A Wedding Night Gone Terribly Wrong novel Chapter 69

There was no way she was swallowing this anger!

She swore she was going to beat the living daylights out of that Lockwood scumbag and his trashy girlfriend today.

Celeste bared her teeth, seething.

The kindergarten faced a busy main road, lined with parked cars right next to the sidewalk. Along the sidewalk sat a row of green trash cans.

An elderly scavenger had dropped a large burlap sack on the ground, his scruffy face buried deep in a bin as he dug for bottles.

Snatching the opportunity, Celeste swiped the burlap sack, threw it over her shoulder, and marched off.

She grabbed a huge handful of fresh, wet mud from a freshly watered planter box, smeared a streak across her left cheek, then another on her right.

Holding the rest of the mud in her hands, she began inspecting the cars.

Holden was the young master of the Seaport City Lockwood branch, a massive corporate powerhouse. Whatever he was driving had to be obnoxiously expensive.

Spotting a bright red supercar, she slapped the handful of mud right onto the windshield.

She hitched up her baggy pants, plopped down on the grassy median, and waited for her enemies.

Holden and Iris strolled out of the kindergarten gates, turning left and walking shoulder-to-shoulder, looking sickeningly sweet.

Celeste widened her eyes and perked up her ears, watching and listening intently.

"I had no idea you were so good with kids," Iris giggled coyly.

Holden gave her an indulgent look. "Your family is my family."

Iris playfully bumped his arm. "Seeing you spoil Jordyn so much makes me think I'll have to give you a few daughters once we get married."

Holden smiled. "That's a lot of hard work for you."

Iris tilted her head, gazing up at him. "Do you like girls?"

Holden held her gaze. "Of course."

"Just because they'd be mine?"

Holden just smiled.

Iris acted bashful. "Or is it just that as long as they're yours, you'd love them? No matter who... gave them to you?"

Holden replied flatly, "There is no one else. You're the only one."

Iris let out a breathless, pampered giggle.

"Coming to Kingsbridge this time, I really didn't expect to run into Winifred. I was actually a little worried..."

Holden immediately cut her off. "She's dead!"

"Listen to me," he said, his voice ice-cold. "I will never take that woman back. She had her chance. Even if by some miracle she managed to have a daughter on her own, I wouldn't want her! I would never acknowledge her!"

The sheer venom in his tone sucked the air right out of the conversation.

Iris clamped her mouth shut.

Just as Holden was about to open his door, his brow furrowed deeply.

"Who did this?"

Iris saw the muddy handprints smeared across the glass and screamed, stumbling backward into Holden's arms.

From the grass median, Celeste hauled her burlap sack over her shoulder and swaggered over.

Holden locked eyes with her. She flashed him a massive, beaming grin—the kind that stretched ear to ear, terrifyingly enthusiastic.

Her eyes crinkled shut, her mouth wide open, showing teeth stained with bright red lipstick.

"It's a crazy person," Iris whimpered, hiding behind Holden's back.

"Holden, let's just go. Don't engage with a lunatic."

Upon closer inspection, the "lunatic" was a sight to behold: a round face streaked with black, white, and red powder, a massive mouth resembling a bloody maw, and a short, incredibly stout figure. She looked like a crude, exaggerated caricature of a troll that had somehow possessed a woman's body and escaped an asylum.