From Broken to Beloved-Chapter 166- Go on
Otherwise, why would Gerald choose to marry her at a time when her reputation was in ruins? Why would he insist on marrying her despite Lucy’s desperate resistance and emotional pressure? Back then, Catherine had never been granted such "privilege"—Lucy had barely applied any pressure before Gerald compromised and went to Catherine to break off their engagement.
As for that earlier broken engagement, Lucca believed it had merely been a moment of weakness on Gerald’s part—an uncontrollable lapse after seeing Catherine return home. In her mind, the person Gerald truly loved had always been herself.
To be able to obtain marriage at the most difficult point in her life made Lucca feel that all the disgrace she had endured was worth it. After all, if she had been so infamous and Gerald still chose to marry her, didn’t that only prove how deeply he loved her?
Although Gerald’s proposal had come suddenly and the timing was rushed, Lucca spared no effort in planning a wedding straight out of a dream for herself—romantic, beautiful, and extravagant—more than enough for her to boast about for a long time to come.
Both Channing and Tracy attended the wedding. On Gerald’s side, however, only his father showed up. Lucy, claiming poor health, stubbornly refused to attend no matter what. Her attitude was, in itself, a clear sign that she did not accept Lucca as her daughter-in-law.
But Lucca didn’t care. She wasn’t marrying Lucy—she was marrying Gerald. Acceptance or not didn’t matter. After all, she and Gerald were already legally married.
The wedding had been entirely planned by Lucca herself. And given her vanity and obsession with appearances, she invited a large number of guests. Naturally, Channing and Tracy’s side also brought many attendees. Lucca had insisted the wedding be as grand as possible—only something truly magnificent could prove that her wedding was one of a kind.
Midway through the ceremony came a segment where a VCR montage was to be played—a compilation of photos of Gerald and Lucca, edited into a narrative meant to tell the story of their love.
What no one expected was that what appeared on the screen instead was footage from a banquet—showing Lucca smiling with calculated malice as she slipped a packet of drugs into a glass of juice; showing how she instructed a waiter to deliberately deliver that glass to Catherine; and showing how viciously she smiled after Catherine drank it.
The moment the video was played, the entire venue erupted in an uproar.
Lucca stood there in panic, her face drained of all color, while Gerald flew into a rage, fury written all over his face.
What had been a relatively smooth wedding instantly descended into chaos. Gerald slapped Lucca hard across the face, then roared uncontrollably,
"So it was you all along! You were the one scheming behind the scenes! So she only did those things because you drugged her!"
Back then, when Gerald had been with Morrison, Morrison had hinted repeatedly that Catherine had been framed by Lucca. But Gerald had no concrete evidence in his hands, and there was nothing he could do to Lucca at the time.
Now, seeing with his own eyes exactly how Lucca had set Catherine up, all the pain of being deceived and the agony of losing Catherine came flooding back at once, nearly driving him mad.
He hated Lucca—hated her so much he wished she were dead.
Because if Lucca had not ruined Catherine’s reputation back then, he would already be married to Catherine by now. They might even have had children. And if it weren’t for Lucca’s scheme, Catherine would never have crossed paths with that sinister man, Bert. Bert would not have joined forces with the Mo family of Burg Eltz to suppress the Gerald family at every turn. Things would never have deteriorated to the point where Gerald and his family were driven into a corner, their pride trampled mercilessly under Bert’s feet.
Lucca had been wearing high heels, and after being struck so violently, she fell to the ground in utter disgrace. Half of her carefully made-up face instantly flushed red. Her vision swam, and she tasted a hint of blood in her mouth—clear evidence of how much force Gerald had used.
She sat there in a daze. She had believed she’d executed that scheme flawlessly. How could she have known that someone would uncover the evidence?
What she didn’t know was that, to Bert, there was nothing he could not do.
After the incident back then, Bert had been furious that he himself had been dragged into such a mess. From the very beginning, he could tell that Catherine, with her character, was not that kind of loose or promiscuous woman. To him, framing Catherine and dragging him into it was no different from framing him directly. And with his vindictive nature, he was determined to expose whoever had orchestrated the scheme behind the scenes—no matter the cost.
