Running Away Before She Gets Me

I opened my eyes when I felt a pat on my shoulder.

In my daze, I dimly registered the doors opening. Jeannie Goodman stood in her wedding gown on the stage. She looked pure and angelic under the lights. Not even the music could drown out the audience's gasps of admiration as they praised the bride's beauty.

But an icy terror had me breaking out in a cold sweat.

Someone cued me to walk toward the bride. I had specifically requested this. I looked toward the stage in the distance and met Jeannie's gaze. Her lips curled, and a steely resolve came over me as I turned and bolted out the doors.

"The wedding's off! I will never marry her!"

At once, the audience burst into an uproar.

The hotel was huge, and in my panic, I could not find the right exit. Before long, Jeannie's family caught up to me.

My would-be father-in-law's face was grim as he frowned at me in displeasure. "Sebastian, the wedding's about to start. Stop this nonsense and go back to wrap up the ceremony!"

I shook my head firmly.

I couldn't believe I had been reborn and transported back to the exact moment before my and Jeannie's wedding. If the heavens had given me a chance for a do-over, I was determined not to marry Jeannie in this lifetime.

One of her relatives urged, "You can hash things out after the ceremony. Jeannie's waiting for you."

What? Jeannie was waiting for me?

I thought I caught a white figure running toward me in my peripheral vision. That figure might as well have been an arrow aiming to take my life.

Without another moment's hesitation, I opened the window next to me and leaped from the third floor. I was lucky that an awning below caught my fall, though my bones ached as I rose to my feet.

However, the pain was nothing compared to the heartbreak I'd felt in my previous life when I discovered Jeannie had kept me in the dark for over 20 years.

I pressed a hand to my waist as I limped toward my escape. The guests at the hotel poked their heads out of the window in alarm. "Are you out of your mind, Sebastian? Are you seriously running away from your own wedding?"

Jeannie was among them. She was anxious and disbelieving. "Sebastian, what are you doing? What will happen to our wedding if you walk away now?"

I would never have done this in my previous life, but things were different now.

"Jeannie, marrying you is the biggest mistake I've ever made, and I've decided to make it right. Remember, I was the one who left you." I did not bother checking Jeannie's reaction before I hailed a passing cab and took off.

I knew better than anyone that Jeannie hadn't worn the wedding gown for me. I was not the man she wanted to marry.

Memories rushed through my mind as I recalled the scene at the police station. The cop had asked me then, "Can you tell us what you know about Gregory Sanders, the man with whom your wife, Jeannie Goodman, committed suicide?"

I had been so helpless and shocked. I had spent over 20 years with Jeannie, yet I knew nothing about her.

I would not make the same mistake again in this life.