Chapter 5 - The Gatecrasher
Jack looked like he had been dragged backward through a hedge.
His custom tuxedo jacket was gone, his white dress shirt was untucked on one side, and his tie hung limply around his neck like a noose. His hair, usually shellacked into submission with half a tub of pomade, was sticking up in sweaty tufts.
A collective gasp rippled through the ballroom. My father instantly stood up from his table, knocking his water glass over in the process, while Rachel loudly groaned, "Oh, for the love of God, does this man not own a mirror?"
Ethan didn’t flinch. He didn’t even stand up. He simply set his champagne glass down on the table with a sharp *clink*, his jaw tightening into a hard, dangerous line.
Jack scanned the room frantically until his bloodshot eyes locked onto our corner booth. He started marching across the polished floor, weaving unsteadily between tables, ignoring the hostile glares of 180 wedding guests.
"Lindsay!" Jack shouted, his voice cracking with hysterical desperation as he approached our table. "Lindsay, you have to listen to me! This is insane! You're throwing away three years over a momentary lapse in judgment!"
I slowly stood up, smoothing the silk of my wedding gown. The fear I used to feel around Jack—the crushing anxiety of disappointing him—was completely gone. Replaced by a cold, untouchable calm.
"Keep your voice down, Jack," I said, my tone level and chillingly polite. "You're making a scene."
"A scene?" Jack laughed wildly, throwing his hands up in the air. "I'm making a scene? You married my boss! Within two hours of breaking up with me, you married my billionaire boss!"
"Actually, it was within forty-five minutes," Ethan corrected smoothly, finally rising to his feet. He towered over Jack by a good three inches, his shoulders broad and his posture radiating absolute dominance. "And for the record, Jack, she didn't marry your boss. She married a man who actually knows how to prioritize."
Jack turned on Ethan, his face purple with rage, spittle flying from his lips. "You manipulated this! You hovered like a vulture, waiting for us to hit a rough patch so you could swoop in and steal my life!"
"Steal your life?" Ethan let out a short, cold laugh. "Jack, you handed her to me on a silver platter while you were crying on the phone with your college ex. If you treat all your assets as poorly as you treated Miss Turner here, it’s a miracle Calder Systems didn't fire you three years ago."
"You can't do this!" Jack shrieked, lunging forward as if he wanted to throw a punch.
Before he could take another step, two massive security guards—the same ones who had escorted him out of the chapel—materialized on either side of him, grabbing his arms in a vice-like grip.
"Mr. Conway, step away from the table," the head guard rumbled, his voice deep and authoritative.
"Get off me! Let me go!" Jack thrashed wildly, his eyes darting desperately back to me. "Lindsay, please! Tell them! We loved each other! We picked out the china pattern! We spent thousands on the registry! You can't just throw me away for *him*!"
I looked at Jack. Really looked at him. I tried to find the man I had fallen in love with three years ago—the ambitious, charming product manager who made me laugh. But he was gone. All that remained was a pathetic, entitled boy who couldn't handle losing a game he thought he owned.
"Jack," I said softly, stepping closer to Ethan's side. "We didn't pick out china. You picked out china, and I agreed because I didn't want to fight. We didn't build a future. You built a schedule, and you expected me to fit into the margins of it."
I looked him dead in the eye.
"And as for the registry? Keep the blender, Jack. You’re going to need it to make smoothies when you're living in your parents' basement."
A ripple of suppressed laughter swept through the nearest tables. Rachel openly snorted into her napkin.
Jack’s face twisted into an ugly, mask-like grimace of pure humiliation and rage. "You'll regret this! Both of you! You're a cold, unfeeling witch, Lindsay, and he's just a predator!"
"Get him out of my sight," Ethan commanded quietly.
The security guards didn't hesitate. They hoisted Jack off his feet, turning him around and dragging him backward across the ballroom floor while Jack screamed obscenities that were mercifully drowned out as the band hastily struck up a deafening jazz riff at Ethan’s subtle hand signal.
The heavy oak doors slammed shut behind him for the second time that day.
The ballroom fell into a brief, stunned silence before the chatter slowly bubbled back up, twice as loud as before.
Ethan turned to me, his expression softening instantly as his grey eyes met mine. The corporate titan vanished, leaving only the man who had risked an entire wedding reception just to claim what he wanted.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his thumb gently caressing my cheek.
I leaned into his touch, letting out a long, shuddering breath of pure exhilaration.
"I have never been better in my life," I whispered.
May you like
Ethan smiled, a warm, genuine expression that reached his eyes, and pulled me back into his arms. "Good. Because the night is still young, Mrs. Hayes, and we have a very expensive open bar to exhaust."
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