He had found the evidence.
It was only that this evidence did not come to light until two years later—today.
The guests at the wedding exploded into heated discussion, voices overlapping as they revisited the incident from two years ago.
Back then, the only footage that surfaced showed Catherine kissing a man at the door of a hotel room, which led everyone to assume she was immoral and promiscuous.
Now that it had been revealed that Lucca had maliciously drugged her, Catherine’s behavior could no longer be condemned as wanton—because anyone under the influence of such a drug would react that way.
So now, the target of everyone’s discussion had shifted entirely to Lucca’s viciousness and depravity.
For a young woman to commit such a cruel act—to destroy another woman’s reputation and innocence just to get what she wanted—calling Lucca "venomous as a snake" was almost too mild.
With the evidence laid bare, Lucca had no room left to defend herself. She simply sat on the stage, covering her face, her complexion deathly pale, saying nothing.
Gerald, shaking with rage, yanked off his tie and then, nearly out of his mind, began tearing down the floral drapery that had been arranged for the wedding.
Channing had never imagined that there was such a story hidden behind the incident back then. He had originally thought that if his daughter Lucca could finally find happiness, it would put his mind at ease. Who would have thought that halfway through the wedding, something like this would happen? He was so enraged that he sat there, gasping for breath.
Tracy, however, knew the truth.
The plot to frame Catherine had been conceived jointly by the mother and daughter. After the initial shock of being exposed, Tracy rushed onto the stage and helped Lucca up from where she had fallen.
In the end, Tracy was still a mother. She no longer cared whether others mocked them or not. Supporting Lucca, she turned on Gerald and shouted,
"What are you doing? No matter what, this wedding must go on!"
Gerald, like a madman, tore apart all the decorations on the stage. Then he turned back toward Tracy with a cold, mocking smile.
"Go on?"
"Do you really think I could still go through with a wedding with such a vicious woman?"
The image of Lucca’s malicious scheme against Catherine flashed through Gerald’s mind, igniting his fury once more. He turned toward the already uproarious guests and declared loudly,
"Since so many people are here today, I might as well make this clear. I, Gerald, hereby declare my marriage to Lucca void. As for that marriage certificate, I will contact a lawyer immediately and file for divorce."
Being publicly exposed for framing Catherine was already enough to push Lucca to the brink. Now, with Gerald renouncing the marriage in front of everyone, she screamed at him in despair,
"You want a divorce? I won’t agree! I will never agree to a divorce—even if I die!"
Lucca was on the verge of a complete breakdown. Just when she had believed happiness was finally within reach—when she thought she had successfully married the man she had stolen—everything was mercilessly destroyed. In an instant, she fell from heaven into hell. The sheer psychological whiplash nearly knocked her unconscious.
This blow, coming right after a fleeting taste of happiness, was far more devastating than when her plagiarism scandal had been exposed before—several times more crushing.
Faced with Lucca’s hysteria, Gerald merely sneered coldly.
"Whether you want a divorce or not is irrelevant. In my heart, this marriage is already over."
As if that were not cruel enough, he added another merciless sentence, his expression filled with scorn and contempt,
"Do you really think I married you willingly? Hah. It was nothing more than a temporary compromise for the sake of the company. Even if none of this had happened today, I still planned to bring up divorce after some time. Since things have blown up like this, we might as well meet at the lawyer’s office this afternoon."
With that, Gerald turned and walked away.
Lucca lunged at him like a madwoman, grabbing his collar in rage and despair, screaming at the top of her lungs,
"Gerald—!"
A wedding in the morning, a divorce in the afternoon—Lucca would likely be the first in all of Burg Eltz to suffer such humiliation. How could she not collapse under it?
Gerald, of course, did not let her cling to him. He raised his hand and flung her aside with force. Since everything had already come to this and all dignity had been lost, there was nothing left for him to care about.
