The Runaway Bride Regrets It All

On our wedding day, my fiancee, Mia Lawson, runs off with the best man in the wedding car. Three hours later, one of our relatives, who loves stirring up trouble, drops a video into the family group chat. It shows a car rocking back and forth. The moment everyone sees it, messages start pouring in. "Wait, isn't that the wedding car they took when they ran off together? They're pretty bold to be doing something like this in a public place." In the video, Mia is pinned against the car window by the best man, Ethan Sterling, with her neckline pulled low enough to expose plenty of skin. Her face is flushed, and the expression on her face leaves little to the imagination. She doesn't respond until half an hour later, as if she has all the time in the world. "This is my first time getting married. I was too nervous, so Ethan was helping me calm my nerves." I stare at the message for a long moment before letting out a cold laugh. Then I pull up the contact information for the most notorious paparazzi in the business and send him a message. "I've got explosive news about the CEO of Evermont Group. I want one million dollars. Take it or leave it." Chapter 1 Once the exposé went live, it exploded across the internet, shooting straight to the top of the trending topics. "Evermont Group CEO Caught Cheating on Her Wedding Day!" "CEO Mia Lawson Runs Off With the Groom's Brother! Steamy Car Video Leaked!" Back in the reception hall, I could feel mocking glances following me from every direction. I ignored them and kept my eyes on my phone, waiting for my fiancee, Mia Lawson, to call and explain why she'd abandoned our wedding. A moment later, my phone finally rang. The second I answered, her furious shout came through the speaker. "Adrian Sterling! What the hell have you done? Did you leak that video to the paparazzi? With the preparations for the IPO, this is a critical period for the company! "Do you have any idea how much damage this could do to Evermont Group? People are already doxxing Ethan and calling him just to curse him out! Get that video taken down—now!" I let out a cold laugh. "So you do understand that this could hurt the company. Then why didn't you think about that before you ran off with Ethan?" And she actually had the nerve to use that ridiculous excuse about being too nervous about getting married and needing Ethan to "calm her nerves". What kind of "calming down" required getting physical with another man? "Mia, consider this a warning. Come back and complete the wedding ceremony within half an hour, and I'll pretend none of this ever happened. Otherwise, you'll have to deal with the consequences yourself." Her scream nearly made my eardrums burst. "You think you can lecture me now? Adrian Sterling, you're the one who begged me to marry you in the first place! Ethan is being viciously harassed because of you! I can't leave his side when his life could be in danger!" "So you're refusing to take the video down? "Fine! You forced me into this!" The call ended. She hadn't even bothered to explain why she'd run away from her own wedding in the first place. Everyone in Kingsley knew that my biggest rival was my stepbrother, Ethan Sterling. We'd been competing against each other our whole lives—for our father's attention, control of the family business, and even the loyalty of our business partners. Anything I had, Ethan seemed determined to get his hands on. For years, I'd felt like I was losing to him at everything. But there was one thing I never thought he'd take from me—Mia and the five years we'd spent building what I believed was love. I was wrong, so very wrong. Half an hour later, instead of an apology from Mia, I received a video from Ethan. He'd taken her to our new home. The footage was clearly meant to taunt me. Mia was pinned beneath him, with her torn stockings scattered across the floor. "Adrian, Mia says she's still too nervous. She just wants to stay with me." His voice was almost unbearably casual. "Explain things to the guests. Tell them Mia needs one last night to let loose." Then he laughed softly. "Don't worry. By tomorrow, we'll just be two strangers who know each other best." My heart felt like it had been cut wide open. I was about to announce to the guests that the wedding was canceled when I noticed a crowd gathering around me. One by one, they turned their eyes toward me, their expressions filled with undisguised contempt. My secretary, Claire Morgan, approached hesitantly and held out her phone. "Mr. Sterling, Mia just posted a statement." I took the phone and read it. "Ethan and I are completely innocent. We're not having an affair. I ran away with him because he couldn't stand watching Adrian beat and abuse me for years! "These are the bruises Adrian left on me. I gave him chance after chance, but I never imagined he'd stoop so low as to manipulate public opinion and destroy my reputation!" Attached were several photos of Mia's body covered in bruises. I knew exactly where those bruises had come from. They were the result of her reckless encounter with Ethan. But to everyone else, they looked like evidence of years of abuse. Then Mia left one final, seemingly heartfelt message in the comments. "Adrian, if you're willing to change, we can still go through with our wedding." The internet fell for her story almost instantly. People praised her as a "devoted woman" and claimed she was blinded by love. Meanwhile, I was branded a despicable man who wasn't worthy of being her fiance. Some even started urging Mia and Ethan to get together. It was exactly what Mia wanted. She was using me as a shield, turning the public's attention away from Ethan and making herself look like the victim. And this wasn't the first time she'd done it. For years, I'd quietly swallowed the humiliation and let her use me as a scapegoat, all for the sake of the company and for the five-year relationship I'd poured my heart and everything I had into. Chapter 2 This time, I wasn't going to let her get away with it. I posted a statement of my own. "The Sterlings and Lawsons' marriage alliance is canceled. Effective immediately, our companies will have no further business dealings or partnerships." "Mr. Sterling, are you sure you want to pull your investment from Evermont Group? 