Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE ARRANGED BRIDE : Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

OLIVIA'S POV The cab whirled through the night, the city lights fuzzy out the window as I fought to keep the tears in. It was all just so real: Kellan and Sharon wrapped around each other in that kiss. I feel my chest caving in; with every turn, I told myself I'd wake from this nightmare."Ma'am, we're here," the cab driver's voice pulls me back into the reality of night. I lift my head, and Brian's building comes into view in front of me; so awfully familiar. It had been the first place I'd had the urge to run to-just as instinctively as I had so many times before. But that thought twists something in me, leaving a sour taste in my mouth. I couldn't keep running to him every single time Kellan broke my heart. What I really didn't want to be was that girl that needed to be saved every time things fell apart.I paid the driver and just stood there shaking as a cold breeze whipped down the empty street. Everything in me was screaming not to turn away from Brian's building. I didn't wa

KELLAN'S POVI finally opened the front door and immediately started having some very bad feelings, some sort of unease. Something was wrong with the house; it felt too quiet, too still. The lights were turned off, but there was no movement, nothing like those usual feelings of warmth that greeted me the moment I came home. I turned on the lights."Olivia?" I called, letting the sound of my voice fill up the empty spaces.Silence, thick unnatural silence.I kicked off my shoes and padded down the hall, peering into each room as I went. Nothing. Half expecting her to pop out and surprise me or tell me she'd been waiting for me to get home, just no sign of her. That all-too-familiar stir of anxiety humming in my chest, a signal I'd grown to recognize wasn't a good thing, was now abuzz.I frowned and pursed my face; it was late, she would never stay out this late. She said she'd be back by evening from the charity event; if she was running late, she'd let me know. She hadn't. Which wasn

KELLAN'S POV These agonizing hours dragged on for two days-48 hours without so much as a glimpse of Olivia. Seconds, minutes, hours-like knives cut deeper, twisting into my chest. I had hardly slept or eaten, having frayed nerves at each little sound that could make one jump into action and head out. Without her, the house was cold and empty, an outright haunting reminder of the worst possibilities etching themselves time and again into my mind.The police were doing all they could, but it wasn't enough. Not knowing was killing me, and deep inside, a part of me just couldn't help but feel, too, that maybe they just weren't trying hard enough, that maybe she was out there somewhere, somewhere, God, desperately waiting for someone, waiting for me to save her. I couldn't stand the silence, the maddeningly eternal marking of the clock, which mocked me for any inability to do anything. Brian had been keeping me company along and was trying to stabilize me in his own peculiar way; however

KELLAN’S POVNews replayed in my head, some broken record, words digging deeper, poisoning me with despair. I couldn't believe it wouldn't believe it. There was blood. There was clothing. But there was no Olivia.I clung to that last shred of hope as I steered onto the edge of the cliff. I needed to see it for myself-to know.Brian sat quietly beside me, supportive but mute. I knew he didn't know what to say; what could anyone say when there was just no sense to any of this? He did know this was something that I needed to do, but were a pain nonetheless. Earlier, he tried being dissuasive that we should just let the police handle it, but I'd have been in a position to listen. She wasn't just some missing person to me; she was my all.We finally reached the edge, and I went out onto the road-my eyes scanning in every direction for where she could have fallen, trying to imagine where she could have gone-if she'd survived somehow. The thought clung tenuously to my head, refusing to let g

KELLAN'S POVI pounded my lids open, squinting against the incompressing morning light between the curtains; the steady beats in my head came regular, relentless. The room wavered a little as I sat up-remnants from last night's whiskey binge still churning queasily in my stomach. The memories were back now-flashes of arguments, fights, Brian's steady hand pulling me clear from the chaos.I swung off the bed and ran a hand across my face as I went into the sitting room. Brian was sitting there, staring at the empty whiskey bottles that littered the coffee table. He turned his gaze at me when I walked into the room; his eyes narrowed.“Good to finally see you awake,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. In that one swift second, the tone in his voice let out its disappointment, held for days in silence, until it broke through.I managed a half-hearted nod as I sat down across from him. "Yeah, I guess I went a little too far."A little too far?" He sneered, running a hand through h