Chapter 3: The Final Toast
The city searched for Victoria and Daniel for three days.
But they disappeared without a trace.
Alexander changed everything.
Security around his home increased.
His company accounts were frozen.
Every person close to him was investigated.
But the hardest part was not losing money.
It was accepting that the woman he loved had never truly loved him.
One night, Alexander received a message.
Unknown number.
Only one sentence:
“Come back to where our story began.”
Attached was a location.
The old wedding venue.
The place where everything almost ended.
Alexander knew it was a trap.
But he also knew he needed to end this.
Forever.
When he entered the abandoned ballroom, he found Victoria standing near the altar.
Still wearing the same wedding dress.
“You came,” she said.
Alexander looked at her coldly.
“Why?”
Victoria smiled sadly.
“Because I wanted to see if you ever really loved me.”
“You poisoned me.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You destroyed everything first.”
Alexander looked confused.
“What are you talking about?”
Victoria stepped closer.
“Your father destroyed my family.”
Silence.
“My father lost everything because of him.”
Alexander shook his head.
“That’s not true.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“That’s what Daniel told me.”
A shadow moved behind her.
Daniel Cross stepped forward.
Alexander immediately understood.
Victoria had been manipulated.
Daniel had used her anger.
Used her pain.
Used her desire for revenge.
But before Daniel could act…
police lights filled the windows.
Clara had tracked the message.
She had secretly contacted investigators.
Daniel tried to escape.
But this time…
there was nowhere to hide.
Months later, the truth was finally revealed.
Daniel had fabricated the story about Alexander’s father.
The financial collapse of Victoria’s family had been caused by Daniel himself years earlier.
He had blamed an innocent man to manipulate Victoria.
Victoria was sentenced for her role in the murder attempt.
But during the trial, she admitted something unexpected.
“I wanted revenge,” she said.
“But I was wrong.”
She looked at Alexander.
“I almost killed the only person who truly trusted me.”
Years later, Alexander rebuilt his life.
But he never forgot the woman who walked into a wedding full of danger…
and chose to save him.
Clara refused every reward he offered.
She only asked for one thing.
“To know that his life was safe.”
Alexander helped her start a foundation in her father’s name, helping workers who had been forgotten by wealthy families.
And every year, on the anniversary of that wedding day…
Alexander raised a glass.
Not to love.
Not to marriage.
But to the person who proved that loyalty could come from the most unexpected place.
Because sometimes…
the person standing farthest away from the altar…
May you like
is the one who saves you from the person standing beside you.
THE END
