the past. I didn’t have the poise or family connections everyone expected a bride of a high-ranking duke to have.
Toxic.
That was what I had called our relationship.
Toxic.
At the time I had meant he was toxic for me, but what if it was reversed? Maybe I was toxic for him? Hadn’t he said himself when we were on the train to Paris that I tortured him? That I was playing with his mind? That my constant need to have him pursue me for my own validation was driving him mad?
When you really thought about it, Richard brought everything to the relationship… what did I bring? Drama. I had done nothing but cause drama in his life since I had met him.
Looking down at the phone in my hand, I scrolled back to the photo of Richard with the text: Run… you don’t belong in his world.
Maybe that was the actual reason he always kept me isolated from the world and his friends and associates… was it possible Richard also thought deep down that I didn’t belong?
I loved him and he loved me, but from the very beginning there was no denying there was something dark and sinister about the love we shared. It was too extreme, too twisted, too obsessive. Toxic.
The events at his estate should have been enough of a warning bell to us both. We had gone too far down the rabbit hole… had gotten too caught up in the game. The drama of it. I had gotten so lost I had tried to kill him myself.
Once more I felt a reluctant, disgusting empathy for the woman stalking us both.
These violent delights have violent ends.
Clutching at my stomach, I fell to my knees as I felt the hysteria overwhelm me. Rocking back and forth, I bit my lip to keep from crying out. I didn’t know what to do. I was thinking in circles and making everything worse than it already was in my mind.
Once again, I clawed at the tight bodice of my dress. I couldn’t breathe. I needed air. I had to get out of here. Awkwardly rising to my feet, I stumbled toward the back entrance to the antechamber. As I reached out a shaking hand for the doorknob, I remembered the guards. I had forgotten about the guards! I would just have to plead wedding jitters to them and beg for a moment alone in the fresh air.
Throwing open the door, it shocked me to see that the very guards I had been worried about were gone.
My head swung left, then right. The hallway was empty.
Something was wrong. The guards should have been here. Something was very wrong.
Oh, God, I couldn’t breathe. My fingers gripped at the edge of my wedding dress bodice, pulling on it. I looked down at the mobile still clutched in my other hand.
He doesn’t love you.
You don’t deserve him.
He’s mine.
I couldn’t breathe.
You left him once. You’ll leave him again.
Run… you don’t belong in his world.
I felt sick.
Anytime.
Anywhere.
He’s dead.
Leave now… and he lives.
My head spun.
Leave now… and he lives.
My gaze swung left again. Down at the end of the hallway was the door they had brought me through earlier today to avoid the paparazzi who were camped out at the front of the abbey. It led to a small park area along Abingdon Street. I could run through that door and be in a cab before anyone could stop me.
Down the hallway to the right was another door that led to a small chamber next to the high altar… where Richard waited for me… with a target on his chest.
Leave now… and he lives.
Lifting the heavy skirts of my wedding dress high, I ran.
Chapter 21
Lizzie
The hallway seemed to go on forever. Finally, I reached the double doors at the end. Throwing them open, I burst into the small dreary room. Reaching my arms out, I stumbled through the room, knocking over something metal on a tabletop, before reaching the small side door at the other side.
Throwing it open, the room filled with light and air.
Casting my gaze over all the flowers and greenery, I fell to my knees when I saw him.
Richard.
His intense gaze swung in my direction the moment he heard the door open. Leaving his place at the high altar, he came running over to me.
Grasping me by the shoulders, he lifted me up and pressed me against his chest.
The steady beat of his heart calmed me.
Placing a sturdy hand at the nape of my neck, his voice was