My Wedding Dress Was Still On When His Best Man Kissed Me

I was ten minutes away from becoming Mrs. Damien Cole when I found my groom with one hand under my bridesmaid's dress.

I expected an apology.

Instead, Damien buttoned his shirt and told me to fix my makeup because two hundred guests were waiting.

So I ran.

Still wearing my wedding dress, I burst out of the church and opened the door of the only black sports car outside.

“Drive.”

The man behind the wheel looked at my veil, my ruined lipstick, and the ring still shaking on my finger.

Adrian Vale.

Damien's best man.

Damien's oldest rival.

And the one man my fiancé had hated since high school.

Adrian didn't ask where I wanted to go.

He locked the doors and drove.

Hours later, reporters were chasing us, my veil was in his hands, and the only motel room left had one bed.

Damien thought I would come crawling back.

He had no idea whose granddaughter he'd just cheated on.

***

The custom silk-organza dress felt heavier than it had during the final fitting.

I stood in front of the full-length mirror in the bridal suite, juggling two phones while pinning my veil into place. My personal phone was buzzing with congratulations from college friends, but Damien’s business phone, which his assistant had handed me twenty minutes ago, was practically melting in my palm.

"Tell the partners from Apex Capital that Damien will greet them at the reception," I said into the receiver, double-checking the VIP seating chart laid out on the vanity. "Yes, table four. Right next to the founders."

I hung up, exhaled, and tapped a reply to the PR director asking about photo clearance for the business journals. Everything had to be seamless. Damien had reminded me three times this morning that half the guests in the chapel weren't just friends; they were the investors funding his next expansion.

The door clicked open, and Sienna stepped inside. She looked stunning in her champagne maid-of-honor gown, her blonde hair swept up in an intricate knot.

"You're still working?" Sienna asked, crossing the room to adjust the train of my dress. "Emma, you're the bride. You shouldn't be managing his seating charts ten minutes before walking down the aisle."

"You know how Damien gets when things aren't organized," I said, offering a tired smile. "His team dropped the ball on the media list. Have you seen him? The photographer wanted pre-ceremony portraits twenty minutes ago."

Sienna’s fingers paused on the silk of my train for a fraction of a second before she straightened up.

"I'll go track him down," she said, squeezing my shoulder with an easy smile. "Sit down, drink some water, and breathe. Let me handle him."

"Thank you, Sienna," I said, a wave of genuine gratitude washing over me. "I honestly don't know what I'd do without you today."

"That's what best friends are for," she said softly, turning and slipping out into the quiet hallway.

Five minutes passed. Then ten.

The chapel coordinator poked her head into the suite, checking her watch with obvious anxiety. "Emma, we need the groom in position. The organist is ready."

"I'll grab him right now," I said.

I picked up my bouquet—a tight cluster of white peonies and calla lilies—and stepped out into the stone corridor. Damien had likely retreated to the private lounge in the east wing to review his vows or take an urgent call.

The east wing was silent, isolated from the hum of two hundred guests gathering in the main sanctuary. But as I approached the heavy wooden door of the private lounge, which stood cracked open by an inch, a sound broke the quiet.

It was a low, breathless laugh.

"Are you really going to marry her after this?" Sienna’s voice drifted through the gap, thick with playful mockery.

My feet froze on the carpeted floor.

"Don't talk," Damien's voice replied, rough and impatient. "Just hold still."

My mind refused to process the words. I stepped forward and pushed the door open.

The scene burned into my vision before I could look away.

Sienna was perched on the edge of the mahogany desk, her champagne silk skirt pushed all the way up to her waist, her bare legs wrapped tightly around Damien’s hips. Damien had his back partially turned to me, his tuxedo jacket tossed onto a chair, his white dress shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest as his hands gripped her bare thighs.

The heavy bouquet slipped from my fingers.

It hit the floor with a soft, muffled thud.

Sienna gasped, her eyes flying wide as she caught sight of me over Damien’s shoulder. She shoved at his chest, scrambling backward across the polished desk, her heels catching on the hem of her bunched-up dress.

