Our Marriage License Was A Lie Chapter 07

Our Marriage License Was A Lie Chapter 07

The confession only confirmed what his gut already knew. Chloe had orchestrated the whole thing. 

A dull, heavy ache spread through his chest – the kind that 

didn’t come out of nowhere, no matter how much he wanted it 

1. to. 

all of it – but the one that 

Every moment flashed back all of it 

stuck was Elena’s face as they’d hauled her out the door. The look of someone who’d already stopped hoping. 

He drove to the venue like the road owed him something. 

The doors burst open. Every head in the banquet hall turned, and for a split second, the room surged with relief – the groom was finally here. 

Chloe was at his side instantly, slipping her arm through his. 

“Julian, thank God. Everyone’s been waiting.” 

“Elena’s fine, isn’t she? I told you – she was just playing the victim.” 

Julian didn’t look at her. 

His eyes locked on Elena’s parents still smiling, still glowing, still celebrating. 

“Elena is dead.” 

The room went silent. Not quiet – silent. The kind of silence that had weight. 

Every pair of eyes in the room drifted to Elena’s parents. 

Curiosity and something uglier – the electric anticipation of a crowd that smelled a scene. 

The flowers slipped from her mother’s fingers. The color left 

her face. 

She lurched forward and grabbed Julian’s arm, her voice 

fracturing. 

“What did you – how? She was just 

we just sent her to the 

hospital. How is she dead?” 

Her father’s face had gone rigid. He was trying to hold himself together, and failing. 

“Julian, that’s not funny. You don’t say something like that 

unless-” 

Julian hurled a stack of papers at them. Pages scattered across 

the floor. 

“Dashcam footage. The police have the men you hired. They flipped on you the second the cuffs came out.” 

“And the hospital alert that went off when her smartwatch stopped registering her vitals.” 

Chloe dropped to her knees, scrambling to gather the pages. Julian caught her wrist mid–reach and yanked it up. She 

screamed. 

“You did this. You hired those men.” 

“You handed her over to four strangers and told them they could do whatever they wanted with her. You wanted her 

gone.” 

What little color Chloe had left vanished. Tears spilled over. 

“Julian, don’t – they’re lying. I didn’t-” 

“I was just worried about her. I was just trying to help-” 

“Worried?” 

The laugh that left Julian was hollow and sharp. He released 

her wrist. 

He pulled out his phone and connected it to the venue’s audio system. He hit play on the voice notes the cops had pulled 

from the thugs‘ burner phones. 

Chloe’s own voice filled the banquet hall. Every word she’d said- the exact instructions she’d given those men to get rid 

of Elena – played out over the speakers. By the time the recording ended, the room had erupted. 

Whispers rippled through the crowd–shock, disgust, and the undeniable thrill of watching someone else’s world collapse. 

What had been a wedding had turned into a public execution. 

Her parents‘ faces cycled through denial, horror, and then a rage so hot it burned the grief straight out of them. 

For the first time, they saw their golden daughter for exactly 

what she was. 

Her father crossed the room in two strides and backhanded 

Chloe so hard she spun. She hit the floor. Her white dress 

dragged across the dirty floor. 

He stood over her, shaking with fury. His voice came out raw 

and broken. 

“You monster.” 

“We raised you. We gave you everything. And this is what you 

are?” 

“She was your sister. Your own flesh and blood. How could 

you?” 

Her mother’s voice shattered through the noise. 

“What did we ever do to make you like this? Where did we go wrong?” 

“What is wrong with you? She was your sister!” 

“Elena never hurt anyone. She was good. She was so good, and you destroyed her.” 

Chloe crumpled on the floor, face swelling, mascara and tears 

streaking down her chin. 

Even now, she tried to talk her way out. 

“Mom 

– 

Dad – please – I didn’t mean for anyone to die! I 

just didn’t want her to take him from me- 

“Shut up.” 

He kicked a chair aside so hard it slammed into the wall. 

“Don’t you dare. Your sister is dead. Dead. Are you satisfied 

now?” 

The murmuring swelled. Fingers pointed. Phones came out. 

What should’ve been toasts and well–wishes had curdled into 

something vicious. 

“I can’t believe Chloe would do that to her own sister. That’s 

beyond sick.” 

“And the parents – playing favorites like that. No wonder Elena snapped.” 

“Oh my god, did she really pay men to attack her sister? Someone better be filming this.” 

Julian stood apart from all of it, watching Elena’s parents tear 

into Chloe. 

She was sobbing, broken, humiliated. He felt nothing. 

By the time her parents finished with her, Chloe lay crumpled 

on the floor in a ruined wedding dress. 

The wedding she’d schemed for, the wedding she’d stolen, 

was nothing now. 

The flowers drooped in their vases. The chairs sat empty. And when the last guest slipped out, all that was left was wreckage.