Dumped at the Altar, Claimed by a Hidden Tycoon novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: I Do, Stranger

Becky walks into the ballroom on a stranger's arm and says her vows, until Colby bursts back in.

"Your name," the man in the wheelchair said.

"Becky Farrant."

"Kendrick."

He did not offer his hand, and she did not offer hers.

The man beside him bent down fast and spoke close to his ear.

"Sir, the board is waiting in the east hall. Think about what you're doing."

"I have thought, Max." Kendrick's eyes stayed on Becky. "Is the judge still upstairs?"

"Yes, sir."

"Bring him to the west ballroom. Bring the ring box from the car, and bring the license."

Max stared at him for one second.

Then he touched his earpiece and walked away, speaking low, and half the guards went with him.

Becky's pulse beat hard in her ears.

"You don't have to ask me anything," she said. "I mean it. I'm not asking you anything either."

"Good." His voice stayed flat. "One question. Is this a joke to get back at someone?"

"Yes," Becky said. "And I'm not joking."

For the first time his mouth moved at the corner.

"Why is your bride missing?" she asked.

"She left."

"Then we match."

He turned the chair and started down the corridor, and she walked beside him with her skirt in her hands.

His hands on the wheel rims were large and square, with calluses at the base of each thumb.

She noticed that, and then she made herself stop noticing.

The doors of the west ballroom were still open from when Colby had run out.

Becky had told her guests ten minutes, and it had been nearly twenty.

When she came through the doors beside a stranger in a wheelchair, the whole room turned.

Her friends from the pastry shop stood in a line at the back, in their good dresses.

The oldest of them, a pastry chef with flour still in the creases of her knuckles, put both hands over her mouth.

Colby's mother half rose from the front row.

Colby's father stayed seated, a heavy man in a grey suit, and watched the two of them come up the aisle.

Becky walked it with her chin up.

She had planned to walk down it on no one's arm and on her own feet, and she did.

Kendrick rolled beside her without any sound at all.

At the arch of roses, the officiant stood with his book half closed.

"Miss Farrant," he said quietly. "Where is Mr. MacCormack?"

"He left. This is Kendrick. He's my groom."

"I can't marry two people who have just met."

"You can," a dry voice said from the doorway, "if you have a judge standing behind you."

An old man in a black robe was coming up the aisle, with Max behind him carrying a small box and a folder.

The judge looked at Becky over his glasses.

"I was supposed to do this in the east hall," he said. "It seems I'm in the right robe and the wrong room."

He looked at Kendrick, and Kendrick nodded once.

Then the judge sighed and smiled.

"Fine. Sit, everyone. We'll begin."

Max opened the folder and handed Becky a pen, and for a moment she could not make her fingers close on it.

Kendrick watched her.

"You can stop," he said, low enough that only she could hear. "Right now. I'll let you walk out and I won't say a word to anyone."

Becky looked down the aisle at two hundred people.

Then she looked at the doors Colby had gone out of.

She signed her name.

The judge read the words, and when he reached the groom's name he said it clearly.

"Kendrick Strathmore."

In the second row somebody dropped something.

Becky glanced over.

Colby's father had gone white.

"Strathmore," he said under his breath, and she heard it across eight rows. "Strathmore Group. That's our landlord."

His wife looked at him, confused.

"Who?"

"Be quiet."

Becky filed the name away, though she did not yet know what to do with it.

"Kendrick," the judge said. "Do you take this woman?"

"I do."

He said it at once, without looking at anyone else.

"Becky Farrant. Do you take this man?"

"I do," she said, and she meant that she was done being left.

Max opened the ring box.

Inside was a plain gold band, old and thin, worn smooth at one edge.

Kendrick picked it up and took her left hand.

His palm was warm and rough, and his thumb rested for a moment against the inside of her wrist, where her pulse was fast.

"It was my grandmother's," he said. "I've carried it since this morning."

It slid on and fit her exactly.

Becky felt her face go hot and looked at the judge instead.

"By the power vested in me," the judge said, "by a very strange morning, I pronounce you husband and wife."

Somebody at the back began to clap, and it was the pastry chef.

Then the others joined her, one at a time, and the sound grew until it filled the room.

Becky let out a shaky laugh.

Kendrick lifted his eyes to hers, and for a moment he looked surprised.

Then the double doors at the back banged open so hard they hit the wall.

Colby stood in the doorway, out of breath, his tuxedo jacket hanging open and his hair wild.

He was staring at her left hand.

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