Chapter Two
Elizabeth stood hand in hand with Michael, looking up at him and knew she couldn’t go through with this. She didn’t love him. The child she carried, that no one but her knew of, wasn’t his. But how?
How had she let things get this far? Granted, she’d only confirmed her suspicions.
But instead of going to Michael and explaining then, she’d done as everyone instructed and had gotten ready for here and now.
She couldn’t do this, she knew. Her hands shook and she glanced out at the guests, the people who had come here to watch her get married.
Some of them would be disappointed, Mama certainly, but it wasn’t until she spotted one face that she knew what to do. What she had to do. She lowered her gaze for a moment as she steeled her resolve to keep her head up no matter what anyone said. She could do this.
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth whispered as she met Michael’s gaze.
He frowned slightly, as if wondering what she was talking about.
“I’m so sorry,” she said a little louder, before pulling he hands from his. She turned to Pastor Winterborn. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.” She turned to face the guests. “I can’t do this,” she said loud enough for everyone to hear, though her eyes never left one face.
As soon as she stopped speaking, she looked down, picked up her skirts, and hurried back down the aisle.
A quick stop in the dressing room for her handbag and she went to her car and got the hell out of there.
First things first, she had to get away from here.
Away from the mistake she’d almost made, but where could she go?
Not home. Michael had a key to her place, and she wasn’t ready to talk to him.
Not yet. Would she have time to stop and get clean clothes?
She wondered for a moment as she drove aimlessly, her only goal was to put some distance between herself and everyone else, between herself and the church, between herself and Mama.
Elle wasn’t sure which would be a bigger drama, Michael or Mama, and she wasn’t ready to handle either, not yet.
Give her a little time to settle her nerves and to think a little, then she’d talk to them.
She was an adult, despite how things might look right now.
Yes she was running, but it was just until she could figure things out.
She should have done this as soon as those two pink lines appeared this morning.
Screw it. It wasn’t like money was tight.
She made a good living. If she wanted to stay in a motel for a couple of days, she could buy new clothes for the time too.
She could head toward that little town where Kevin had gone.
Wait. He didn’t go by Kevin anymore. He went by Hex now.
She needed to remember that. Anyway his town was only about half an hour away.
She assumed he’d go home afterward, with home being so close, why wouldn’t he?
She didn’t know if there was anywhere to stay out there, but she could find something on the way if she needed to.
She was about halfway there when she yawned. She needed to find somewhere to stop soon. She was exhausted, and not just from the wedding prep all day, but the secret she’d been worrying about at the same time. That had worn her plumb out.
When she spotted a sign for a hotel, she pulled in and parked in the closest space before grabbing her handbag and heading inside.
It only took her a few minutes to secure a room and get a key. She ignored the raised eyebrows and curios looks as she picked up the hem of her dress and headed for the elevator.
In the room she fought the urge to fall flat across the bed and pass out. Instead, she stripped out of her dress, and all the undergarments she stood naked for a moment before pulling her slip back on. She couldn’t walk around the room in nothing, even if she was the only one there.
She grabbed her phone and headed for the bathroom.
She’d asked for something with a large tub so she could run it full of hot water and soak for a bit.
After starting the water running in the tub she pulled up the app for the big box store just down the road and ordered clothes to last her a couple of days, along with hygiene stuff and anything else she could think of, ordering it to be left at her door in the next hour and a half.
The tub was more than half full now, so she sank down in the water, letting the heat absorb into her bones. When the water was almost to the rim of the tub, she turned it off and leaned back to relax. She didn’t know how long she’d been there when her stomach rumbled.
She tried to remember the last time she’d eaten more than a bite or two.
Not in the last two days, at least. She let her head fall back to hit the wall.
No wonder she felt so bad. She picked up her phone again to see what kind of food she could have delivered.
Sure, she could wait until the clothes were delivered and go out herself, but she didn’t want to.
She wanted to stay here and wallow, at least for tonight.
In the morning she’d pull herself together and figure out what she could do about putting together the life she’d just imploded.