“If You Can’t Bear My Mistress, We Can Swap Newtons”- So I Married His Worst Rival At the Wedding Chapter 09

“If You Can’t Bear My Mistress, We Can Swap Newtons”- So I Married His Worst Rival At the Wedding Chapter 09

“Sloane, look. I got the ring back. Our ring.”

“I’ll give you back the Southside rights. Just give me another chance. Please. I know I screwed up.”

I looked down at him for a few seconds. Took the ring.

Right as Preston’s face started to light up.

I threw it back in his face.

“Preston. You think putting on a show for me makes any of this go away?”

“You used to tell me never to say sorry. Said I was supposed to be proud and untouchable. That you couldn’t stand seeing me lower my head.”

“Now you want me to bow. You stole my proposal. You and your ex planned this together. Betrayed me. Slept in our wedding bed.”

“You know I have pride. So you should know by now—I don’t walk backward. And I don’t take cheap men back.”

Preston’s face went ashen.

“No one is that special. Yeah, I wanted to get married at Rosewood Manor. But no one said the groom had to be you.”

“The clients and business the Hales lost in the North today? I’m the one who gave them to you in the first place. I just took them back.”

“I don’t want you to give me back the development rights. I get what I want on my own. From now on, on the business side? We’re just rivals.”

Nico had his men drag Preston out.

He gave me a curious look.

“That’s it? That’s not your style. You hold grudges.”

“Want me to grab the Hale company and that land for you? Call it an engagement gift?”

I shot him a look.

“You think I can’t?”

“The Hale company and that land are both going to be my wedding gifts.”

The Hales’ northern business? I built that. Taking it back was nothing.

But some betrayals cost more than that.

Soon, multiple local companies were going after the Hales’ northern operations.

They couldn’t get any new deals. Money only went out, never came in.

Preston had to shut down the northern branch and focus everything on Ashford.

But he’d already lost over a billion. His only shot at recovering

was the Southside development.

A month later, he realized just how deep the hole was.

Because the proposal Tessa stole from me? He knew my work, so he didn’t bother double-checking it.

The bidding committee only looked at the overall numbers and rough outline. Preston won easily.

Then construction started. The costs for materials, labor, foundation? All way higher than the proposal showed.

He had to keep pouring money in. Stop and he’d pay massive penalties. Keep going and he’d just bleed out.

Preston had wanted the whole thing to himself. Didn’t let anyone else buy in. Now his company had no cash for the penalties and no liquidity to keep building.

What should have been a goldmine turned into a disaster. He became the laughingstock of Ashford.

And the wedding story all over the internet? The Hales’ stock dropped forty percent.

He had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. Sell off the company to cover the penalties. The project got taken back by the city.

Two weeks later, I sat in my office, reviewing the proposal for that same piece of land.

Yeah. What they stole from me? I took back double.

My assistant said Preston was here to deliver the transfer

documents.

I heard his dad had already disowned him.

I didn’t look up. “Send him in.”

When the door opened, I thought I’d stepped into a time machine. I was looking at Preston at forty.