What if I succeed but can’t survive on my own?
Someone else has decided every part of my life. What I wear. Where I go. Who I talk to.
What I eat and drink.
Since I was a child, my life has consisted only of what I would need to be a proper wife to the man of my father’s choosing. I’ve had no freedom. No choices.
If I had to crawl back to my family, would I find myself right back here anyway?
Yes.
I feel it like the sickening twist of a knife in my heart.
I’m trapped. Now. Tomorrow. It doesn’t matter. There is no future without Aiden Frost in it.
He unlocks one of my hands and brings it to his lips. It’s tender, like the look he gives me, and I want to throw up.
He backs toward the door, taking me in from head to toe. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Every man here will be jealous.” The words seem to please him. “I’ll send your attendants back in.”
The door closes behind him with a softsnick.
I stare at it for one heartbeat.
Two.
Then I’m shoving a chair under the doorknob and searching the room with wide eyes. There. The window.
I fly toward it, snatching my phone off the vanity as I run, wrestle up the heavy glass window that must be original to the church, and duck through.
Cold air blasts my skin, sending a violent shiver through me. I didn’t have a coat when they brought me here. Not even my own shoes. As I run across the grass in heels, sprinting on my toes because the stilettos keep catching and clutching the train of this stupid dress, I wish I was home, tucked up in bed. Or maybe at the library, curled in a dark corner with a romance. Anywhere but running across a churchyard as darkness falls on a frigid January night.
I’m almost to the sidewalk when I hear a commotion behind me. Did they get into the room? Do they already know I’m gone?
I kick off the heels and run.
Five minutes pass, or maybe an hour. Time stretches into a meaningless loop of strange streets, pools of light to avoid from the streetlamps, and the little puffs of air visible as I exhale.
A bead of sweat slides down my back.
I can’t tell if it’s cold or warm, only that my skin is too sensitized to the feeling and it makes me jump, then stumble. When I make it to my feet, I trip on the train, and the lace rips. The sound is so loud in the darkness, I freeze.
But no one heard it. There’s no one here. The street is empty.
I drag in a breath, needing a break but afraid to slow down. My hand twitches, and I realize that I’m still clenching my phone in a death grip. Am I far enough away to call Elizabeth? If I can get to a familiar place, she could come for me. Maybe together we can figure a way out of this nightmare.
Lights flash at the end of the street.
A car turns onto the road, and headlights wash over me.
My heart dips, then begins to pound so loud, all I hear is my rapid heartbeat in my ears.
I don’t know whether to flag the person down or hide. Aiden must know I’m gone. But what if it’s someone who can help?
Panic wins the debate. I tuck the phone into my garter and run.
The car speeds up, then a familiar black SUV swerves in front of me.
I veer left, but a man has already leaped from the vehicle. Arms wrap around me, lifting me off the ground.
