A Wedding Night Gone Terribly Wrong novel Chapter 3

Holden's fury blazed higher than a five-alarm fire.

"The second Iris woke up, she recounted exactly what happened! My mother found out I married you behind her back and was furious. She told you to stop clinging to me, and you lost your mind. In a fit of absolute rage, you grabbed the knife."-

"Iris was on the phone with me when it happened. She ran over to save my mother, and you were so blinded by bloodlust that you shoved her backward into the table!"

"Holden!!" Winifred's large eyes filled with desperate, hot tears.

It didn't shock her that Iris Morgan would frame her. The world was full of ruthless people willing to step on others to get ahead. Being the victim of a vicious setup just meant she was unlucky. But Holden—Holden was the man she had just married. He was her husband. The only person in the world she had left to rely on, and he was taking the side of the people trying to destroy her.

"You believe Iris Morgan over me?"

Holden's breathtaking face twisted in disbelief. "Open your eyes, Winifred! The facts are staring us right in the face!"

"My mother was in surgery for nine hours! She barely survived! She gives millions to charity just praying for a few more years of life. A woman that desperate to live doesn't stab herself in the chest!"

"And Iris? I saw you shove her with my own two eyes! You nearly killed her, Winifred!"

She couldn't defend herself. A profound, suffocating sense of helplessness closed around Winifred's throat.

She forced her trembling lips apart. "So... what do you want me to do?"

A thick manila folder was thrown onto the damp floor in front of her. Winifred lowered her eyes, her pupils shrinking in horror as she read the bold text on the cover.

A divorce agreement.

"Holden, you... you want to divorce me?!"

Holden looked at her with stone-cold finality. "I have to take responsibility for Iris."

Winifred's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.

The man standing in front of her was completely consumed by guilt—but not for her.

"Shut your mouth! Do not call us family! The Lockwoods will never recognize your sham marriage to my son!" Roland bellowed, his voice echoing like thunder.

Winifred bit her lip hard, fighting back the rising panic. "When I arrived, Madeleine asked me to peel an apple. As I was holding the knife, she grabbed my hand and forced the blade into herself."

Lyndon Morgan stepped forward, sneering in disgust. "Do you hear how ridiculous you sound? The woman who took you in, who raised you like her own flesh and blood, tried to kill herself just to frame you? And my daughter—my precious Iris—threw her beautiful face into a glass table on purpose? You're out of your mind! You're a pathological liar!"

Still vibrating with anger, Lyndon glared around the room. "And we have witnesses! Over a dozen maids in this house saw you commit the crime!"

Winifred refused to back down. "They're all lying! They conspired against me!"

Smack!

A heavy hand struck her across the face. Lyndon's calloused palm connected brutally with Winifred's left cheek, the force snapping her head to the side. Her skin burned as if it had been set on fire, a searing, agonizing pain shooting through her jaw.

Winifred gasped, clutching her face.