50 million dollars isn't a small amount. Are you really not going to reconsider?" Claire asked hesitantly. "Pull it. I've already announced the wedding is off. I don't want Mia to see another cent of my money," I said. "Understood. I'll coordinate with the company right away. We should be able to complete the withdrawal within three days." After hanging up, I drove back to the house I had bought for our wedding. The house was mine. Now that our engagement was over, I had every right to take it back. It was time to go in and clear out everything that belonged to her—and everything else that had no business being there. But I'd only been gone for one night, and they'd already changed the keypad code. Mia opened the door wearing a man's shirt, a bright smile on her face. "Ethan, you're back so soon—" But the moment she saw me standing on the other side of the door, her smile vanished. "Why are you here?" she demanded. "Did you come crawling back to beg me to marry you?" Then, as if she suddenly remembered she had something to accuse me of, her expression hardened. "Adrian, that video you leaked yesterday caused Ethan serious problems. He got fired because of it. If you can't figure out how to compensate him, then I'm not marrying you!" I stared at her coldly. Her body was covered in red marks, and her lips were swollen, with a small split at the corner. I didn't need to ask what had happened between her and Ethan the night before. And yet, after everything, she still had the nerve to demand that I compensate Ethan. The sheer audacity was almost laughable. I was about to tell Mia to pack her things and leave when Ethan appeared behind her. He casually slipped an arm around her waist, as though this were his home and I were the one intruding. "Adrian, what brings you here? Shouldn't you be busy dealing with all the negative press online?" He gave me a mocking smile before adding, "I never imagined Mia would go this far to help me. She even let you take the blame for something this serious." Mia snorted. "He deserves it." Then she looked at me with an air of superiority. "Adrian, if you give Ethan the position of deputy CEO at Evermont Group, I might consider clearing your name. After that, I'll think about whether we should still get married." The threat couldn't have been clearer. Apparently, she thought my announcement canceling our wedding was nothing more than a tantrum, something she'd be able to undo whenever she felt like it. I let out a cold laugh. "Ethan was just a junior employee at his last company. Do you seriously expect me to make him the deputy CEO? Do you really think he can handle the job?" I paused before adding, "And besides, I was the one who helped you build Evermont Group from the ground up. Aren't you worried about what your employees will think when you turn around and kick out the person who built the company for you?" I'd built Evermont Group one deal at a time for Mia. I'd traveled across the country to recruit the company's core technical talent and spent years laying the foundation for everything she had today. In many ways, I'd practically raised the company from the ground up. Without me, Evermont Group would have been nothing more than a house of cards. And now she actually thought she could bring Ethan in and kick me to the curb. Mia looked at me with nothing but disdain. "You helped me? Adrian, without me, you'd still be some broke kid delivering food! "You really think you're the heir of the Sterling family? Ethan already told me everything. You don't even have any inheritance rights to the Sterling family fortune. I'm the only thing you have left to rely on." Ethan sneered. "Adrian, you used to deliver food after you were kicked out of the family?" He gave me a mocking once-over. "Maybe you should do whatever it takes to keep Mia happy. Otherwise, you might find yourself delivering food again someday." I clenched my fists. I hadn't started delivering food back then for no reason. Mia had been scammed out of more than two million dollars, and if I hadn't found a way to pay the money back in time, she could have ended up in prison. Back then, she had been so moved by what I'd done that she promised she would never marry anyone but me. Now, she was using that same sacrifice as ammunition to humiliate me. I looked around the house we'd once planned to make our home and swallowed my anger. None of that mattered anymore. Right now, my priority was getting these two out of the house. As for the deputy CEO position, I couldn't care less about it. I'd already pulled my investment from Evermont Group, and I was almost certain the company wouldn't be able to hold on much longer without my backing. So I gave Mia exactly what she wanted. "Fine. I'll give Ethan the deputy CEO position at Evermont Group." Mia's eyes lit up, but before she could celebrate, I continued, "On one condition. You have two hours—get every single one of your belongings out of this house." She seemed to take my words as a sign that I'd finally given in. Her face brightened, and she stepped forward to kiss me. "I knew you'd never refuse me!" Then she smiled as though she were reassuring