You Weren't Invited to My Wedding Ex novel Chapter 12

JACOB’S POV

Chapter 12

The beer was cold, and the sun was brutal–just the way I liked it. I was half–submerged in the pool, scrolling through my phone with one hand while the other balanced a Corona on my chest. The world was quiet for once. No Pearl, no drama, no screaming. Just the sound of water, the occasional buzz of a notification, and my own damn thoughts.

Luther strolled in like he owned the entire goddamn planet, wearing those tacky–ass designer shades he thought made him look cool. He cracked open a beer, leaned back on the deck chair, and grinned like a hyena.

“Think Pearl’s curled up crying in some hotel right now?” he said, raising his bottle. “Probably whispering ‘sorry Jacob, sorry Luther‘ between sobs.”

I chuckled lazily. “Bet she’s still staring at the wall… Waiting for me to forgive her.”

Then I opened Instagram.

And I froze.

Her profile loaded, and there it was–the photo. Pearl. In a gown. Wrapped up in some guy’s arms like he was hers. Like he’d earned that right. Her smile was soft. Real.

The caption?

“The future looks good from here.”

What. The. Hell.

I zoomed in on the guy’s face. Sharp suit. Clean cut. Dangerous eyes. Like he knew exactly what he had and exactly what he’d stolen.

And then I saw the tag.

@sebastian.montgomery

“Yo,” I muttered. “Luther. Get over here!”

He leaned in over my shoulder and his dumb smirk fell right off his face.

“Wait… That’s Montgomery?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to.

The Sebastian Montgomery. Private as hell. Billionaire ghost. The type of guy who didn’t breathe unless it made someone else’s stock drop. His face was practically a myth. Now here he was. With my girl.

The door slammed open behind us.

Lavenia came running in barefoot, holding her phone like it was the Holy Bible. Blonde hair wild, eyes wide and glowing like she loved the chaos.

“Jacob,” she gasped, breathless and dramatic as hell. “It’s trending everywhere. Look!”

She shoved the screen in my face.

‘Heiress Pearl Moreau Engaged to Billionaire Tycoon Sebastian Montgomery‘

You Weren’t Invited to My Wedding Exl

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09:59 Mon, 26 May O

‘London’s Hottest Power Couple Just Broke the Internet‘

Her voice hit that fake innocent pitch she used when she wanted to pour gasoline on fire and act like it was rain.

“She’s really engaged, Jacob. To Sebastian Montgomery. Of all people.”

My hand snapped. The phone flew across the patio and shattered against the stone wall. Pieces scattered. The silence afterward was louder than anything.

“She’s doing this for attention,” I growled. “She doesn’t even know who the hell he is.”

Luther scoffed, shaking his head. “The hell happened to her, man? Thought she was head over heels for you. For both of us.”

I stood up, water dripping down my chest, and stormed toward the house. My blood was boiling. My hands were fists.

I yanked my closet open, tore the drawer out until I found my passport.

“Book the jet,” I snapped. “We’re going to London.”

***

London was grey and cold, just like my mood.

The moment we stepped off the jet, I felt it–rage, bitterness, and something uglier I didn’t wanna name. After pulling some strings, we’ve finally located the wedding venue. We pulled up to the venue in silence, black SUVS rolling through the private gates like we were about to crash a funeral. In a way, we were.

Pearl’s funeral.

Or at least the funeral of the version I had in my head–mine.

The staff outside the estate looked confused when I stepped out, adjusting my coat, jaw tight, sunglasses on. Luther followed behind me, tossing his cigarette to the ground and crushing it beneath his boot.

“She really did it,” he muttered, kicking at the gravel. “Actually fuckin‘ married the guy.”

I didn’t respond. I didn’t need to. I could feel it in my gut. The entire place reeked of fake. flowers, champagne, and betrayal.

Security at the gate stuttered when they saw me. “Sir, I’m sorry–the wedding ceremony is finished. The couple has already left for-”

I didn’t let him finish. I spun on my heel and punched the wall behind me hard enough to crack something. Maybe the plaster. Maybe my knuckles.

“They’re gone?” I snapped. “Gone where?”

The guard backed up. “We’re not authorized to share honeymoon details, sir.”

Honeymoon?

I laughed. It wasn’t a funny laugh. It was the kind of laugh people have before they lose their minds.

