Meredith headed to the elevator and pushed the up button. She was wearing her flats, a straight khaki skirt she had gotten at Target and a light flowy green blouse that buttoned up the back she had found at a thrift store. She wasn’t dressed to impress like she had been the previous Friday or how Brayden had suggested, more so demanded that she dress from now on should she sign the contract. She had woken up thinking about what to wear. She did manage to do her makeup to bring out the gold in her eyes like Taylor had showed her. She liked it. It was simple to do and light. She didn’t like those caked on layers of makeup looks that took hours to apply.  The elevator stopped at floor twenty-six and picked up a couple of guys that got off at floor thirty-one. Meredith only had six more floors to go. She was hoping someone would get on and help stall the elevator and sure enough it stopped at floor thirt

Meredith looked at Brayden Maxwell with contempt. He didn’t care that he was ruining her life. In fact he thought he was helping her by forcing her to marry him. She had just started dating again and finally able to enjoy herself after two years of heartbreak and here comes this rich asshole thinking he could twist her arm until she cried uncle. Well she did actually call her uncle earlier in the week but that’s besides the point.She sighed and rummaged through her bag to find her cell phone. She finally found it under her soup spoon and pulled it out. She looked up at Brayden again and he made a motion for her to go ahead and call her parents. She decided to call her father first. She wasn’t entirely sure why she chose him. Maybe she felt like he would tell her without asking a ton of questions first. She chose his number under Father and dialed listening to it ring twice before he pick

“I can’t go to your flat now!” Meredith objected.“Our home.” Brayden corrected her. “Why not. We are married.”“I don’t have any clothes for one.”“I had Sean run an errand and pick you up a few items of clothing.”“What!” Meredith flushed with embarrassment. “My sister helped.” Sean added from the driver seat.“See there you have it. Even a womans touch to make sure it’s suitable.” Brayden said.“But what about Dino.” Meredith continued.“Dino?”&n

Meredith found Dino in the bedroom near the office. He was curled up in the far corner of the closet as if he were trying to get as far away from wherever he was being held against his will. He looked up at her with his ears back and a sad but angry look in his eyes. “I’m sorry Dino.” Meredith crept slowly towards him. “I had no choice. I had to marry him.” She apologized to Dino and he let her pick him up and hold him close in a cuddle. Involuntarily he began to purr and she was glad he wasn’t going to be traumatized for life over the ordeal. She couldn’t say the same for herself. And poor Dino was going to have to stay locked up in this little room. “Not if I can do something about it.” She sat there with Dino in her lap stroking him and wondering if she would have been better forever obsessing

Meredith was falling. She felt her stomach lifting and doing flips and turns in synchronicity to her body as she continued to free fall. She was wearing a blue dress and a white apron. She looked around and saw she was falling through Alice’s rabbit hole. She was Alice. She saw her father on an old tv set in the roots. He was at a dog race with tickets in hand looking nervously out at the field. The shot cut away to the dogs and focused on one that had the lead but was being gained on quickly by the pack. Meredith looked away and along the other side of the tunnel she saw another tv set with her mom sitting at their home office desk. She was calculating something and crying while she did it. The screen blinked in and out like it was losing reception. Meredith felt a tear slide down her own face as she watched until it was nearly out of view. S