me about something that should have been obvious. "I know you're upset about what Ethan and I did here. Don't worry. We won't come back here to have fun anymore." She seemed completely oblivious to the disgust on my face. "The wedding is still happening in three days!" Chapter 3 The wedding? I could hardly believe Mia still thought I'd marry her. In her dreams. I was already looking forward to the day she found out Evermont Group had gone bankrupt. I wanted to see the look on her face when she finally realized what she'd lost. After selling the house, I started thinking about the employees who worked at Evermont Group. I'd personally recruited most of the company's core technical talent and spent years building the team from the ground up. Now that I was leaving, I figured the least I could do was give them a choice about whether they wanted to come with me. The conversation went more smoothly than I'd expected. More than half the employees were willing to leave with me, and once they made up their minds, the resignations started coming in one after another. By the end of it, nearly 100 employees had walked away from Evermont Group. Mia had been dreaming about taking Evermont Group public. Now, with the company's key talent gone and my investment pulled, that dream was nothing more than a fantasy. Some of my belongings were still in my office, so I went back to get them. But before I could reach the door, I heard voices coming from inside. "Mia, it's okay. Come on. Run away with me one more time today. Last time, Adrian managed to clean up the mess after we ran off from the wedding. I'm sure he can handle it again." Mia hesitated for a moment before finally giving in. "Fine. I'll run away with you again. Besides, that lovesick idiot Adrian would forgive me no matter how many times I ran away from my own wedding." I stopped in my tracks. The two of them were actually planning to run away from the wedding again. I couldn't believe it. She really thought I'd still be waiting around for her to marry me today. I pushed the door open. Mia visibly panicked when she saw me. "When did you get here? You didn't hear anything just now, did you?" I didn't even bother looking at her. "I'm just here to get my things. Where's my grandfather's photo?" It was a picture of the three of us taken when Mia and I got engaged. After Grandpa passed away, only a few of his things were left behind, and every single one of them was precious to me. Ethan casually tapped the ash from his cigarette. "Adrian, you mean this photo?" My heart dropped when I saw it. He had been using Grandpa's picture as an ashtray. Before I could react, a glowing ember fell onto the photograph. The corner caught fire, and the flames quickly spread across the paper. I rushed forward, but by the time I got there, Grandpa's face had already been burned away. I grabbed Ethan by the collar, my eyes burning with rage. "That's one of the few photos I have of Grandpa! Ethan, you destroyed the last thing I had to remember him by!" Ethan sneered. "Something to remember Grandpa by? You just wanted to use him to guilt Mia into marrying you sooner, didn't you? You and your grandfather were always using guilt to pressure her. It's disgusting!" Grandpa had genuinely cared about Mia. He had even poured his own resources into helping her build Evermont Group. Hearing Ethan reduce Grandpa's kindness to nothing more than emotional blackmail was more than I could take. He'd dared to mock Grandpa's sincere intentions. I'd had enough. I swung my fist at him. "How dare you talk about Grandpa like that?" My punch sent Ethan crashing to the floor. I raised my fist to hit him again, but Mia grabbed my wrist. "Enough! It's just a photograph! Do you really have to make such a big deal out of it?" she screamed. "Let Ethan go! Or I swear, I'm calling off this wedding!" Before I could say another word, she slapped me hard across the left cheek. I staggered backward several steps and slammed into the sharp corner of the desk. A dull pain shot through me as I struggled to catch my breath. I stared at Mia in disbelief. She stood protectively in front of Ethan, glaring at me with open hatred. "Adrian, you'll pay for what you did today! Before the day ends, I'll make you the laughingstock of the entire city!" I watched as Mia and Ethan walked away, then smiled to myself. She thought that running away from our wedding yet again would turn me into the laughingstock of the entire city. What she didn't realize was that I had never intended to go through with the wedding in the first place. With the 50 million dollars I'd pulled from Evermont Group and the company's core technical team now on my side, I returned to my own company. As for who would end up being the laughingstock of the entire city, we'd just have to wait and see. … Third-Person POV Mia ran away from her wedding again. She and Ethan spent the entire night together, but this time, not a single message came from Adrian. The wedding livestream never started either. That's when it finally hit her—she'd gone too far this time. She hurried back to the house Adrian had bought for the two of them, intending to swallow her pride and apologize. But the moment she arrived, she discovered that the house had already been sold to someone else. Panic immediately set in. She called her assistant, Elliot Harper, and demanded to know where Adrian had gone. Elliot's voice trembled on the other end of the line. "Ms. Lawson, the 50-million-dollar investment in the company was just withdrawn! And Adrian just took more than a hundred of our core technical employees with him. Now the rest of our shareholders are pulling out too. Evermont Group is on the verge of bankruptcy and liquidation!"