Lahat ng Kabanata ng She's No Beauty Queen: Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

Mark was relieved Lily was talking to him again. Maybe he could use this as an opportunity to talk her out of her ridiculous plan. He would need to warm her up first before bringing out the big guns and trying to talk about her family. Arguing with her so early in the day wouldn’t accomplish anything.He couldn’t even be mad about the things she said yesterday because most of them were true and the things that weren’t were too embarrassing to correct her on. He had always known she said what was on her mind and couldn’t fault her for it.If he was in her position, he might be frustrated about the wishy-washy way he had treated her too. But that didn’t mean he was okay with her idea to potentially sacrifice herself to save someone who was probably already dead.Mark tried to keep things light as the three of them drove up together. Parking was so scarce in San Francisco that they wouldn’t be able to park anywhere near the starting line so it wasn’t like anyone would see them all get ou

Once Lily finished her speech, she handed the microphone off and headed toward the starting line where Mark was waiting for her. Eddie wasn’t terribly far away, ready to keep an eye on her too.She had seen a fair amount of media types here already but hadn’t spotted the familiar face of the man that kidnapped Angel. She was certain she would know it anywhere after studying the picture the hacker sent over.He was completely plain. Nothing about his features stood out at all, which would make it hard for average passersby to remember him as he committed crimes. The restraining order that singer took out on him couldn’t possibly be his only offense. Just the only one that got reported.Lily planned to call the cops on him once they safely recovered Angel. They didn’t have to mention she had been a victim too so they wouldn’t dig into her secrets. If the man took her, she would technically be a victim even if it was willing on her part. The cops wouldn’t know that though.Everything cou

The kidnapper listened to a CD all the way back to (what Lily assumed was) Monterey. The normalcy of the action surprised her. Crazy people were still people, after all.It was terribly uncomfortable lying on her side with all the bumping and whatnot for two whole hours. She spent the entire time going back and forth between worrying about how this would turn out and wondering what Angel was like in person.Allowing herself to be kidnapped was one heck of a way to introduce herself to her identical twin. It would probably make quite an impression and not necessarily the one she wanted to make.Lily desperately tried not to think of the alternative. Getting there to find her dead already. At least Eddie and Aria would have a body to bury that way but she still didn’t want to think of it.Angel had to be alive. All of her gut feelings couldn’t be wrong.This was going to work and she was going to make it home in time for dinner. Because if it didn’t…her mom was going to bring her back f

Lily, who was helping Mark tie the man on the floor up with a bit of difficulty since he was getting some movement back, managed to see the exact moment their eyes locked. Eddie didn’t even seem to notice the cage or the fact that his fiancée looked like a train wreck. All he cared about was the fact that she was alive and in one piece.He drank in the sight of her with an intensity that could rival the sun’s, frozen in time for a moment. She was frozen too with utter disbelief written all over her face.“Eddie,” Angel whispered as if he was the most wonderful thing she had ever seen in her life. The moment broke and he rushed forward into the cage and got on his knees before wrapping her in a desperate embrace.“Angel! I thought I’d lost you!” Eddie cried.Her tears, which had stopped briefly when she realized the man on the ground wasn’t going to come after her again and help had come, flowed freely but they were tears of relief this time. She hugged him back just as tightly and bur

Angelina blinked at him in surprise. What were the odds that they would both end up missing at the same time? He seemed like he was telling the truth but she wanted to hear Lily’s version of the story anyway.“And playing me?” she prompted.“I had to stick to our deal,” Eddie said as if it was obvious. “I didn’t want you to get in trouble with the pageant people but using Lily was Mark’s idea. I’m sorry about that too…but it ended up working in our favor because it was how we got you back.”That still didn’t make sense. Why would he care about her not getting in trouble with the organizers? Was he that much of a stickler for the contract? But it didn’t specify anything like this in case of emergencies. All he was supposed to do was be her sponsor.“Why did you go to so much effort to help my career?” Angelina asked, confused. Her head hurt from all the questions and crying too much earlier.“Because—”He was cut off because they had arrived at the house and as they were getting out of