Chapter 5 - The Kneeling GroomVanessa stumbled backward in her heavy lace wedding gown, dropping her bouquet of white roses onto the stone steps.

“She... she owns my company?!” Vanessa wailed, her voice cracking into a high-pitched shriek as she looked at Derek with wild, panicked eyes. “Derek! You told me she was a penniless clerk! You told me you were the one managing everything!”

Derek didn't hear her. His mind was spinning into total, chaotic collapse.

The woman he had mocked, the woman he had thrown away like trash, the woman he had called “not good enough”... was the absolute owner of the entire empire he had spent his life trying to climb.

He looked at Vanessa, whose firm was merely a small regional subsidiary inside Miranda’s massive conglomerate. Vanessa was not the golden tower he thought he was marrying—she was just an employee inside Miranda’s house.

In front of three hundred high-society guests, in front of national media cameras, in front of the bride he was supposed to marry in five minutes—Derek did the unthinkable.

He turned his back on Vanessa.

He stepped off the floral altar, walked down the red carpet steps, and dropped heavily onto both knees on the paved stones right in front of Miranda’s polished heels.

“Miranda...” Derek wept desperately, tears streaming down his face as he reached out his trembling hands toward her ivory suit. “Miranda, please! Forgive me! I was confused! I was manipulated by Vanessa!”

Vanessa shrieked in absolute fury from the altar. “DEREK! YOU COWARD!”

Derek ignored her completely, looking up at Miranda with wild, pathetic eyes. “Miranda, you know I’ve always loved you! We built everything together! Let’s cancel this wedding! Take me back, please! We can rule Crownville together!”

Miranda stood tall beneath the bright afternoon sun. She looked down at the kneeling man who had once told her she wasn't good enough.

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Her face showed no anger. No hatred. Only profound, cool detachment.

“You don’t love me, Derek,” Miranda said, her voice clear, calm, and carrying to every rolling camera. “You love doors after they open.”