Damien turned around slowly.

He didn't jump. He didn't stumble. He simply looked at me, his chest rising and falling, his collar stained with a smear of Sienna’s berry-toned lipstick.

"Emma," Damien said.

I stared at him, the air in my lungs turning to ice. "On our wedding day?"

Sienna slid off the desk, desperately yanking down her skirt and smoothing the wrinkled fabric over her hips. Her face was flushed, but she wouldn't meet my eyes. "Emma, look... it just happened. We were talking, and—"

"Get out," I whispered.

Sienna hesitated, glancing at Damien for direction. When he gave her a short, dismissive nod, she grabbed her small clutch from the table and hurried past me, brushing my veil as she vanished down the hall without looking back once.

The silence between Damien and me was deafening.

I waited for the explanation. I waited for the apology, the panic, the desperate plea for forgiveness that any man caught cheating minutes before his wedding was supposed to offer.

It never came.

Instead, Damien reached for his cufflinks on the desk, casually fastening the silver squares into his sleeves.

"It was a mistake, Emma," he said, his voice flat, reasonable, and entirely devoid of remorse. "Call it a last bit of pre-wedding tension. It didn't mean anything."

"It didn't mean anything?" My voice shook, but not with tears. The disbelief was hardening into something cold and sharp. "You were having sex with my maid of honor in the church while I was fixing your investor seating chart."

"And that's why we work," Damien said, stepping closer and reaching for his suit jacket. "Because you're capable. Because you keep things running."

He shrugged into his jacket, smoothing the lapels. "Listen to me. Apex Capital is out there. The Cole Enterprises board is out there. Two hundred guests and three major press outlets are sitting in that room right now. We have a fifty-million-dollar financing round riding on this public image."

"You think this is a merger?" I asked, staring at the man I had loved for four years.

"Everything at this level is a merger," he said bluntly, checking the platinum watch on his wrist. "We don't cancel this wedding. You get the lifestyle, the foundation funding, and the social standing you wanted. I get a partner who understands the bigger picture. We have eight minutes."

He took a step toward me, reaching out as if to tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear.

I jerked my head back, avoiding his touch.

Damien’s eyes narrowed, his patience clearly running out. He lowered his hand and spoke with an icy, commanding finality.

"Go fix your makeup, Emma. Don't embarrass me."

He turned his back on me and walked toward the sanctuary entrance.

The fog in my head cleared instantly. Every sacrifice I had made over the last four years, every late night managing his crises, every piece of myself I had shrunk to fit his ambition—it all shattered into dust.

I looked down at my left hand. The three-carat diamond ring sparkled brightly in the dim light of the side room.

I pulled the ring off my finger. I didn't throw it. I didn't scream. I gripped the cold platinum tightly in my palm, lifted the heavy skirts of my gown with both hands, and turned toward the side exit of the church.

I didn't look back.

I pushed through the heavy wooden exit doors and burst into the bright afternoon sunlight. The side parking lot was quiet, shielded from the main entrance where the limousines were lined up.

Only one vehicle was idling near the curb.

A sleek, menacing matte-black Aston Martin.

I didn't care who it belonged to. I strode across the asphalt, grabbed the passenger door handle, and yanked it open. I gathered the massive bundle of tulle into my lap and slammed the door shut.

The man in the driver's seat turned his head.

It wasn't a chauffeur.

Adrian Vale sat behind the wheel, dressed in a tailored black suit with an open collar, his groomsman boutonniere already tossed onto the dashboard. Damien's best man—and his fiercest corporate rival—looked at me with sharp, calculating gray eyes.

Behind us, the heavy church doors flew open. Damien charged out into the sunlight, his face twisted in fury as he saw me in the car.

My chest heaved against the tight bodice of my dress. I met Adrian’s gaze and gave him one single word.

"Drive."

Adrian glanced in the side mirror, watching Damien sprint toward the vehicle. A slow, dangerous smirk touched the corner of Adrian's mouth.

He hit the button on the console, and the heavy door locks clicked shut with a sharp thud.

"Gladly."