The Heiress' Revenge at My Shameful Wedding

On the day I was supposed to get married, my fiancé deliberately arranged our wedding beside a funeral service, just to make me the laughingstock of everyone present.

For the sake of the decade we had shared together, I swallowed my pride and put up with the humiliation.

Yet while I was waiting to exchange vows with him, he was locked away in a hotel room with the woman I once considered my closest friend.

That was the moment my patience finally ran out.

I walked straight into the church next door, placed my hand on a stranger's coffin, and declared, "If I'm destined to become a bride, I'd rather marry a decent man who's dead than spend my life with a man who's alive but rotten to the core."

What I never could have imagined was that the man inside the coffin would open his eyes. And he wasn't some ordinary person—he was one of the most influential and feared figures in the entire country.

...

Oqruron.

At Imperial Crown, Alina Riley sat quietly before the dressing mirror. Layers of white fabric pooled elegantly around her feet, and her bridal makeup had been applied to perfection.

The reflection staring back was undeniably beautiful, yet a faint trace of anxiety lingered deep within her eyes.

She had already been waiting much longer than she should have.

The wedding ceremony should have begun by now, yet there was still no sign of the groom, Alan Hopkins.

Fragments of conversation floated in from the corridor outside, every sentence cutting into her like a blade.

"I can't believe they're holding a wedding here today. Don't they know Kellan Gilbert's funeral is taking place next door? His coffin is literally in the church beside this hotel."

"I heard the bride is nothing more than a servant's daughter who somehow managed to get engaged to Alan Hopkins. The Hopkins family probably chose this date specifically to embarrass her."

"A girl with that background marrying into the Hopkins family? Give me a break. I wouldn't be surprised if she used some underhanded method to get there."

A cold sensation spread through Alina's entire body.

Kellan was the heir of the Gilbert family, the strongest among Oqruron's four elite families. His name was legendary in business circles.

Before he had even reached his mid-twenties, he had already taken complete control of the Gilbert Group and built a reputation that inspired both admiration and fear.

A serious car accident several days earlier had pushed him to the brink of death, and now the news was that he hadn't survived.

The fact that her wedding had been arranged on the same day as the funeral of such a remarkable man felt less like coincidence and more like a cruel joke.

Alina clenched her fists so tightly that the lace fabric of her wedding dress dug into her skin, leaving red marks across her palms.

The pain snapped her out of her thoughts. Reaching for her phone, she immediately called Alan.

The call continued ringing but nobody picked up.

A crease formed between her brows. Gathering her dress in her hands, she headed toward the groom's dressing room.

The door wasn't fully closed.

Just as she reached for the handle, a suggestive sound drifted out from inside, freezing her in place as though someone had dumped ice water over her head.

A woman's teasing voice purred from inside. "Oh, Alan, you bad boy..."

"You're the one making me lose control," he replied, his voice thick with affection.

Alina stood rooted to the spot, her body shaking. Slowly, she looked through the narrow opening in the door.

On the couch inside, a man and woman were wrapped around each other intimately.

A surge of revulsion rose inside her, so overwhelming that she nearly lost her balance.

She recognized the woman instantly. It was Jessica, the daughter of the wealthy Hayes family where her mother had worked as a servant for the past decade.

Alan had one arm around Jessica Hayes' waist as he whispered near her ear, "Baby, once that video is shown on the big screen, Alina's reputation will be destroyed. She's only a servant's daughter. She isn't even fit to stand beside you."

Jessica laughed softly. "Doing something like this on the day you're supposed to marry her? If she ever finds out, she'll probably go crazy."

Alan's expression darkened. "Don't bring her up. If I hadn't needed her help organizing project materials, I wouldn't have paid attention to her at all. This wedding was always meant to expose her and put her in her place."

Alina felt the world tilt beneath her feet.

So in the end, that was all she had ever been to him—a convenient tool to exploit and discard.

Jessica smirked smugly. "Alina was never competition for me in the first place."

Alan kissed her affectionately and said, "Of course. You're with Oqruron Research Institute. Compared to you, Alina is insignificant. How could she possibly measure up?"

Alina bit down on her lip until she tasted blood. It wasn't enough for Alan to humiliate her—he wanted to completely destroy her future.

A faint, emotionless smile appeared on her face.

Then her gaze landed on the fire alarm mounted nearby.

Without hesitation, she reached out and pulled it.

The piercing sound of the alarm instantly echoed throughout the entire floor.

"What's going on?" someone yelled.

"The alarm seems to be coming from the groom's dressing room!" another person exclaimed.

"Quick, check what happened!" someone else shouted.

Footsteps thundered down the hallway as people rushed toward the source of the commotion.

Hotel employees and guests quickly gathered outside before someone pushed the door open.

The lights inside were switched on immediately.

In full view of everyone present, Alan and Jessica sat on the couch in complete disarray, their appearance making it obvious exactly what they had been doing moments earlier.