My Groom Abandoned Me At The Altar — So His Rival Made Me A Breathtaking Offer
Part 2
Deafening clamor instantly filled the massive cathedral.
This was a social cataclysm that would feed the gossip sheets of London for a decade.
Several ladies in the back pews swooned dramatically.
Influential gentlemen loudly debated the explosive accusations Craig had just hurled at me.
I stood entirely alone at the decorated altar.
The sanctuary seemed to spin violently around my motionless body.
The crushing weight of a thousand staring, pitying eyes pressed down upon my shoulders.
They threatened to crush me directly into the cold marble floor.
My father, Dan, engaged in a screaming match with Craig’s groomsmen.
He furiously demanded satisfaction for this unprecedented insult.
Craig completely ignored the chaos he had orchestrated.
He began a brisk, unbothered march directly down the central aisle.
He effectively left me standing there to bear the absolute brunt of the horrific humiliation.
My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.
My reputation was instantly annihilated.
Without a husband, and with our financial ruin exposed to the wealthiest elites, I had no redemption.
I would be permanently exiled to the countryside as a ruined woman.
The sheer injustice of his calculated cruelty brought hot tears of fury to my eyes.
I fought with every ounce of my aristocratic breeding to keep them from falling.
Craig was halfway down the long aisle.
The crowd eagerly parted for him like the Red Sea.
I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the crushing finality of his departure.
Suddenly, a tall figure deliberately stepped out from the foremost pew.
He entirely blocked the Duke’s confident path.
The chaotic congregation fell into an abrupt, stunned silence.
Lord Brian stood firmly in the center of the aisle.
He was everything Craig was not.
While my former groom was dark and universally feared, Brian was a wildly unpredictable force of nature.
He possessed windswept hair and intense, stormy gray eyes.
He was a decorated war hero who possessed a staggering fortune.
More importantly, he and Craig were bitter, blood-feuded rivals.
They had clashed violently over trade laws and land rights for years.
Craig commanded him to move aside.
His aristocratic sneer deepened as he glared at the man blocking his exit.
Brian did not move a single muscle.
He stood tall, his broad shoulders squared in a perfectly tailored coat.
A dangerous, predatory smile played at the corners of his lips.
He informed the Duke that he found himself profoundly offended by the lack of manners.
He stated that a gentleman does not abandon a lady at the altar.
He added that a gentleman certainly does not slander her flawless character to cover up his own greedy schemes.
Craig’s face flushed with genuine rage.
He threatened to ruin Brian just as surely as he had ruined me.
Brian coolly replied that Craig couldn’t ruin a child’s tea party.
A shocked, muffled laugh echoed from someone in the gallery.
Brian’s gaze shifted past the furious Duke.
He looked straight to where I stood shattered at the altar.
I locked eyes with the handsome lord.
We barely knew each other.
We had shared exactly one dance three years prior at a summer ball.
I possessed only a fleeting memory of intelligent conversation and a remarkably gentle grip on my waist.
Now his gray eyes burned with a fierce, protective fire that sent an involuntary shiver down my spine.
Without breaking eye contact with me, Brian stepped entirely around the furious Duke.
He walked slowly and purposefully down the aisle toward the altar.
His polished boots echoed loudly against the marble.
My father ceased his shouting, watching in total bewilderment as the powerful lord approached.
Brian stopped just inches from me, his expression softening into something incredibly tender.
I stood frozen in my wedding dress, surrounded by hundreds of staring guests, wondering what this powerful, dangerous man could possibly want with a ruined bride like me?
