Vanessa blinked, surprise crossing her features before an expression of wounded agony replaced it with astonishing speed.
Vanessa blinked, surprise crossing her features before an expression of wounded agony replaced it with astonishing speed.
“Nathaniel, what are you talking about?” she choked out, a diamond-ringed hand pressed to her chest. “She’s only three. Children imagine things; they confuse strictness in household management with cruelty.”
“Strictness?” Nathaniel repeated, his gaze colder than it had ever been.
“I mean… your mother is getting older, and sometimes her housekeeping tasks fall short of what’s needed, especially with us preparing for such a massive wedding,” Vanessa quickly explained, her eyes shimmering with feigned tears. “I was only reminding her how to keep things up to the Cross family standard.”
Hearing this, Rebecca stepped forward, her face drained of color with rage. “You are talking about our mother, Vanessa! She handed this entire estate over to you to manage for the wedding, not for you to treat her like a servant!”
Just then, from the garden pathway, Mrs. Elizabeth Cross—Nathaniel’s mother—slowly approached.
At seventy years old, her silver hair neatly pinned, she wore a luxurious smoky-grey shawl. Yet anyone observant could notice the exhaustion hidden beneath her elegant exterior. The long cuff of her sleeve slipped slightly down, accidentally revealing a faint bruise.
Elizabeth paused as she saw the tense atmosphere outside the chapel.
“Nathaniel? Why are you still standing out here? The guests are waiting inside,” she spoke gently, her voice carrying its familiar, slight tremor.
Vanessa immediately turned toward Elizabeth, a flash of menacing warning crossing her eyes before instantly morphing back into an aggrieved expression. “Mother, little Ivy just told Nathaniel that I… I’ve been hurting you every time Nathaniel is away. Please tell him the truth, I’ve never done anything to harm you, right?”
Elizabeth froze. Her gaze drifted briefly over the innocent child, then met the eyes of her son, who was waiting for an answer.
She lowered her head, a trembling hand pulling her sleeve up slightly to hide the purple bruise. Her silence spoke louder and heavier than a thousand accusations.
Nathaniel looked at his mother. The heart of a man who had weathered countless business storms suddenly tightened. He recalled recent visits home where his mother would frequently avoid him or hurry away whenever Vanessa appeared. He had simply assumed it was normal generational friction between a mother-in-law and a future daughter-in-law.
But under his own roof, the woman who had brought him into this world was enduring the oppression of the person he had intended to spend his life with.
“Mother,” Nathaniel stepped closer, gently supporting her arm. He softly rolled up her sleeve, and beneath the thin fabric lay distinct purple bruises—undeniable proof of the tears she had swallowed in silence.
Elizabeth choked back a sob: “Don’t blame her, my son… It’s your special day… I didn’t want to cause trouble…”
“What special day, Mother?” Nathaniel interrupted, his voice deep and dark with boiling fury.
Vanessa panicked and stepped back, her flawless porcelain mask completely shattering. Her true, selfish, and cruel nature stripped away her facade: “Are you going to cancel our wedding because of a stupid bruise on some senile old woman?! Nathaniel! I am your bride! The guests are watching!”
“Enough!” Nathaniel bellowed. His voice echoed across the courtyard, cutting off all her excuses.
He slowly turned back to look at the bride in her magnificent white gown—the perfect wrapper concealing a vicious soul. Nathaniel reached out, unpinned his silver-and-diamond boutonnière himself, and hurled it down onto the grass.
“The wedding is off. Get off this property immediately.”
Vanessa let out a desperate shriek, lunging forward to cling to him, but the resort’s security guards quickly stepped in, blocking her before she could touch him. Her dream of climbing high and inheriting a billionaire fortune vanished into thin air, replaced only by public condemnation and legal reckoning once the security cameras later exposed the full extent of her abuse.
Outside the chapel, Nathaniel knelt before little Ivy, patting her head with boundless gratitude: “Thank you, little one. You saved our family today.”
Then he stood up, wrapping his arms tightly around his trembling mother, and walked with Rebecca through the chapel doors to announce the cancellation of the ceremony to two hundred stunned guests. For Nathaniel, no fortune or prestige could ever compare to the peace and love of his family.
