Chapter 9
In the dressing room, Ivy sat perfectly still in front of the mirror while the makeup artist did her thing–eyebrows, lips, the works.
The woman staring back looked flawless–basically identical to three years ago when she’d bailed on her first wedding, except now her eyes were even icier and more stuck–up.
She ran her fingers over the lace on her dress, this tiny smirk crossing her face.
Outside the door, Elena was peeking through the crack, glaring at the back of Ivy’s head while her nails dug bloody marks into her palms.
She fucking knew it–Ivy wasn’t being some saint at all!
This was all some sick mind game to mess with Adrian’s head. Sneaky little bitch!
But what really made her blood boil was that Adrian had actually said yes to this whole wedding circus. Sure, it was basically meaningless, but it still made her want to scream.
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“Ivy…” Elena hissed under her breath, something nasty flickering in her eyes. “Think this little performance is gonna scare me? Not a chance in hell!”
She turned and walked away, her heels making zero noise on the thick carpet.
A couple minutes later, Adrian pushed through the door.
He looked perfect in his tux, but his face was all twisted up with irritation.
He caught Ivy’s eye in the mirror and said bluntly, “Look, I’ll play along with this wedding bullshit today, but after this? Leave Elena alone.”
Ivy glanced up and locked eyes with him through the reflection, her expression flat as a dead fish.
She didn’t say anything back, just made this little “Mm” sound.
Adrian frowned.
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Something felt off about Ivy, but he couldn’t figure out what the hell was different.
Just as he was about to dig deeper, his phone started ringing.
“Mr. Kane, we’ve got a problem!” His assistant sounded totally panicked. “Miss Pierce is missing!”
Adrian’s face went white. He didn’t have time to think–just bolted out of the dressing room.
Meanwhile, at the airport gate, Riley was sitting there organizing her passport.
Her phone buzzed. She glanced down–it was some taunting message from Elena:
“Even on your wedding day, Adrian’s still gonna ditch you for me. So tell me, who’s really more important?”
Riley read it with zero expression, then pulled out her SIM card and snapped it in half.
Crack
The sound was sharp and final.
She tossed the pieces in the trash like she was throwing away three years of putting up with everyone’s shit and pretending to be someone else.
Meanwhile, the wedding venue was complete chaos. Guests were whispering to each other, rumors flying everywhere.
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3 Years as Your Backup Wife, 1 Text to Crash Your World: ‘Guess Which Twin Left?‘
Chapter 9
The officiant stood there awkwardly on stage, totally clueless about how to announce that the wedding was being delayed.
In the dressing room, Ivy had been waiting forever and Adrian still hadn’t come back.
She stood up, about to go check what was happening, when the door suddenly burst open.
Adrian was standing there out of breath, his face dark as hell.
His tux was all messed up, his hair wet with sweat–he’d obviously been running around like crazy.
“Ivy,” his voice was rough with barely controlled rage, “something happened to Elena! The wedding’s off!”
Ivy just stared at him, then suddenly smiled. “Adrian, you’re seriously gonna ditch this wedding for some random girl?”
Adrian froze, then snapped back coldly. “She’s not some random girl! If you hadn’t been such a bitch to her, she wouldn’t have had a breakdown!”
Ivy shook her head like she felt sorry for him. “God, you’re such a loser.”
That was about to send Adrian into orbit, but his phone started buzzing again.
He checked who was calling and all the color drained from his face.
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