Chapter four- Mistaken for his runaway

Chloe's Pov

I pushed the bathroom door open and stepped into the hallway.

Ruby was already gone.

Two tall men stood a few feet away.

They turned towards me at the same time.

One of them looked me up and down, eyes narrowing.

“Ma'am, you really thought you could run away from him?”

The second man took a slow step closer. His voice was harder.

“Are you trying to get yourself in trouble? You think escaping is something he just lets go?”

I blinked. “What?”

“Enough of this,” the first one said. “We’re taking you back to your husband. He’s already been informed.”

My stomach dropped.

Husband?

What husband?

I looked around quickly, half-expecting to see the girl from the bathroom still nearby. There was no one.

“Are you… referring to me?” I asked. My voice sounded small.

One of them exhaled, impatient.

“You’re coming with us. Now.”

He reached for my arm.

That was when it hit me.

Ruby. These men had been looking for her — and they thought I was her.

Panic shot through me so hard my hands went cold.

“Wait—no. You have the wrong person. I’m not Ruby.”

The words tumbled out too fast.

“I’m not her. I only met her two minutes ago. My name is Chloe. You’re looking for someone else—”

They exchanged a quick, dismissive look.

A hand closed around my upper arm. Another took the other side. Their grips were firm.

“Hey—stop. Let me go.”

I tried to pull free. They didn’t slow down.

“Help!” I shouted. A few shoppers turned, but the men kept walking, steering me toward the exit like this was routine. “You’ve got the wrong girl!”

My phone slipped out of my pocket and hit the floor. I twisted, trying to reach for it, but they lifted me half off my feet and kept moving.

They pushed me into the back of a black car and shut the door. The locks clicked.

I was breathing too fast. My chest felt tight, like someone had wrapped a band around it and kept pulling. The car pulled away from the curb. The mall disappeared behind us. Buildings and traffic slid past the windows as the city moved on without me. I forced myself to sit up straight in the back seat, but my body wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Listen to me,” I said. My voice came out thin. “I know how this looks. I look like Ruby and I understand why you're confused. But I'm not her. You have to let me down.”

One of the men in the front glanced back at my clothes — plain jeans, blue top, scuffed sneakers. His expression hardened.

“You changed outfits,” he said. “Where did you get these from?” He gestured at my outfit. “Someone must have been helping you. Who was it?”

Fear shot through me so fast my vision blurred. Tears spilled over before I could stop them.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, voice shaking. “I don’t know who you think I am—”

“Don’t lie.”

“This is abduction!” The words tore out of me. “You can’t do this! Let me out.”

One of them shook his head slowly, like he was looking at someone who had lost her mind.

“Just drive,” he told the other man.

They must be taking me to Ruby's husband.

I pressed my fists into my thighs and tried to think straight. Once we got wherever we were going, he would look at me properly. He would see I wasn’t his wife. He ought to know her better than these men.

***

The car turned through iron gates—white columns, dark windows, and hedges cut too perfectly. A driveway that curved long enough to make the front door feel miles away.

They dragged me from the car before I could think. Sneakers scraping stone. One man’s grip crushed my arm until I stopped fighting. I forced myself to look: heavy front door, narrow windows, a side path vanishing around the corner. I was looking for an escape route just in case.

“Let go of me—!”

They half-dragged, half-walked me through the front door and straight up a wide staircase. I fought. My sneakers slid on the marble. My arm twisted behind my back until pain shot up into my shoulder, and still I didn’t stop fighting.

They hauled me down a long hallway and stopped in front of a heavy door. One of them unlocked it. The other kept a hard grip on my arm.

“We’ve been ordered to lock you in his room.”

“No.” The word tore out of me. “No, you can’t. Please—listen to me. My mother is sick. She’s paralysed. There's a medication she takes every single night before bed. Without it she could have another stroke. She could slip into a coma. She could die. I’m the only one who gives it to her. She has no one else. Please. You have to let me go. Please—”

The two men exchanged a look.

“Has she gone crazy or something?”

One of them asked.

My knees hit the floor. Hands clasped so tight my fingers went white. Tears came hot and fast, blurring everything.

“Please,” I begged, voice raw and shaking. “I’m not crazy. Something terrible is going to happen to my mother if I don’t get home. She must take the pill before bedtime. Please. I’m begging you. I’ll do anything. Just let me go to her. Please—”

They stared at me in open shock.

Then the second man exhaled hard and shook his head.

“She’s lost her mind,” he muttered. “Come on. Orders are orders.”

They hauled me up by both arms. They shoved me through the doorway hard enough that I stumbled and hit the floor on my hands and knees. The door slammed behind me.

I scrambled up and threw myself against the wood, fists clumsy, knuckles splitting almost immediately.

“Open the door!” I screamed. “Let me out!”

Behind me the room was large—big bed, dark furniture, windows set too high. It smelled faintly of cologne and clean laundry.

A man’s room.

I ran to the windows anyway. Locked. I tried the bathroom. No way out.

My phone was gone. I had nothing.

My body was shaking so hard I could barely stand. I slid down, my back against the door, my legs giving out underneath me. I curled into a ball on the floor.

My mother is all alone.

I saw her face in my mind—the way it had looked when I was leaving. She had said that something bad was going to happen.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to the empty room. “Mom… something bad really did happen. You were right and I didn’t listen.”

Hours had passed.

I didn’t know how many. The light behind the high windows had shifted from afternoon gold to something thinner. My voice was gone from screaming. I had stopped hitting the door a long time ago.

Then I heard it.

A key sliding into the lock.

I scrambled up on shaking legs, eyes fixed on the door as it slowly swung open.

A man walked in.