with my father's card. Then I called a lawyer.
"Find Cassian Ashcroft's marriage records."
I paused, my voice turning cold and unfamiliar.
"All of them."
第2章
I arranged my father's funeral alone.
Cassian never showed up. He only transferred a sum of money with the note: [Funeral expenses.]
Another message followed.
[Take a few days to calm down. When you're no longer angry, I'll bring you home.]
I stared at the screen and suddenly laughed. By the time my laughter turned into sobs, my tears were falling onto my father's portrait.
He thought I was merely throwing a tantrum.
Three days later, my lawyer accompanied me to City Hall to search the marriage records.
The clerk checked our documents repeatedly before finally turning the computer screen toward me.
"Ms. Wexler, there's no record of your marriage in the system."
My chest tightened. I took out the marriage certificate I had kept locked away for three years.
The clerk glanced at it once and pushed it back.
"It's fake."
My hand froze.
Three years earlier, Cassian's mother had confiscated my birth certificate and passport because she refused to let us marry.
But Cassian had taken my hand and led me to a little chapel that supposedly could complete the process that same day.
When we received the certificate, he had kissed my forehead and said, "Vee, no one can stop me from marrying you."
It turned out the chapel had only been rented for the occasion. The "pastor" conducting the ceremony was a friend whose credentials Cassian had bought online for a few hundred dollars. Even the vows were fake.
My lawyer pulled up Cassian's registration information.
Spouse: Odessa Vance.
Registration date: two years ago.
I rushed out of the building and threw up against the railing, my whole body trembling.
My lawyer handed me some water and lowered his voice. "There's also a result regarding the six hundred and twenty thousand dollars you asked me to investigate."
It had been my mother's old house. Cassian had told me the company was short on cash, so I sold it and gave him every cent.
But the bank records showed that less than a week after the money arrived, it had become the down payment on Odessa's apartment and the cost of her maternity suite at a private hospital.
The transfer note contained only one sentence:
[Take care of whoever needs the money most.]
The paper trembled in my hands.
Before my mother died, she had still been worrying about the jasmine on the balcony. I had promised her that once Cassian got through the company's financial crisis, I would buy the house back.
But my home hadn't been used to solve any emergency.
It had become another woman's home.
My vision went dark. When I woke up, I was in a hospital.
A nurse handed me the examination report.
"Seven weeks pregnant. Where's your family?"
I stared at the words and said nothing.
Seven weeks earlier had been my birthday. Cassian had stayed with me for two hours, cooked me birthday pasta, and promised to take me to Iceland to see the northern lights after our wedding.
During those two hours, a child had been conceived inside me.
My phone suddenly vibrated. An unknown number sent me several screenshots.
Odessa had asked: "Isn't holding three ceremonies on the same day too risky?"
Cassian had replied: “I have to take care of all three of you. Putting everything in one place saves time.”
Linnea had asked: "What if the woman downstairs finds out?"
[Verity wants the ceremony. The certificate isn't that important. Don't let her find out yet. I'll calm her down afterward.]
The final screenshot was an invitation to the third-floor birthday party.
Rowan Ashcroft's First Birthday Celebration.
Rowan was the name my mother had chosen for my future child.
I bit down hard on my lip.
Cassian had stolen my home, my marriage, and three years of my life. He had even taken the name my mother had left for my child.
The nurse asked if she should notify the baby's father.
I gently covered my lower abdomen. Tears finally slipped down my face, but my voice was strangely calm.
"No."
After leaving the hospital, I went to the hotel as the person who had paid for the wedding.
"Pull every booking record, surveillance video, and payment receipt for the three ballrooms that day."
"Seal the originals and make three copies of everything."
I wiped away my tears and spoke word by word.
"This time, I don't want his explanation."
"I want evidence."
第3章
Cassian came to my father's funeral.
He wore black, entered in front of all my relatives, knelt before the coffin, lowered his head, and made the sign of the cross.
The more composed he looked, the sicker I felt.
After the ceremony, he brought me a bowl of oatmeal.
"No raisins. The temperature is just right."
I stared at the spoon, a fine ache spreading through my chest.
So he had remembered all these little habits after all.
He leaned closer and lowered his voice.
"Vee, I gave Odessa the certificate because the father's name had to appear on the child's birth registration. I gave Linnea the house because her father once saved my life."
"What I gave you was what I wanted for myself."
He paused and looked at me seriously.
"Of the three families, you're the only woman I pursued. I thought you understood that."
The anger inside me finally broke through.
"You gave them legal documents, a house, and children. You gave me a fake wedding. You call that favoritism?"
Cassian's mother entered carrying a basket of fruit and nutritional supplements. She opened with a reproach.
"Whose fault is it that you never got pregnant? The Ashcroft family can't be without an heir."
She patted the back of my hand as though she were concerned for me.
"Cassian was willing to let you use the title Mrs. Ashcroft. What more do you want?"
A title printed on a fake certificate—a name she had graciously allowed me to borrow.
I pressed a hand over my abdomen, where a life no one knew about was growing.
Clutching the examination report in my pocket, I knew I would never tell him.
The door opened again.
Odessa entered holding her child. A tiny gold bracelet circled the baby's wrist.
Inside the bracelet was a name: [Mercy.]
My breath stopped.
That was my mother's name.
Before she died, my mother had given the family heirloom bracelet to Cassian. She had told him that once I had a child, he was to melt it down into a baptismal bracelet engraved with her name.
I reached for it, but Odessa immediately stepped back.
Cassian moved in front of her. "Vee, don't frighten Rowan."
"That belongs to my mother."
Cassian's mother frowned. "It's just an old bracelet. It suits the baby perfectly. You never had a child, so what do you need it for?"
The last warmth in my heart went out completely.
I raised my hand and slapped Cassian across the face.
The farewell hall fell silent.
He turned his face aside, then looked at me calmly.
"Are you done? Come home with me. I'll compensate you separately for the bracelet."
"No need."
I walked past him, my eyes burning, but I didn't look back.
"Cassian, you can't compensate me for anything that belonged to my mother."
That afternoon, I returned to the apartment Cassian and I had shared to collect my documents.
Breastfeeding tops hung in the closet. A postpartum meal plan was stuck to the refrigerator.
The pair of champagne glasses I had hand-painted sat in the cabinet. One was still pristine. The other had long since lost its paint.
Linnea had spent the first few weeks after giving birth here.
In the study, the cuff links, watch, and fountain pen I had given Cassian remained unopened. Beside them were baby photos of Rowan.
He had preserved my gifts carefully.
He had simply never allowed me into his real life.
Cassian's mother called.
"The situation has blown up online. The Ashcroft family can give you a small apartment if you issue a statement saying it was only an engagement party."
"What if I refuse to sign?"
"Your father's cemetery plot is right beside the Ashcroft family cemetery. Vee, even the dead deserve peace."
I stared at the chipped champagne glass. My fingertips turned cold, and then I suddenly laughed.
"Fine. I'll see you at the estate tomorrow."
After hanging up, I messaged my lawyer.
Double-check every piece of evidence before the meeting tomorrow.
Then I slipped the pregnancy report into the file folder.
This would be the last time the Ashcroft family made a decision for me.
It would also be the last time I walked through the doors of the Ashcroft estate.