Lavenia touched my arm softly. I didn’t even hear her walk up. “Jacob,” she murmured.

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09:59 Mon, 26 May

“Come on. Don’t let this ruin you. She made her choice.”

I yanked away. “Shut up, Lavenia.”

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She blinked like I slapped her, then tilted her head sweetly. “I’m just trying to help you forget her. You don’t need her anymore. Not when I’m here.”

I ignored her and turned to Luther.

He crossed his arms, lips curled. “Didn’t wanna believe it. Didn’t think Pearl would actually do it. Marry him. Not that bastard.”

My voice dropped. “If I’d known it was him that day on the yacht, I would’ve drowned him with my own hands. That Montgomery.”

The smug golden boy with the secret empire.

The man my father hated.

The man who outbid us last year.

The one whose company tanked one of our biggest deals.

And now? He’s got Pearl. My Pearl.

I paced like a goddamn animal. “How dare she. How fucking dare she.”

Lavenia sat down on the stone ledge nearby, crossing her legs slowly like she was on a magazine cover. “You know what I think?” she said, “I think Pearl’s been playing you both since the beginning. Poor little orphan heiress, crying on your shoulder, whispering promises in Luther’s bed and yours. I bet she planned it. She wanted Montgomery from the

start.”

Luther’s eyes narrowed. “She said she loved you. Treasure us. Told me we were her safe place.”

I sneered. “She told me she’d never leave. That she’d die with my name on her tongue.”

Lavenia smiled faintly. “Looks like she’s dying with someone else’s ring on her finger.”

Luther grabbed a bottle from one of the caterers cleaning up. He popped the cork, took a long swig, then spat it on the ground.

“I swear,” he hissed, “next time I see her, I’m dragging her by the damn hair. No one plays

me like that.”

I slammed my fist into the trunk of the car. “No one humiliates me. Not her. Not Montgomery.”

Lavenia slid beside me, wrapping her arms around my waist, pressing her cheek to my chest. Her touch was light, careful, like she knew I was on the edge of burning the world

down.

“Let her go, Jacob,” she whispered. “Let us be the ones who win. She made her choice. She’s not yours anymore.”

But she was. She was.

And I’ll make sure she remembers that.

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Beifbare to destroy that pretty little marriage myself.

The grabbed my phone and called my father’s Pl. “Tracked my fucking whore named Pearl I send you her picture”

PEARL’S POV

niverse had decided we deserved a moment of peace before the storm.

Sebastian called it a “strategic honeymoon–half business, half romance–and I admiresd the way he could switch from billion–dollar investor calls in the morning to barefoot walks on the sand with me by midnight.

I sat on a white linen lounge chair, watching the waves roll in slow and steady, and sioped from a tall glass of something sweet and icy while my husband–God, my husband- finished up a meeting with a group of foreign investors by the private cabana. He was all sharp lines in an open shirt and navy slacks, his voice low and calm, chatema cozing from every move,

I couldn’t look away.

I never could,

When he finally walked back to me, I tilted my head, letting my silk robe slide open just enough to tease him.

“You close that deal yet, Mr. Montgomery?” I asked, voice rich with play.

Sebastian grinned and handed me the last sip of his bourbon, “Secured. Now I can focus on more important matters.”

L’arched a brow. “Like?”

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my collarbone. “Like what’s underneath this robe I laughed, full and bold, because he always made me feel that way–like I could breathe again. Like I wasn’t just Pearl Moreau, the broken heiress or the daughter who failed to please everyone. With Sebastian, I was something powerful. Desired. Safe.

And that night, under the full Maui moon, we walked barefoot across the beach with a bottle of champagne in hand and no one else around but the stars and the hush of the sea

We didn’t even bother with a blanket.

Sebastian kissed me slow, then hard, and laid me down in the warm sand, his hands reverent, like every inch of my skin was sacred ground.

“I want to love you the way no man ever has,” he whispered against my neck, and I swear the wind stilled for him.

“You already do,” I murmured, wrapping my legs around his waist and pulling him closer.

He moved like he had all the time in the world. Patient. Gentle. Possessive. His lips traced every scar Jacob never saw, every place Lavenia mocked behind my back.

“You’re mine now, Pearl,” he said into my mouth. “All of you. No more pretending.”

And I believed him.

When we collapsed into each other, tangled in sweat and moonlight, I knew something

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inside me had shifted.

