The Unwanted Bride: Claimed by the Billionaire - Chapter 54: Chapter 54

Lauretta’s POV
“Take that food away or else I’ll make a mess and I won’t feel sorry about it.” I sniffed. My mom was seated beside me, holding a tray that contained a plate of pasta.
“Yeah, I know you hate me so much right now, but you need to eat. You’ve not had anything all day because of your excitement for tonight. Eat your food first, then we will think of the way forward.” Rhoda pleaded.
“I don’t deserve to eat anything. The one thing I wanted has been taken away from me. Let me just starve to death since life seems to be against me.” I brought my hands to my face and wiped tears off the corners of my eyes. I had taken off my so-called designer dress and was now in my nightwear. I had taken my makeup off, too. Same with my mom.
“No, my child. You do not deserve to die.”
“I know this is partly my fault, but I wouldn’t have known because they appeared to be poor before me. I mean, why would I be rich and then disguise myself to be crippled? Or why the hell would I be rich and want to get married to a lowlife like Cassie?”
“I was too excited that someone had finally shown up to take all of our burden away. Never did it cross my mind that I was indirectly doing that bitch a favour!”
“No wonder we didn’t hear from her and the groom. Unlike her previous marriages, She saw herself in a rich home and couldn’t even open up about it. After all that I did for her!” Rhoda mumbled in regret.
“I just checked his net worth.” I raised my phone so my mom could see. I was getting as much information as I could on Shawn before she came here with food. “ He’s the richest man in the country. He has not even been married to Cassie for long. Hell, she hadn’t even given him an heir, and he is already putting properties in her name? I mean, what the hell? Tonight was meant to be a beautiful one for me, but look what happened?”
“Cassie of all people in the world?”
I shook my head. “This has to be a fucking dream.”
“I know, baby. I feel so disappointed too but I know we will fix this.”
I scoffed at my mother’s words. “Do you know how much her dress and jewelry cost? She’s living the life of my dreams, mama. And I feel like dying all over again when I think about it. Shawn and all members of his family stood up for her, making us look like fools.”
“No one believed us. Even Joel didn’t believe us anymore. She took all the glory while we were humiliated.”
“I already told my friends that I was going to spam them with pictures and videos of Shawn and me. My phone has been buzzing with texts from them. How am I going to explain to them that my step sister took away my man?”
“What if they find pictures of the guards throwing us out on the internet? How will I ever face them? How will they ever respect me?” Fresh tears rolled down my cheeks.
Rhoda heaved a deep sigh. She put the tray of food on a nearby table, then turned her full attention to me.
“I understand your pain, my love, and I’m not happy about this either. Yeah, we had so many expectations, but tonight ended terribly. No matter how many tears you shed, nothing is going to change until we take action.”
“At this point, you shouldn’t care what your friends think or if they would mock you. It’s in situations like this that will make you determine who your real friends are and the ones who are gold diggers in disguise.”
“You should also know that sometimes things don’t go as planned, but we need to fight until we can fight no more.”
“How?” I sniffled, wiping my face with the back of my palm. “Everyone at the event now knows that she is Shawn’s wife.”
“That’s not an issue. He is a powerful man. No one is going to question him if he decides to divorce one and get married to another woman.”
We will reach out to Shawn. We would go see him in his office and give him reasons why Cassie isn’t a good match for him. We just need to expose all of her past secrets.” My mom encouraged.
“You think it’s going to work?” I stared at my mom with hope-filled eyes, feeling a bit relieved.
“I know so. Cassie has a very dirty past. Shawn has his reputation to protect, too, so he’s not going to ignore this. Besides, I’m sure he wouldn’t want the media to lay hands on such information.” Rhoda completed her statement with a wicked smirk on her lips.
……………………….
Shawn’s POV
“What happened? And why didn’t you come to me?” I asked Tessa, who was up on her feet. Yeah, no one was sitting because we were all worried sick about my wife.
“Don’t raise your voice at my babe, Shawn. We are all worried.” Kelvin warned.
I puffed out some hair and ran my fingers through my hair. “I’m sorry, but what happened?” I asked Tessa again.
“I have no idea. I saw her in one of the stalls in the bathroom, crying her eyes out. She had bruises on her arm and a sprained wrist.”
“I wanted to come get you, but she insisted that she doesn’t want to see you, so I should take her home.”
“She was pleading and crying seriously, so I had no choice but to give in.”
“We took a taxi home. There was no way I could still inform you all because Cassie needed my care, and she still insisted that I should leave you out of it.”
“But the moment we got here, I excused myself to the kitchen and called Kelvin to let you know what’s happening.”
“The doctor got here not quite long. He’s still attending to her.” Tessa said.
“But we were all good before she left the table. Did you do anything to upset her?” Kelvin stared at me accusingly.