The Bride In The Wrong Wedding

"Don't say another word!" Lena’s voice ripped through the vaulted cathedral, violent and raw, echoing directly over the priest's microphone.There was no hesitation. No time to second-guess the catastrophic mistake she was about to make. Lena slammed her weight against the heavy mahogany doors, bursting into the grand sanctuary with a force that sent a bewildered usher stumbling backward. Her chest heaved, her breath tearing through her throat like shattered glass.She didn't look at the hundreds of elite guests. She didn't care about the sea of designer gowns, the flashing cameras, or the gasps of sheer outrage erupting from the pews.Her eyes were locked dead on the altar. On her younger sister."Emma, stop!" Lena screamed, shoving past a cluster of groomsmen who were too stunned to react. "Don't sign anything! You can't marry him!"The cathedral plunged into a deafening, horrifying silence, broken only by the sharp click of Lena’s heels against the marble aisle.At the altar, Emma

"How do you know about that?!" Lena’s scream tore through the soundproof cabin of the SUV, laced with paralyzing terror.The warehouse. The cold concrete. The stench of blood. The dying man. It was the darkest corner of her mind, locked away behind years of therapy and forced smiles. No one knew. Not Emma. Not her mother. Not even the doctors who claimed her trauma was just a side effect of a concussion.She shoved violently against Adrian’s chest, her nails digging into his suit. "Who are you?! Are you one of them? Did they send you to finish it? Answer me!"Adrian did not flinch. He kept his massive frame hovering over her, his hands caging her wrists against the seat. His eyes scanned every millimeter of her panicked face."I'm not one of them," he said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "I’m the reason you were there.""Liar!" she spat, kicking at his legs. "You’re a twisted liar! I saw the hospital records! You told Emma you were in a car crash eight years ago! You told her

The explosion of noise inside the confined space of the SUV was deafening.*Bang!*The heavy object Lena had blindly fired kicked back violently against her shoulders, nearly dislocating her wrists. A blinding flash of muzzle smoke filled the cabin, stinging her eyes and burning her throat.The masked man lunging through the door froze mid-motion. The tactical rifle slipped from his gloved hands, clattering uselessly against the pavement outside. For a fraction of a second, he stared down at Lena with wide, disbelieving eyes through the slits of his tactical mask before his knees buckled and he collapsed backward out of sight.Lena dropped the weapon, her entire body shaking so violently she couldn't even draw breath. Her palms were raw, smeared with gunpowder and sticky warmth. She had just shot someone. She had crossed a line she could never uncross."Lena!"A large, heavy hand grabbed her shoulder, pulling her out of the frozen stupor.Adrian hauled her up into the front cabin, his

"You just painted a glowing neon sign on our backs!" Lena’s voice trembled, slicing through the heavy, suffocating silence of the ruined SUV the exact second Adrian ended the encrypted call. "You want an investigative journalist here? In the middle of a pitch-black forest? While the professional assassins who just unloaded a dozen armor-piercing rounds into this car are actively hunting us with military rifles?!" Adrian did not flinch at her rising panic. He turned his imposing frame toward her, the dim amber light of the dashboard casting harsh, sharp shadows across the fierce, unapologetic angles of his face. "If we keep blindly running in the dark, Lena, we remain prey," Adrian stated, his voice a low, dangerous rumble that vibrated through the cramped cabin. "And I do not play prey. If they want a ghost from eight years ago, I am going to give them a public resurrection they will never forget." He reached across the center console, his movements rigid and tightly controlled. H