Escape (Part Three) Read Online Free PDF

the street. How do you think she would handle that? The world knowing she was fucking for cash and got knocked up?”
    I couldn’t look at Jennifer’s smirk without my nails scratching the wood of the chair, itching to reach across the coffee table and claw out her eyes. I didn’t mind her throwing my name in the mud but she would not come after my sister.
    “How long do we have to make a decision?” Jonah said.
    “Twenty-four hours. And that’s being generous.”
    Jonah nodded and stood. I remained frozen in my chair, watching the rug sink under Jennifer’s weight as she followed Jonah to the threshold of the room. Evie was on the other side, waiting to lead her to the front door.
    Chace was most likely standing on the second floor landing, watching Jennifer grab the knob, her blonde hair pulled into a perfect bun, one last look thrown over her shoulder. She wouldn’t speak to him but she had no problem flashing a sour smile, one that read: I have all the cards and you have jack shit, how’s it feel?
    The second the door closed behind her, Jonah took her seat on the couch. “We’re going to say yes,” he said.
    “Isn’t there anything you can do to stop her?”
    “Stop Jennifer?” Jonah shook his head. “I’m afraid we have to play by her rules.”
    A stretch of silence swallowed us up, Jonah watching me with his hands clasped between his knees, my fingers pressed against one another in an effort to keep my hands from trembling. Jennifer was wielding the knife and she had me where it hurt the most. My sister. My niece and nephew. My family.
    “I don’t want the world knowing who I am,” I said, a frown playing at the corners of my mouth.
    Jonah shrugged. “It’s a little too late for that.”
     
    ***
     
    That night Chace wrapped his arms around me as I stood at the bathroom sink, his lips dragging across my shoulder, dancing along the curve of my neck until he was kissing the spot below my ear. A small flutter of light flew from my stomach to my throat, but I swallowed it before pushing him away.
    His eyes burned into my back as I stepped into my room, my shoulders slumped as I ran a hand through my hair.
    “Are you still upset about what you have to do?” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
    “Of course I’m still upset. I don’t want to do it.”
    Chace shrugged. “Then don’t.”
    “I won’t let her drag my sister into this mess,” I said. “I made it, so I have to live with it.”
    Chace wrapped his hand around my wrist. He pulled me between his legs, both arms around my waist as he pressed his chin into my stomach. It was a strange feeling, like the heel of a foot against your torso, but it dragged a smile from me as our eyes met.
    “ We made it,.”
    “Maybe,” I said, dragging my fingers through his hair. “But she isn’t trying to slit your throat. Metaphorically.”
    “No,” he said. “She’s just trying to get me to submit to a relationship I haven’t wanted for months.” His lips caught in the fabric of my blouse. “My memory’s a little foggy, but I remember the moment I realized I didn’t love her anymore.”
    “Oh yeah?”
    “Yes. We were getting ready for her friend’s wedding --”
    “Hannah’s wedding?”
    He nodded.
    “That was two months ago.”
    “I know,” he said. “She came out the bathroom and she looked beautiful – pink dress, hair curled to one side – she looked like the girl I’d been dreaming of my whole life.” Chace rested his palms flat against my back, reassuringly, planting a small kiss to my stomach. “And as I was standing there, I looked at her and thought, this is the moment you propose to her. It’s now or never and like a snap in the dark, I realized, she was beautiful, I loved looking at her, but I didn’t love her.”
    I tried to imagine the two of us, standing in front of all of those people at the wedding, exchanging vows and taken with one another and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t see myself tearing up as