Page 139 of The Oath We Give

When areyou supposed to know the woman, you’re marrying isn’t showing up?

How long do you stand at the end of the aisle, waiting until you are sure she’s left you stranded?

Maybe if I didn’t know Coraline, I would’ve waited longer, but the moment I stepped foot in front of the priest ready to marry us, I knew something was wrong. Felt it in my bones, like a premonition of something evil.

“Where the fuck is my wife?”

The girls look at me, worry across their features.

“She was supposed to meet us here to get ready, but she hasn’t been answering her phone and we haven’t heard from her since last night.” Lyra says, dressed in a reddish orange dress to match the flowers decorating the inside of the chapel.

I rub my jaw, sending my fist through the wall behind me because God damn her.

I knew I shouldn’t have told her about what Stephen had planned, knew I should’ve left her stubborn ass in the dark but couldn’t do that to her. Omission is still lying, and she would have never forgiven me for hiding the truth from her, not after all the secrets we shared. Not after I promised she was my secret keeper.

“Her phone just keeps going to voice mail.” Sage mumbles looking down at her phone like it has the answers.

“Where would she go? Why would she just— “

“Because she doesn’t want us to find her. Because she did something fucking stupid.” I interrupt Lyra, just as the door to the girls dressing room burst open.

“She’s not anywhere outside the chapel or at the apartment.” Rook huffs, his pressed suit now wrinkly with distress.

I wish I didn’t know Coraline well.

Wish I didn’t know that she was going to do this, wish I didn’t leave her alone last night. I wanted to be oblivious in this moment, because maybe the unknowing would bring me more peace than knowing. I press my fingers into my eyes, releasing a heavy breath.

“She went to Stephen.” I say the words, even though they taste like poison in my throat. Fear and rage creating a toxic acid in my stomach because she’s stubborn, but I also know she’s scared right now. Scared and without me. Scared and fucking alone when she doesn’t have to be.

There is an overall sense of stress and panic that takes over the room. Everyone’s brains scrambling to figure out how to find her.

This is the good thing about knowing Coraline Whittaker.

I’ve known she was a flight risk since the moment I met her and I knew that when I told her about Stephen and our plan, I’d need insurance on her wings. So, while the nipple rings I’d gifted her, had been innocent, they were also micro-chipped.

“God damn it.” I mutter, staring at her pinpointed location.

“What? Where is she?”

“I’ll give you one fucking guess.”

CORALINE

There is no fear in me.

As I look across the room at the man tearing what is left of his office to shreds, I feel nothing. Despite the duck tap digging into the flesh of my wrists, I’m not afraid of him. Stephen Sinclair can lay his hands on my physically, but he can never touch me again. Not like he did in that basement.

Before, I didn’t know who I was. I had no identity or self-worth. Stephen was able to mold my mind, abuse my nativity and turn me into his perfect little doll. It had been easy for him to break me before, shatter my mind and make it his playground.

Now? I knew who I was, and that person would never, ever belong to Stephen Sinclair. No matter how badly he hurt me physically, he would never have me. Never have the person I am with Silas Hawthorne, that would forever belong to him.

“They took everything, whatever you're looking for is fucking long gone." I say as Stephen throws a drawer from his desk over his shoulder, the clatter of leftover things rumbling against the hard wood floors.

I'd lived beneath this office in Sinclair Manor for two years and this was the first time I'd gotten a decent look at it.

We'd made a deal when I called. I come to him willingly and he leaves Ponderosa Springs. Along with everyone in it.

It was a fair trade. Me for their freedom.

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