Chapter 3

ADALYN

“Forty-eight hours, Adalyn, or… you lose me as your father.”

Those words remained with Adalyn long after her father had left. She stood there too stunned to move. The slammed door left her ears ringing.

Her hands were shaking, and for a moment she couldn’t even think straight. 

She sank to the floor…her back against the edge of the bed. The tears threatened to fall but she fought them back. She was done crying.

Despite everything, all her father cared about was his stupid merger. He was willing to trade her off like she was a bargaining chip. 

A laugh escaped her lips…not because it was funny, but because she didn’t know what else to do.

No matter how hard she tried, nothing was ever going to be enough. She understood that now, fully, in a way she hadn’t let herself understand before.

She had lived her life by his terms, agreeing to everything he wanted.

Attended a business school against her will. 

Agreed to a loveless marriage for his selfish gain. 

She remembered the day he got home and broke the news of her marriage to Theo. No subtlety, just straight:

“You’re getting married to Theo Cross”

And just like that a marriage was decided without her being a part of that discussion.

She’d had enough. No more shrinking herself to fit into his plans. 

She glanced at the document sitting on her dresser. It sat there waiting for her to sign away her freedom and her happiness. 

She had been willing to go through with the wedding even knowing it was a loveless one. 

She was done being the price he paid for his selfish ambitions.

She sat still for a few minutes with knees up to her chest. Her eyes wandered to the drawer where she locked her phone. A part of her wanted to know if Theo had tried reaching out.

She took out the phone and turned it on. Immediately it came on, notifications poured in nonstop. Theo had tried calling her several times. She was both relieved and angry. 

What was he calling for? To tell her more lies, she scoffed.

Sophie had sent a message. Adalyn made a mental note to reply to her later. 

She decided to scroll through some social apps and of course she was the topic of discussion. She had so many tag requests, the world loved bad news.

She was still scrolling down until one post made her scroll back up with the speed of lightning. What she saw made her face pale. Her breath seized.

She kept blinking rapidly, thinking what was on her screen would disappear on the twentieth blink. But it remained there.

Right on her screen was a picture of Theo.

With a blonde haired woman holding his arms. Both of them were smiling like the world revolved around them. 

Barely three days after she was almost killed and he had moved on?

She must really have meant nothing to him.

Wow! Just wow! Adalyn thought.

She became curious about who the woman was and decided to read the article.

Popular billionaire CEO, Theo Cross of Cross Global, whose bride ran away on their wedding day seen arm in arm with top model Anna Hudgens, who is also rumored to be his ex-girlfriend. Could this be the start of a reignited love?

Halfway through reading the article, tears blurred Adalyn’s eyes, making it hard for her to continue reading. Her head felt light.

While she was going through pain…he had moved on like the past few days didn’t just happen. She let the tears stream down her face forgetting her earlier resolve not to cry. She cried for a few minutes before she aggressively wiped away tears from her face.

“Fuck Theo! Fuck my father!” Adalyn swore. 

She’d had enough. She was leaving. 

Tonight.

With trembling hands and an even stronger resolve…she got up and pulled down a suitcase from her closet and began packing a few clothes. Each item she folded felt like a step forward, toward a new life.

She was nearly done when she noticed something in the corner of her closet — the music box Theo’s mother had given her, some months ago, at one of those dinners she used to insist Theo brought Adalyn. She’d instantly taken a liking to Adalyn. 

Adalyn almost left it where it sat. On second thought, she picked it up and packed it too.

With her box properly arranged, she was ready to leave.

The wait till nightfall was torturous as Adalyn’s mind wandered. She tried not to think of Theo or that article she had read. She just lay there staring at the ceiling and looking at the clock on her wall…willing it to move faster. 

She had no destination in mind but she definitely was heading somewhere far away from here.

Eventually it was nightfall. She left a note, not much of one, and set it on the document on her dressing table.

The garage still smelled faintly of dust and old leather when she pulled the cover off her mother’s car. It hadn’t been driven since she died.

Her father couldn’t stand to look at it, so it had just sat there, forgotten, the way he forgot most things that reminded him he’d once loved someone.

The engine coughed twice before it finally came on. It was a good thing the garage was a little far from the main house. She couldn’t risk her father seeing her.

She drove with the windows down, letting the cold air blow at her face, and let herself remember…actually remember, for the first time in years. Her mother’s hands on this same wheel. Summer trips with the radio turned up too loud. Her mother laughing at something that wasn’t even that funny, just because Adalyn had said it.

Whatever happens, promise me you’ll choose yourself.

She hadn’t understood that promise at seven years old. She understood it now.

The road was dark and empty except for a Pontiac vibe idling outside an abandoned bakery. 

For the first time in weeks, she let herself breathe. 

No father. 

No merger. 

And most importantly, no Theo. 

The thought of him made her grip the wheel so hard that her knuckles turned white. She hated the fact that her stupid heart still loved him.

In the mirror, a pair of headlights held steady behind her, too far back to explain why she noticed them at all. She told herself it was nothing…maybe the person was in a rush to begin a night shift. 

She swerved her car to the other side of the road to make way for the person but the car remained behind her. She shrugged and continued driving.

Then, at the intersection, they weren’t behind her anymore. They came from the opposite direction at her side at full speed and rammed into her.

Shattered glass was flying everywhere. Then everything went silent. The ringing in her ears was deafening. She felt something warm slipping down her forehead and she slowly drifted into unconsciousness.

Then everything went dark.