I Called Off My Wedding Chapter 07
Behind him walked the Herring Consortium’s legal team and several uniformed federal agents.
Terrence looked down at Brandon, his eyes cold.
“Mr. Faulkner, all your assets have been frozen. How exactly do you plan to pay her back?”
Brandon’s body shook violently when he saw the agents.
“What… what do you want to do?”
Terrence tilted his head slightly, and his lawyer stepped forward immediately, reading a document in a loud, clear voice.
“Mr. Faulkner, our investigation has confirmed that the Faulkner Group is guilty of commercial fraud. You falsified financial statements and evaded hundreds of millions in taxes.
“This is an arrest warrant. You need to come with us.”
The lawyer held the warrant up for Brandon to see, and Brandon broke down completely.
Faced with Terrence’s overwhelming power, he instantly lost all the arrogance he’d been relying on.
He couldn’t even summon the courage to fight back, and he collapsed to the ground.
Two agents stepped forward and clamped handcuffs around his wrists without mercy.
“Kimmy, save me! Please, for the sake of our ten years together. Beg Mr. Herring to let me go!” Brandon screamed, struggling.
I stared at him coldly, feeling no sympathy whatsoever.
“Whatever we had ended the night you drugged me.”
I turned around and walked back into the estate.
Terrence tilted the umbrella over me to shield me from the rain.
He turned to the agents and gave his order.
“Take him away. Mr. Faulkner can spend the rest of his life thinking about what he did in prison.”
Terrence waved his hand.
News of Brandon’s arrest made front-page headlines on financial news outlets soon after.
The Faulkner Group was forced into liquidation, and everyone who’d latched onto the Faulkner family and mocked me at the wedding was blacklisted by the Herring Consortium.
One by one, they went bankrupt and lost everything.
The entire business landscape of the city shifted dramatically as a result.
Lynette, who’d started this whole mess, met a miserable end.
After losing Brandon’s protection, she was stuck with all the debts the Faulkner family had transferred to her before their collapse.
Her creditors immediately came after her.
To avoid them, she fled to a seedy underground bar in the city’s run-down neighborhood and worked as a hostess.
Every day, she was groped and harassed by all kinds of men, and she got beaten up if she dared to resist.
Two weeks later, I accompanied Terrence to inspect one of his shopping malls.
We’d just reached the entrance when a foul-smelling woman broke past the security guards and dropped to her knees in front of me.
“Kimmy! Please, Kimmy, help me!”
I stopped and frowned at the filthy woman on the ground.
She sat there with tangled hair, smeared makeup, and bruises showing through her ragged clothing.
I only realized it was the once-proud Lynette because I heard her speak.
“Kimmy, I’m sorry! I know I was wrong!”
Lynette banged her head hard on the pavement until blood trickled down her forehead.
“I was just stupid when I ruined your dress and took the tiara. It was just a stupid joke.
“Please, beg them to leave me alone! They beat me every day and force me to sleep with men for money! I can’t live like this anymore.”
She sobbed loudly, trying to pass off her actions as a harmless joke to avoid taking responsibility.
Terrence’s face darkened, and he was about to signal his bodyguards to drag her away.
I held up my hand to stop him.
I looked down at Lynette, a smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth.
“A stupid joke?” I repeated her excuse slowly.
“That’s not right. If you’re so casual about everything, why not just wrap a towel around yourself and go work the streets? That’s exactly the kind of thing you’re good for.”
I used the very words she’d once mocked me with to strike back.
Lynette’s sobs died instantly, and her face turned deathly pale.
She realized I would never help her — I would only stand by and watch.
Several debt collectors stormed out of the corner and grabbed Lynette by the hair.
“You bitch! You thought you could run? Pay up today, or we’ll sell you somewhere you’ll never be found.”
Lynette struggled desperately, her nails scraping against the pavement.
“Kimmy, please! I’m so sorry! Help me!” Her screams faded away down the hallway.
Outside the gates of the manor, Brandon’s mother, Clarinda Faulkner, was kneeling rigidly on the pavement.
Her hair was streaked with gray, and she’d lost every trace of the dignity she’d once had.
“Kimmy, this is all Brandy’s fault, I know! But he’s the man you loved for ten years.
“Please, for the sake of how well I treated you back then, ask Mr. Herring to go easy on him. He can’t spend the rest of his life in prison.”
She cried, trying to use our history to guilt-trip me into giving in.
I stood inside the gates, watching her calmly through the bars.
“Mrs. Faulkner, have you forgotten how you looked down on me for my ordinary background and let Lynette run wild in your house?
“You thought I wasn’t good enough for the Faulkner family. Well, I don’t want anything to do with your family anymore.”
I turned and walked back, cutting off all contact with the Faulkner family for good.
Three days later, I went to the prison for a visit.
Through the glass, I saw Brandon in a prison uniform, his hair closely cropped.
He’d lost a lot of weight, and his eyes only focused when he saw me.
“Kimmy… you came.” He picked up the phone, his voice hoarse.
“I’m here to say goodbye.”
Tears streamed down Brandon’s face, and he pressed his cheek against the glass, sobbing with regret.
“I regret it every single day… If I hadn’t brought you that glass of milk that night… If we’d gotten married like we were supposed to…”
“What’s done is done,” I cut him off.
“It’s over between us. It has been for a long time.”
I hung up and turned to leave, without a single backward glance.
I walked out of the prison, and the sun was shining brightly.
Terrence was leaning against the car, holding a bouquet of my favorite white lisianthus.
When he saw me, he walked over quickly, handed me the flowers, and laced his fingers through mine.
“Is it all over?” he asked softly.
“Yeah. It’s all over.” I took a deep breath.
Six months later, Terrence threw me a lavish wedding on an island.
Gone were the scheming and the pain of the past; what surrounded me was simply his affection — directed entirely at me.
On our wedding night, the ocean breeze drifted through the sheer curtains.
Terrence pressed me gently against the window, pressing a warm kiss to my forehead, then my lips.
His eyes held all the love he’d carried for me over the years.
“Kimmy, do you know how long I’ve waited for this? Ten years.”
He told me about his crush on me since high school, and how he’d spent the last three years building up his power just in case I ever needed him.
I looked into his eyes and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“Mrs. Herring, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m never letting go of your hand again.”
Terrence kissed me softly on the lips.