Page 84 of The Billionaire's Runaway Bride

Right back in the same room at my father’s vineyard, with an attendant standing behind me and Aubrey off to the side, biting her lip, I realize that I’ve come full circle. I’m back to square one, and this time, I can’t escape. Not if I want to save Caleb from the things Jeremy threatens. Not unless I can get past the security guards posted outside the door.

Aubrey told me not one, but two burly men stood out there. They are staffed here at the vineyard as security, but today, they’re more like prison guards.

“Okay, look. There’s nothing you can do. Give up.” Aubrey shakes her head and pulls on the attendant’s arm, hauling her toward the door no matter how loudly she protests.

“But the seams at her waistline are too loose. I don’t know why they took it out so far but the dress needs—”

“Trust me.” Aubrey opens the door and shoves the woman out, knocking into the guards. “Nothing will make that dress look better. It’s ugly, ’kay? It’s ugly and there’s no saving it.”

She slams the door shut, then locks it.

“I still can’t believe they let you come.”

Aubrey shakes her head as she approaches me. “I still can’t believe you’re doing this. Lauren, please. Think about this.”

She sounds so much like Marian, and I try to smile, imagining these two women meeting one day. Marian would love her like another daughter. Dwelling on that fantasy is far better than facing my current reality.

“I have.”

“How can I not try to talk you out of this?” she hisses.

“Isn’t that what they made you sign an affidavit not to do?” I challenge. They’d only let Aubrey remain as a bridesmaid if she surrendered her phone and signed a contract to see this wedding through. The only reason they let her stay was because she was already listed as a member of the bridal party, and they didn’t want an odd number of bridesmaids to the even number of groomsmen. Someone claimed that was bad luck, as if that would make a difference in this union.

“Yeah. Some lame-ass contract.” She rolls her eyes. “That doesn’t mean I’ll stick to it.” Then she pulls a phone out from her dress and checks the screen with a frown.

“How in the hell are you stashing that in there?” I shake my head at the fact she had to lie about having her phone at all. “What are you doing?”

She narrows her eyes, reading and not looking at me. “I got a weird message. Some rando commenting from a post about…”

“Now?”

She shushes me, hiding her phone back in her dress. “Lauren, you can’t do this.”

“I have to.” It’s too late to think of anything else. My stomach twists and my throat burns with the approach of bile. I can’t slow my rapid heartbeat no matter how many calming breaths I attempt. It seems that I can’t catch my breath at all. Last time, I felt like I’d faint from the panic. This time, I wonder how bad it would be if I did.

Jeremy would be pissed, for one thing. He’d assume I was standing him up if I was late one single minute—causing another embarrassment. If I’m not walking down the aisle on time, his anger will reach new heights. An earthquake could rattle the ground and I would still be expected to show up on time.

I gaze at myself in this hideous dress. Aubrey is wrong. It’s not ugly. It’s worse than ugly. It’s more awful than the first one. Too much lace. These bulky blobs that look like shoulder pads that escaped the eighties. And the lace? Why is there so much? It’s layered, doubled up over my arms, and I look halfway bound like a mummy.

Trapped. Confined. And nowhere to go.

Tears threaten behind my lids, but I fight to keep them back. My mother stopped in the room when I was with the so-called award-winning cosmetologist. “Don’t let her look so…plain,” my mother said. More thick gobs of makeup followed, smothering my skin until I swore the chemical gunk was seeping into my brain. It stank. It itched. And I wanted it off.

If Caleb told me to run, I would have, the best I could in this trainwreck of a dress. But now, I don’t even have anything to run to. He hasn’t replied to my texts. The battery died last night, and I didn’t have the charger with me, nor could I ask to borrow one. My parents and Jeremy thought my phone was still in the garbage at the bus station. They’d told me they tracked my phone there, and I admitted I’d thrown it all away.

“Don’t cry, Lauren.” Aubrey is livid but calm as she orders me not to lose it. I’m so close to breaking, but I nod and try to keep it in.

“I am so furious you are going through with this. So, so mad.”

I shake my head, suggesting she save it. I’m mad too, but more so, I’m broken. My plan feels like it really might not work. My heart and soul will survive this even if Jeremy marries me and tries to make the months before the trust fund’s release hell, but not if I get pregnant, or if Caleb won’t forgive me or has moved on.

“You have to have another option.” Again, she glances at her phone, and I wonder what could be distracting her. A message on social media? Why would she be distracted by that now?

“I doubt they’ll buy it if you pretend to be on your deathbed again.”

“But I’ll do it if—”

“Lauren!” My father’s voice booms from the other side of the door as he knocks hard again. “You better be in there!”

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