THE BILLIONAIRE'S RUNAWAY BRIDE

earview mirror before Arabella ev

another. Bot

n the whee

he clock, then b

SUV was

check the license plate. She recognized the

N

her foot dow

t the road twisted ahead, cut

feet were bare and aching. She hadn't slept. She hadn't

ashed its

art thudded s

he darkness, a small sign a

he'd never heard

des into a sharp turn

d. The SUV st

ed the c

toward the sea. Dis

ng boats. Old stone walls. Narrow streets. The kind of pla

urity SUV loome

road. The Mercedes scraped

UV sl

d e

lled. She hit

d by an abando

SUV behind her

r open, snatched h

he door. She yanked it loose-

warehouse, crouching u

s rolled a few feet on its

ung around

ed herself int

en go

tched t

ch ar

ath as the foots

os

sea. Another alley opene

catch her. If she ran,

e

er the stairs and sp

ey

running as her wedding dres

t moving until the voices behind her faded

nst a wall to steady her

ess, face streaked with tears. Nothing like the clean,

gave he

ep running as A

o vanish,

ped deeper in

erman dragging a crate. Motorcycles zipped by on the w

convenience store

bove the d

ooked up, caught sight of the

, hoping it pas

have p

oint towar

ay-as-you-go SIM cards, dusty ch

ash on th

at

M?" the wo

ea

Then a que

d blanked. One second,

nd pushed a handwritten

fill i

a

Laurent, daughter to Julian Laurent, missing bri

uldn't

d at the

n

for a secon

de. The sea was b

ee

a R

no family, no one

si

y glanced at th

he phone with t

nk y

nto the night-sal

time, no one k

ut instead it was like coming u

iny guesthous

ed mirror. A bathroom so smal

her, nobody decorated it to impress clients, nobody e

t it, and gave in. Hands over her fac

r own reflection gazed back-

he whispered. Then, almost to

She stared at the glowing screen, a

ELLA LAURENT: FAMILY

ood we

gala, smiling, polished, un

heiress Arabella Laurent couldn't proceed with her we

alth episode? S

been under heavy emotional pressure lately and

nearly dropp

ng to the w

y asks for privacy durin

y she found out the truth. Didn't say she refused to marry him

ryone would

ne buzz

t addresses m

apped the

outside the Laurent esta

right-brokenhea

oncerned about A

aw cl

pressure, and sadly, toni

softer, "I love Arabella. I

e pain. He'd already stolen her wed

ew the phone

N

heap curtains, the cracked mirror, the beat-

till on the screen,

father's number-deleted it. Victor's too

aused over h

LLA L

le

k sc

sat the

family thought she'd come home. V

were

stoo

Tomorrow, a job. Tomorrow, s

eded to hold onto on

a R

it, switched

aurent estate waited for Ar

e, and she wasn

they never found the