The Runaway Wife: Escaping His Gilded Cage

lurring past. She took out her phone. One by one, she

ows. The drops streaked down the glass, washin

ment. She opened it on her lap. It was a detailed career plan, a pathway back to the world of fin

river asked, his voice

eflection in the rearview mirror

er East Side, far from the gilded cage she had just

d it open. It was a third-floor walk-up in a pre-war building, the air in the hal

dlord, a portly man named Sal, offered, ge

nk you," Ava said

. The sound of its wheels on the worn hardwood floor

py, floral-print sofa and a scarred coffee table. A kitchenette tuck

al. And as she looked at the water stain on the ceiling and the cheap, mismatched

s quiet, shabby sp

let the mask slip. Her shoulders, held so rigidly straight on the cathedral steps, slumped. The cold, empty stilln

the world, for him, for everyone. But here, in the s

me. It had been a gift from the head nun at St. Jude's Home for Children, given to her on the day the C

thumb over t

ed everything, from the dinner menus selected a month in advance to the flowers arranged in the vases

ooden table she'd placed it on.

WITH CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART ISABELLE STE

ross the street. Damian and Isabelle, walking into L'Aura, the ridiculously

tion was a flurr

getting together.

me nobody. He'll probab

ue Carlisle queen.

grade stress. She pressed a hand against her abdomen, breathing through the pain. She w

throat, dousing the last embers of weakness inside her. She would n

d to life, a portal to the world she was about to re-enter. With a deep breath, she mentally

led with evidence of her secret life over the past three years. She wrote

l III pass n

on. Her armor. Her escape route. With this, she didn

n for years, began to dissolve. The distant sound of a siren, the rumb

he had researched weeks ago. She had already consulted with them in secret, feeding them the necessary details over encrypted calls. The demand was simple: draft the divorce

over the keys, and hit 'Send.' The lawyer

e. The machinery of her departure was in motion. She felt the weight of the decision settle on her, n

n the ceiling and the single window that faced a brick wall. It

fade from the Brooklyn sky. The city was indifferent to her,