About Last Night (Last Night #3)
Chapter 1
ELIZABETH
They say no good story begins with the main character staring into a mirror.
I don’t know who they are, but maybe they’re right.
Then again, where else would a bride be just before her wedding if not in front of a mirror, decked out in her wedding finery?
Of course this bride has tears streaming down her face, ruining the makeup that took hours to perfect. No amount of foundation or waterproof mascara can hide the sheer devastation of discovering you’re about to marry a lying cheating liar no matter how skillful the makeup artist.
The brisk double tap on the door pulls me from my thoughts and my gaze from the mirror. Staring at the back of the door, I know I need to make a decision.
A second knock, and Olivia’s whispered, “Elizabeth?” has me dragging in a fortifying breath before leaning over to unlock the bathroom door.
My two best friends slip into the room, barely opening the door before shutting it behind them. Olivia is the first to notice anything is wrong and before she says a word she wraps her arms around me.
Squeezing me tight, she whispers, “Whatever you need, we’ll do it.”
“What are you talk—?” Alexandria’s gaze lands on my face, her eyes going wide. In less than a second, her expression turns from confusion to fierce determination. “Who do we need to bury?”
Her words have a smile tugging at my lips. The first since I overheard my fiancé and his best man. I love the changes my best friend has gone through since being with Garrett. The polished veneer our upbringings coated us in has slowly slipped away and I couldn’t be happier for her.
Before today I wasn’t sure those changes were a good thing.
Then again, before twenty minutes ago I thought I was marrying a man who, while not in love with me, at least respected me.
Now I know the care Peter showered me with over the last year was nothing more than a smoke screen, a diversion—distraction—for what he really wants.
Control of my grandparents’ company.
Or more accurately, the billions of dollars it’s worth. I’m worth.
Olivia finally lets go only for Alexandria to take her place. While she’s holding me as tight as she can with the stupid hoop and layers of tulle beneath my wedding dress keeping her at least three feet away, I’m wondering how I got here.
In the bathroom of the church I’m supposed to get married in, crying my eyes out with betrayal and anger.
Why did I let Peter’s mother talk me into such a ridiculous dress?
Or this elaborate and lavish wedding with five hundred guests and a barrage of media outside the door?
I always imagined my wedding would be intimate—personal—to me and my groom.
Things are intimate, all right. Just not between me and the groom.
The groom and the best man however are definitely finding this wedding intimate.
“Okay, let her go,” Olivia orders. “Let’s clean up your face while you tell us what you need.”
“Go.”
Both of them look at me with confusion. Neither seems to understand what I’m saying because they lean in armed with makeup wipes and begin cleaning my face.
“I need to go.” A hiccup punctuates the final word. Getting out of here is all I can think about. Escaping somewhere I won’t have to see anyone I know or explain why I’m about to become a cliche.
A runaway bride.