Right Imperfections |✔ [Book 1 of Runaway Bride Series]

36. Today Is All We Live For

McKenna

I must have fallen asleep during the ride home because I wasn't in the car anymore. I turned my head to the left and saw the bed of roses I was sleeping on. It was beautiful and all around me, far and wide rose petals were strewn and I was lying on top of them like a princess in repose in a pure white dress that covered me modestly from my shoulders to my ankles and flowed into a full circle around me.

I sighed. I was content in this dream, far away from the horrors that were chasing me and on my own although I dearly missed Dan right now.

I closed my fists around me and felt the petals soft against my skin. Everything here was magnified and so were my senses. I could feel the petals all the way to my bones and I imagined them float all over my body like a lover's caress.

We need to decide a date, darling. You surely must remember that you're engaged to me.

Evan's evil snake like voice filled my ears again. Why did he come back and what playground had he mucked this time? Which woman had he taken a liking to in the passing and why was he still so hellbent on destroying my life?

I don't love him.

You're weak, my darling. What will you do without me? His laugh.

I don't love him. I did love him a long time ago.

You know that we are meant to be, you can't run away from it, McKenna.

He tore my love to pieces. And I stood by him even in all that distress.

Your family will be disappointed.

I stayed by him because I was a coward and I believed he would love me back like he did in the beginning.

I love you, darling. I'm sorry I've been taken with work lately that's why I've been disconnected.

Work? Yes, he was going to be named CEO this year when his father took his retirement. I was to stand by him when he was honoured.

I hope you loved our house. We are going to live there. I'll always take care of you like I've done in the past. You're quite the child, remember?

Yes, he always did take care of me in the past. I wasn't just a fiancé or a girlfriend I was a responsibility. A company worth responsibility, a few billion dollars' worth responsibility.

The roses under me began to prod into my skin and I turned away from my mind to look at them. There were roses no more and all of them had been replaced with thorns. I felt a sting on my arm and I cried out and then I felt pricks and slices all over my skin. I placed my hand on my dress and looked down.

A shriek was locked in my throat. The dress was white no more instead it was blood red with seeping scarlet rivulets washing off the ends. It was weeping blood, the blood the thorns pulled from my skin. I was weeping blood under me on a bed of thorns.

I was a coward.

And then the screams woke me up.

I sat ramrod in the bed and looked around me to take stock of my surroundings. I was in a dark room with dark billowy curtains and silk was wrapped around me naked skin. I grabbed it and saw the black silk sheets under me and realised that was at Dan's place. His bedroom had black sheets.

He wasn't sleeping beside me on the bed and his clothes were also not tossed carelessly around the room like he did before climbing under the covers. He didn't come to bed.

I shoved the sheets off my body and felt the cool air kiss my bared flesh. He must have taken off the dress and tucked me in, I thought as I climbed off the black bed and searched for something. I flipped the switch on the night lamp and muted yellow lights flooded around me. The clock on the nightstand read 1:48 and I saw my silk black robe folded and placed on the chair near the bed.