His innocent wife is a dangerous hacker.-Chapter 575 Lies

"What’s wrong with you?" Nicolas muttered, his voice low and rough as he leaned slightly toward her. His eyes, though, kept darting away. Landing on her forehead, her chin, her hair. Anywhere but the scar.

Hazel’s expression did not change.

"Nothing," she said quietly. "I’m just thinking."

He frowned, confused. "Thinking about what?"

"When are you going to stop this wedding?" Her voice was calm, conversational, like she was asking about the weather. "Since you can’t even stand to look at my face."

Nicolas’s head snapped toward her, his eyes widening. "What are you saying, babe? I love you!" His voice rose slightly, drawing a glance from the minister, who paused uncertainly. "I don’t care about your scar!"

Hazel stared at him.

For a long, terrible moment, she just looked at him, at his handsome face, his perfect suit, his lying eyes.

Then she smiled.

It was not a kind smile.

"You don’t care about my scar," she repeated slowly. "Is that what you tell yourself?"

Nicolas blinked. "Hazel, what—"

"Because last night," she continued, her voice dropping so only he could hear, "you told someone else something very different."

The color drained from his face.

His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

"I—what? Hazel, I don’t know what you’re—"

"You called me ugly." Her voice did not waver. Did not crack. It simply stated fact. "You said you couldn’t touch me because of my face. You laughed about how much I trust you."

Nicolas went pale. Completely, utterly pale.

Behind them, the guests were beginning to murmur. The minister looked helplessly toward the families. Something was clearly wrong.

"Hazel, please—" Nicolas reached for her hand.

She pulled back. Just an inch. But it was enough.

"You have three choices," she said quietly. "One, you confess. Right now. To everyone. Tell them what you did."

His eyes went wide with panic.

"Two, we finish this ceremony, and I spend the rest of our marriage making your life a living hell." Her smile turned colder. "And believe me, Nicolas, I’m very good at that."

He swallowed hard. "And the third?"

Her eyes glittered.

"I walk away now. Right here. In front of everyone. And you get to explain to three hundred people why your bride left you at the altar."

The silence between them stretched, thick and suffocating.

Bella’s eyes widened, her hand instinctively gripping Leo’s arm. The scene unfolding at the altar felt almost surreal, Hazel standing there with her scar fully visible, her voice calm and cold, dismantling her groom in front of three hundred guests.

Leo’s gaze shifted to Dominique, who was sitting a few rows away, watching with an expression of quiet satisfaction. Their eyes met.

And Leo nodded in approval.

Whatever Dom had done, whatever he had shown Hazel, it had worked. The trap had been sprung. And now the rat was caught.

Around them, the crowd was stirring.

"Hazel, what are you saying?" Valeria’s voice cut through the murmurs, sharp with disbelief. She half rose from her seat, her perfectly composed face twisted with confusion. "What is this nonsense?"

Nicolas’s mother looked genuinely lost, as if the script had been ripped from her hands and she did not know her lines anymore.

Beside her, Jenna had gone pale. Her hand pressed to her chest, her eyes fixed on her daughter.

"Hazel?" Jenna’s voice was soft, trembling. "Sweetheart, what’s happening?"

Hazel did not turn to look at her mother. Her eyes stayed locked on Nicolas, who looked like a man watching his own execution.

"Ask him," Hazel said quietly. "Ask your son what he did last night. Ask him who he was with. Ask him what he said about my face."

The murmurs grew louder. People shifted in their seats. Phones were being discreetly pulled out.

Nicolas opened his mouth to lie, to deflect, to do what he always did.

But Hazel spoke first.

"Don’t." Her voice was quiet, but it cut through the noise like a blade. "Don’t you dare lie to me again."

He closed his mouth.

Valeria’s face had gone from confused to calculating. She was already assessing damage control. Richard sat stiffly beside her, his expression unreadable but his jaw tight.

Jenna looked at her daughter. At the scar. At the strength in her spine. At the tears that were not falling, though they glittered in her eyes.

"Oh, baby," she whispered. "What did he do to you?"

Hazel finally glanced at her mother. Just for a second. And in that second, something cracked, just slightly, behind her cold facade.

"He showed me who he really was," Hazel said softly. "And I finally believed him."

Then she turned back to Nicolas.

"Well?" Her voice hardened. "Are you going to tell them? Or should I?"

"No, babe, you misunderstood!" Nicolas’s voice rose, cracking slightly at the edges. His hands lifted, palms out, the picture of wounded innocence. "Whatever you think you saw, whatever someone told you, it’s not true! You know me! You know I would never—"

"How do you even know?" He spun toward the crowd, his eyes wild, searching for the source of his destruction. "Who told you? Who’s been spreading lies about me?"

The guests shifted uncomfortably. No one answered.

Hazel stood perfectly still, watching him perform. Her face remained cold, unmoved. She had seen this act before. She had believed it before.

Not anymore.

"It doesn’t matter how she knows." Leo’s voice cut through the air. He rose from his seat slowly, his gray eyes fixed on Nicolas with an intensity that made several guests shrink back. "What matters is that she finally knows your true face."

Nicolas’s head snapped toward him. "You—" His jaw tightened. "You’ve always hated me. You’ve always wanted to tear us apart!"

"I’ve wanted to protect my cousin from a man who doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her." Leo stepped into the aisle, moving toward the altar with the kind of calm that was far more terrifying than rage. "There’s a difference."

"Hazel, please—" Nicolas turned back to her, reaching for her hands. She let him take them, but her fingers remained limp. Unresponsive. "Please, listen to me. Whatever you heard, whatever you saw, it was a mistake. A moment of weakness. It didn’t mean anything!"

"Didn’t mean anything?" Hazel’s voice was quiet. Dangerous. "Calling me ugly while you were with someone else, that didn’t mean anything?"

The crowd gasped.

Jenna covered her mouth with both hands, tears spilling down her cheeks. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Valeria’s face had gone white. Richard looked like he had been carved from stone.

Nicolas’s eyes darted around wildly, looking for an exit, a lifeline, anything. "That’s not—I never—who told you this? It’s lies! All lies!"