Page 8 of The Billionaire's Runaway Bride

I can’t though. I sit, because if I don’t, I’ll drop. I set my busted heels on the table and wipe my eyes so I can see her.

“I need a room but…” I drag in a shaky breath and open my purse, showing her the two ones and a five in my wallet. “But I…I…”

Tears rush again, and without a care about how slovenly I look and how impolite I am, I drop my arms to the table and hide my face against them.

“Oh, Lauren.” Marian sighs from across the table. “It’s…all right. It will be all right.”

“How?” I jerk up abruptly and she widens her eyes in surprise. “How can anything be all right?”

She dips her chin and raises her brows. “Maybe you could start by telling me what’s wrong, and then we can figure out how it’s not so bad.”

I quiet then, eyeing her carefully. “Not that bad?” I scoff and launch into just how bad it is. Running from a cheater, a man who doesn’t love or want me. My parents forcing me into the marriage for the sake of their reputations and expectations.

I’m not sure how long we sit there for. My dress is still itchy and I feel bone-weary, but having the chance to sit and spill my deepest, most secretive thoughts to a complete stranger is cathartic. It’s thrilling and relaxing at the same time. Marian and I are strangers, but the look she gives me is so touching, I wish we weren’t.

She’s also quiet by the time I reach the end of how I came to show up here on her doorstep.

“If you have a room, I can figure out how to…” I shrug. “I just need a few days to think and—”

“Nonsense.” Marian smiles at me. “You can have as many days as you want.”

“I can pay—” No, I cannot. I threw that life away and I’m not eager to return to it, ever. All those bank accounts and credit cards are lost to me. I have a significant trust fund that I’ll be able to dip into in four months, when I turn twenty-six, but until then, I’m practically penniless.

“I need help.” Marian lifts her hand and vaguely gestures around her. “This place needs help, more like. As I get older, I can’t keep up with maintaining it like it should be. I’d be glad to have you stay and be my helper.”

My jaw drops as my heart races. Maybe I’m hearing things. I might have reached a delusional stage of hallucinating, because it sure sounds like this sweet stranger is offering me a job with room and board. “Are you serious?”

She giggles and nods.

Without another thought, without a chance to consider it at all, and especially without giving her a chance to retract her spontaneous offer, I reach over and grip her hand to shake it.

“I accept!”

Chapter 4

Lauren

“Are you sure?” I ask again.

Marian nods. “You really do need someone in your corner, huh?”

“But you don’t know me.”

She shrugs. “But I’ve got a good feeling about you. My husband, may he rest in peace, used to claim I had a sixth sense about people.”

“You’re the first person who’s ever just listened to me.”

“Have you ever talked like this before?”

Oh, she’s good. She sure put me on the spot. I couldn’t admit that I hadn’t told many—any—people about how I didn’t want to marry Jeremy. Aubrey picked up on my reluctance, but even with her, I had to be careful what I said in case it got back to my parents. That was how deeply they controlled my life. I hadn’t spoken up or stood up for myself before the wedding because it was pointless. From a young age, I’ve known my thoughts and opinions don’t count.

“I have a hunch you’ve been bottling this in for a long time. You would have dumped it sooner or later.”

“Too bad I didn’t dump him.”

She winks. “I’ll say you have now! And yes, I’m sure. In fact, I’ll show you where you can stay.”

I frown. “You don’t have a room in the house?”

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