I wasn’t just healing.

I was falling in love.

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Sebastian was surprisingly easy to love. He was steel and silk. He listened. He made me laugh with dry wit and those sharp one–liners in the middle of otherwise serious board meetings. He remembered how I liked my coffee and rubbed my feet when I didn’t ask.

He never said I was “too much.”

He never made me feel small.

But even now, lying in our villa bed with the ocean breeze slipping through the open balcony, I kept glancing at the door.

Sebastian noticed. He always did.

He rolled toward me, shirtless and glowing golden from the sun. “You’ve been on edge since we got here,” he said, brushing my hair off my shoulder. “Talk to me.”

I hesitated, chewing my lip. “It’s probably nothing. I just… I keep thinking someone’s watching.”

His eyes darkened slightly. “No one can get close without me knowing. I’ve got security scattered around the entire island, Pearl. You’re safe. With me, you’re always safe.”

He kissed me then, slow and firm.

And I let myself believe it.

Until morning.

I woke up to the soft ping of my phone beside the bed.

I reached for it groggily, expecting an alert or some stupid press headline–maybe more photos from our dinner last night. But instead, I saw a single anonymous message.

“I know where you are.”

My blood went ice cold.

There was no name, no number. But I didn’t need one.

It was Jacob. I felt it in my gut.

I stared at the screen, pulse slow but heavy. My heart didn’t race. It tightened. I shoved my phone back in the pillow. I’m not afraid of Jacob.

That afternoon, I had gone swimming alone in the private cove Sebastian found for me–a little sanctuary carved between black rocks and hibiscus trees. It was hidden. Secure. Guarded.

I was floating on my back, eyes to the sun, when I felt the shift. That feeling.

And then-

“Pearl.”

His voice cracked through the waves like a whip.

You Weren’t Invited to My Wedding Exl

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PEARL’S POV

The beer was cold, and the sun was brutal–just the way I liked it. I was half–submerged in the pool, scrolling through my phone with one hand while the other balanced a Corona on my chest. The world was quiet for once. No Pearl, no drama, no screaming. Just the sound of water, the occasional buzz of a notification, and my own damn thoughts.

Luther strolled in like he owned the entire goddamn planet, wearing those tacky–ass designer shades he thought made him look cool. He cracked open a beer, leaned back on the deck chair, and grinned like a hyena.

“Think Pearl’s curled up crying in some hotel right now?” he said, raising his bottle. “Probably whispering ‘sorry Jacob, sorry Luther‘ between sobs.”

I chuckled lazily. “Bet she’s still staring at the wall… Waiting for me to forgive her.”

Then I opened Instagram.

And I froze.

Her profile loaded, and there it was–the photo. Pearl. In a gown. Wrapped up in some guy’s arms like he was hers. Like he’d earned that right. Her smile was soft. Real.

The caption?

“The future looks good from here.”

What. The. Hell.

I zoomed in on the guy’s face. Sharp suit. Clean cut. Dangerous eyes. Like he knew exactly what he had and exactly what he’d stolen.

And then I saw the tag.

@sebastian.montgomery

“Yo,” I muttered. “Luther. Get over here!”

He leaned in over my shoulder and his dumb smirk fell right off his face.

“Wait… That’s Montgomery?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to.

The Sebastian Montgomery. Private as hell. Billionaire ghost. The type of guy who didn’t breathe unless it made someone else’s stock drop. His face was practically a myth. Now here he was. With my girl.

The door slammed open behind us.

Lavenia came running in barefoot, holding her phone like it was the Holy Bible. Blonde hair wild, eyes wide and glowing like she loved the chaos.

“Jacob,” she gasped, breathless and dramatic as hell. “It’s trending everywhere. Look!”

She shoved the screen in my face.

‘Heiress Pearl Moreau Engaged to Billionaire Tycoon Sebastian Montgomery‘

You Weren’t Invited to My Wedding Exl

1/4 41.7%

09:59 Mon, 26 May O

‘London’s Hottest Power Couple Just Broke the Internet‘

Her voice hit that fake innocent pitch she used when she wanted to pour gasoline on fire and act like it was rain.

“She’s really engaged, Jacob. To Sebastian Montgomery. Of all people.”

My hand snapped. The phone flew across the patio and shattered against the stone wall. Pieces scattered. The silence afterward was louder than anything.