Chapter 15 Theodore called Katherine again, but she kept refusing to answer. In the end, she only replied with a voice message: "The antique wedding dress you bought is so hard to wear. Just wait for me a little longer." Hearing that familiar tone of affection, Theodore suppressed the uneasy feeling in his heart and continued to wait for her on the stage. But he never expected that this wait would drag on until almost all the time had passed. The guests below began whispering among themselves, and the faces of Theodore's parents and Katherine's parents were growing increasingly embarrassed. Theodore's mother, Blanche Bagnall, even slapped the armrest and coldly accused, "I told you, people from such humble backgrounds have no sense of propriety. If they can't handle small matters, how can they be serious about big ones? It's been so long and she still hasn't come!" Her gaze was like a knife, stabbing deeply into the hearts of Henry and Winifred. The prominent guests around them all turned to look, their eyes filled with mockery and disdain. Some even began to recount stories of how Katherine was never favored. Standing outside in the rain as punishment, being forced to drink a whole bottle of red wine, being ridiculed in front of everyone, having dirty things thrown at her... Listening to these words, Theodore's temples throbbed with pain, the veins bulging with every pulse. At this moment, Henry, oblivious to the situation, brought Cecelia forward and said, "Mr. Bagnall, Katherine is really out of line! On such an important day as the wedding, she still puts on airs and doesn't show up. What will she do in the future?" "Actually, since the partnership is between the Acrea family and the Bagnall family, what do you think of my younger daughter? She's a well-known socialite and a strong woman in business-there are few women who can com- pare to her!" Cecelia also looked at him with admiration and said, "Mr. Bagnall..." But as soon as she spoke, she was forced back by Theodore's terrifying, blade-like gaze. Theodore didn't want to say another word. He left the guests behind and took a few of his friends backstage to look for Katherine. The makeup room-she wasn't there. The changing room-she wasn't there. 0.0 % 09:44 The rooftop-she wasn't there either.... He couldn't find her anywhere. Even the hotel staff said they hadn't seen Katherine at all today. And Katherine's phone could no longer be reached. Suppressing his anger, Theodore called the bodyguard: "Who brought Katherine here this morning? Where did she go?" There was a long silence on the other end before a trembling voice replied, "Mr. Bagnall, you didn't ask us to pick up Ms. Acrea yesterday. You said Ms. Acrea was always targeting Ms. Danford and that she needed to be taught a les- son." A sense of foreboding rose in Theodore's heart, and he lost control of his voice: "Go find her, hurry and bring her back to me!" After hanging up, Theodore opened his chat app and phone, only to find that the bodyguard's number had been blocked and the chat app was set to Do Not Disturb. Looking again at the screenshots sent by the bodyguard, he saw that last night, while he was in the bathroom taking a shower, the bodyguard had messaged to ask if they should intervene. But his reply was, "No need to help, let her learn her lesson." A sharp pain twisted in his heart. Theodore braced himself against the table, struggling to breathe through the agony. Morgan hated Katherine to the core. He couldn't imagine what kind of torment Katherine would suffer after being in Morgan's hands for so long. As the seconds ticked by, Theodore refused the medicine his friends tried to give him. The pain in his heart made his vision go black again and again. Until a phone call came, and on the other end, the bodyguard's terrified voice shouted, "Mr. Bagnall, there's blood all over the edge of the cliff. Morgan's people said Ms. Acrea jumped!" "Pfft!" Theodore spat out a mouthful of blood, collapsed heavily to the ground, and completely lost consciousness. 55.5 % 09:44 Chapiti TU