The Blackmail Bride

Chapter 30 Part 1

How are you?

Disrespect

There were days that I hated my brain. Like now, with how easily it had memorized the stupid script which went like this:

I, thirteen at the time, had fallen in love with a nineteen-year-old hotelier. And as if by fate, the boy had felt the same about me. Cue the eye roll. But seeing as I was still what you would consider a child and him being understandably hormonal, Jace Black had turned to other women. Utter. Garbage. Four years later, we met again and I was already of marriageable age. Overjoyed, he decided I was the one and here we were, engaged. The end. Now burn it.

The writer who did this should be the one paying me. For moral damages. People who thought this was 'okay' were absolutely out of their minds.

And here I was, going to defend it with my "acting" skills alongside Jace Black who had more or less agreed to this script too.

But truth be told, in the last two weeks I was locked up inside of my room, the story we were selling was the last thing on my mind.

Anyna Ruiz.

That was one. And how up until today I had not returned her call.

"I could help you leave. Please, Isla, let me help you escape from the—!"

Her words before I ended the call echoed in my vacant thoughts.

Leave? Escape?

I assumed in the same way that she did on her own engagement party.

And I hated myself for the sudden burst of hope at the idea she had presented. I had to remind myself that Anyna's escape was a stroke of luck. It was something no one had tried before and no one in that party had expected.

Whereas in my situation... the Porter family would never let me leave. Jace Black would not tolerate an escape. It did not even warrant a try to know how heavily disadvantaged I was.

It was utter foolishness to even think of it.

But if I was being completely honest... it wasn't just for the futility of her suggestion that I was not calling her back. Mixed with relief, there was another emotion swirling in my chest at the sound of her voice. I knew it wasn't a good emotion. And as I wasn't sure I could hold myself in a conversation and not scare her away. So I had decided to push back having to contact her. Postpone... postpone...

There were other things I had to focus on. Which brought us to the second thing on my mind.

My phobia of reporters.

In two weeks, I had prepared myself mentally over and over regarding this interview. I was determined not to freeze up and go blank. I was going to keep it together and get through the interview looking like a normal person. No intrusive thoughts, no flashbacks.

I had to get through this.

I had done it before. I just had to anchor my thoughts to the right focus.

I wasn't alone in this interview—

If only it was that easy.

I was doing this interview with Jace. Jace Black who I had not contacted for the whole two-week duration before this interview. It was pretentious to put all the blame on my parents who had confiscated my phone and laptop.

Guiltily, I had felt better with them doing that as I wanted to avoid Jace after the engagement party.

Even now that I had my phone back, I didn't bother turning it back on. I was going to meet him here anyway. What was a few more hours, right? There was no problem there.