I’ll Marry His Rival and Burn His Empire to Ash Chapter 27

I’ll Marry His Rival and Burn His Empire to Ash Chapter 27

The priest looked at Ava, glanced at the chaos by the doors, and drew a deep breath. He had officiated countless weddings, but never one with such an ugly farce.

The bride’s composure gave him the courage to continue.

“Miss Ava Monroe,” the priest’s voice became solemn again, deliberately raised to dispel the noise outside. “Do you take Mr. Ethan Blackwood to be your husband, to live with him for the rest of your life?”

Outside, Jackson heard the question and roared with all his strength.

“No! Ava! You can’t!”

Every gaze in the church focused on the altar.

Ava did not waver. She looked into Ethan’s deep eyes, where she saw the entire future she had chosen. She spoke clearly and firmly, each word a nail sealing the coffin of her past.

“I do.”

The moment the words fell, the roaring outside stopped.

As if his bones had been removed, Jackson’s body went limp. He slid to the ground, his eyes hollow.

The priest closed the Bible and smiled, relieved.

“The groom may now kiss the bride.”

Thunderous applause erupted.

Ethan gently lifted Ava’s face and, amid the warm blessings of their guests, kissed her deeply. The kiss declared the end of an old era and the birth of a new alliance.

Just then, Jackson seemed to rally and tried to charge inside one last time.

“Ava!”

This time, Ethan’s chief bodyguard didn’t just block him. He turned and delivered a precise, heavy punch to Jackson’s jaw.

There was only a dull thud.

Jackson fell to the ground like a broken doll, unconscious.

The bodyguard straightened his cuff, glanced at his subordinates, and said without warmth, “Dispose of him.”

Two men immediately stepped forward and dragged the unconscious Jackson out of the church like a bag of garbage.

His body left a silent, humiliating trail across the marble floor.

As he was being dragged away, a trace of consciousness returned.

The last thing he saw was Ava holding Ethan’s arm, her back to him, walking without a single glance back into the depths of the church, toward the bright future that belonged to them.

The magnificent oak doors slowly, mercilessly closed before his eyes.

Bang.

The sound cut off all noise, all light, and all of the past.