The Marshal Unleashed at Midnight

Chapter 002

"My mother is right about this."

While Adrian stood there in silence, Camille cleared her throat beside him, her tone dripping with self-importance. "If I show up at the Marshal's Return Gala, I'll have earned myself a real place among Goldhaven's old families. Who knows how many young heirs will be lining up to court my favor after that. Asking you for another fifty thousand on top of the betrothal gift is practically a bargain."

"Camille, can we just get married first? The guests outside have been waiting."

Adrian's patience was wearing thin. "Tomorrow. Give me until tomorrow and I'll get you whatever you want. Fifty thousand, five hundred thousand, it doesn't matter."

"Don't try that with us. Do you think the Ashfords are stupid?"

Deborah cut in with a cold snort.

"Either you pay, or there's no wedding."

Camille didn't so much as blink. "Those are your only two options. Figure it out."

Adrian was still wrestling with whether to reveal who he really was when a gentle voice cut through the tension. "Camille, this really isn't right of you."

The voice belonged to one of the bridesmaids who had walked in with him, a woman named Natalie Sinclair. She was Camille's closest friend and, as it happened, a good friend of Adrian's as well. Back before he and Camille had settled into their relationship, he and Natalie had actually been fairly close.

Natalie wore only light makeup and a simple dress in a plain color, yet both her looks and her presence outshone Camille's without any effort at all. Watching the Ashford women corner Adrian again and again had clearly worn down whatever restraint she'd been holding onto. "Today is your wedding day, both of you. If you keep dragging this out, the guests are going to think it's a joke. Adrian has been nothing but sincere with you. You can't humiliate him in front of everyone who came to celebrate with you both."

Adrian hadn't expected anyone to step up for him at a moment like this, let alone Natalie. He nodded at her, genuinely grateful.

What happened next, though, caught everyone off guard. The moment Camille heard those words, her expression darkened, and she rounded on Natalie with the same venom she'd been aiming at Adrian. "Well, isn't that something, Natalie. I treated you like a sister, and this is how you repay me? Tearing me down in front of everyone?"

Camille had always resented the way her so-called best friend outshone her in everything, and seeing Natalie take Adrian's side now gave her the perfect excuse to let that resentment show. She curled her lip, her voice turning sharp and mocking. "You've got some nerve. We've known each other all these years, and when I got married, you could only be bothered to give me a hundred dollars as a wedding gift. Very generous of you."

"And if I remember right, the fanciest gift you ever gave me was that cheap old pendant ten years ago. And it wasn't even a whole piece, just half of the split pendant. Honestly, it's laughable."

"Just get out. You reek of poverty. Having a bridesmaid like you standing next to me is bad enough luck as it is."

Nobody said a word.

Adrian's eyes went wide, and a sudden ringing filled his ears, drowning out everything else.

Whatever ugly things Camille said after that, he didn't hear a single word of it.

Ten years ago, it had all started with half a pendant. Everything fell into place with a jolt that left him reeling. The split pendant he had worn against his skin for a full decade, the one that had marked a debt and a devotion he'd never been able to shake, actually belonged to Natalie, not Camille.

The woman who had once helped him through the darkest stretch of his life, the one he had quietly longed for ever since, hadn't been Camille at all.

Memory after memory rushed past him, his heart hammering as though he'd woken from some absurd dream.

By the time he came back to himself, Natalie had already lowered her head and was walking quickly toward the door, her eyes glistening with tears she was fighting to hold back.

"Natalie, wait!"

Adrian crossed the room in a few long strides and stepped into her path before she could leave. He hadn't even gotten a word out when Camille's voice erupted behind him, shrill with fury. "You dare stop her? Do you want to go crawling out of here with her?"

"Watch how you speak to me."

Adrian turned and gave Camille a look so cold it didn't match anything she'd seen from him before. "Or you're going to regret it."

"Me, regret it? Adrian, have you lost your mind?"

Camille blinked, thrown for a moment, then recovered her usual arrogance. "You're the one who should be worried about regret. Don't forget, I'm the one holding the invitation to the Marshal's Return Gala. Once men start lining up just to get two minutes of my attention, you'll be lucky if I even remember your name."

Picking a fight with me over another woman? The man doesn't even know his place.

Camille was so certain of herself, so sure that Adrian would come crawling back the way he always did, soft words and all, ready to smooth things over. What happened instead left her utterly stunned.

Adrian didn't spare her so much as a glance. He turned, walked straight up to Natalie, and dropped to one knee in front of her.

"Natalie. Will you marry me instead?"

The words landed like a thunderclap, and the room fell dead silent.

Everyone present traded stunned glances. The ceremony was minutes away. The groom had just abandoned his bride to kneel before the bridesmaid and declare himself. No one had ever seen anything so outrageous.

"Adrian... what are you saying?" Natalie stood frozen, unable to process what she'd just heard, her mind refusing to catch up with her ears.

"I said, Natalie, marry me." Adrian held her gaze without flinching. "I'll spend the rest of my life protecting you. I'll give you the best life I can. I'll make sure you're happy for as long as you live."

"Adrian, you absolute bastard!"

Rage twisted Camille's face into something almost unrecognizable. "You washed-up ex-con, you worthless piece of trash, how dare you betray me? You're nothing but a dog the Ashford family took pity on!"

"Say one more word and I'll tear your mouth apart."

Adrian spun toward her, and the chill in his eyes cut through the room like a blade. The years he'd lost in prison after the Vance family cast him out were the darkest stretch of his life, a wound no one was allowed to touch. Camille had thrown it in his face on purpose, with no regard for what little dignity he had left.

"You..." Camille faltered for a moment under the force of the fury rolling off him, but she recovered fast and turned her venom on Natalie instead. "You shameless little tramp. You're already engaged and you still dare to seduce a man? Coming after what's mine? I'll teach you a lesson you won't forget."

She lunged forward, hand raised to strike Natalie across the face.

Natalie didn't have time to dodge. She shut her eyes on instinct, bracing for the blow.

It never landed.

"Who said you could touch Natalie?"

Adrian caught Camille's wrist in an iron grip and shoved her to the floor without an ounce of mercy. "If you want to lay a hand on her, you'll have to go through me first."

Natalie stared at the man standing between her and Camille, a tremor running through her chest. For years she had watched Adrian dote on Camille, indulge her every whim, never once raise his voice to her. Now he'd just thrown her to the ground, for Natalie's sake.

"Natalie, you ruined my wedding today, and I will never let this go." Camille crumpled on the floor, glaring up at her with pure hatred. "I'll see you lose everything. I'll make sure you can't survive another day in Goldhaven."

"Let's go, Natalie." Adrian took her hand and gave it a light, steady squeeze. "I'll handle everything from here."

In the banquet hall, the guests waited, buzzing with anticipation for the couple to make their entrance.

The doors swung open, and every head turned, then every pair of eyes went wide.

The woman walking in beside the groom was not the bride.

The chattering hall went silent. What they were witnessing felt too absurd to be real, and no one knew how to react.

Within hours, the story had exploded across every major website in Goldhaven, racking up views and comments by the thousands: a wedding treated like a joke, a groom who married the bridesmaid instead. Was this a failure of character, or the collapse of basic decency?