Live Wedding: I Married My Fiancé’s Rival on the Spot Chapter 01

Live Wedding: I Married My Fiancé’s Rival on the Spot Chapter 01

Tonight was the Five Families’ annual joint wedding in Chicago.

Livestreamed across the whole damn city.

Fifty couples. Fifty alliance marriages. Contracts signed beneath the Five Families’ banner, sealed, stamped, and entered into the official record.

And me?

I was sitting in the bridal suite on the third floor, waiting for my fiancé to come claim me.

I slipped out the window, climbed down the exterior fire escape, and hid around the corner.

I wanted Mason to be the first one to find me.

Instead, I heard voices below.

“Mason, are you seriously doing this?”

“It’s a citywide livestream. All Five Families are here. You switch brides at the last second? Make Iris sign Selena’s marriage contract? You’re humiliating her in front of everybody.”

I froze. Then I heard Mason’s voice.

Tired. Flat. Resigned.

“There’s no other way. My brother’s been dead for three years. Iris has never really belonged in our house. My parents never truly accepted her. The only way she stays in the family is if I marry her.”

“What about Selena? Don’t forget—after your brother dumped her, she nearly drowned herself. It took you three years to win her back. And now you’re letting the same woman steal her second fiancé?”

Mason cut him off immediately.

“Selena won’t care. We’ve always been platonic. She won’t take the marriage contract seriously.”

“Besides, there are fifty couples signing tonight. Every bride is wearing a veil. We’ll say there was a mix-up.”

“And anyway, you all know I only got close to Selena so Iris could marry my brother without trouble. Now he’s gone. It’s my responsibility to protect Iris.”

Then his voice turned cold. Clinical.

“Lock down Room 302. Don’t let Selena out. Once the livestream ends, once the contract is stamped and filed with the alliance, it’s done. Even if my parents object afterward, they won’t be able to stop it.”

I listened in silence.

The man I had fought so hard to marry had been using me from the very beginning.

I climbed back inside.

My phone was still open to the joint wedding group chat.

I scrolled down. Stopped on one name.

Adrian Vitale.

Iris’s original match for tonight.

The most dangerous man in Chicago’s Five Families.

Mason’s childhood rival. His sworn enemy.

I opened the chat and sent one message.

[Room 302 needs a groom. You in?]

The door flew open.

“Selena, hurry!” my best friend Nina said as she rushed in. “Mason’s already cleared the second challenge. He’ll be up here any minute. We need to make him work for it.”

I looked up at her.

“Probably not necessary.”

Nina froze. “What do you mean?”

I leaned back against the sofa and stared at myself in the mirror.

White dress. Veil. Perfect bride.

“This wedding?” I said lightly. “Probably not happening.”

Nina looked completely lost.

“What are you talking about? You two fought for months to get into this joint wedding. Half of Chicago couldn’t get invited. Mason used his Don connections to pull strings. And now you’re saying it’s off?”

I didn’t answer.

Yeah. We had fought for it.

Three months ago, Mason handed me the application.

The first public joint wedding ever hosted by the Five Families. Alliance-backed. Livestreamed. Witnessed by the entire city.

He told me he had worked every angle to get us in.

Told me a man only married once.

Told me he wanted to give me the grandest wedding possible.

I hesitated.

Because my mother had just been moved to the ICU.

Her biggest regret in life was that she never got a wedding.

She always said that when I got married, she wanted to see me in my dress. Wanted to walk me down the aisle herself.

But joint weddings didn’t allow family members inside.

I brought the event booklet to her hospital room and showed her the fine print. [Unified ceremony format. No family escort segment.]

Mom stared at it for a long time. Then she smiled and said, “That’s okay, sweetheart. Just knowing you’re getting married is enough.”

But when she turned to the livestream page, she asked quietly, “So I won’t even get to see you walk down the aisle?”

That day, I cried in the hospital stairwell for an hour.

That night, I told Mason, “Can we skip the joint wedding and do our own? I want my mom to give me away.”

He held me and spoke in a low voice.

“I want to give you a wedding no one else has.”

“And with the livestream, your mom can still watch from her room.”

I agreed in the end.

Because when he said it, his eyes were red.

Like he really loved me.

Later, my mother’s condition worsened. She was moved into emergency care.

The last time she was lucid, she held my hand and whispered, “I may not get to see you in that dress, baby.”

I forced a smile. “You will. There’s a livestream tonight. Don’t forget to watch.”

She nodded.

But now?

The man who swore he loved me?

Selena won’t take the marriage contract seriously.

My mother was lying in that hospital bed, waiting for the livestream.

She had no idea her daughter wasn’t even going to be the bride.

Heavy footsteps sounded outside.

Nina peeked through the door and frowned.

“That’s weird. Why are there only two groomsmen?”

“Where’s Mason?”