Kept Bride (The Secret Bride #2) - Alta Hensley Page 0,5

get in the air and not fall out of the sky.

“Ember?” Christopher prompts as he breaks me from my thoughts. “You ready?”

Without waiting for an answer, he leads me to the plane and up the stairs. His hand stays touching some part of me the entire time, and I realize just how much I need it. I cling to it. I focus on it to try to calm the flutter in my chest and tone down the ringing in my ears. My legs feel weak as I walk up every single stair, and when we enter the jet, I try not to focus on the thin metal walls that surround me. It’s as if I’ve been swallowed up, and it suddenly seems harder to breathe.

“It’s going to be just fine,” he says softly from behind me. His lips are near my ear, and it takes all my might to keep walking forward to some seats he’s guiding me to. “I know this is all new and maybe scary, but it’s going to be fine.”

“You’ve never flown before?” Mrs. Davenport asks as she takes one of the leather seats.

“Mom, I told you. Ember was held captive just like me. She grew up in Hallelujah Junction. Richard—the man responsible for my kidnapping—held her there since she was a young child.”

I want to correct Christopher. I wasn’t captive. I wasn’t held there. Papa Rich is my father. Hallelujah Junction is my… was my home. But I remain quiet. Mrs. Davenport is glaring at me again, and I can’t help but get the feeling that the woman doesn’t care for me. By the way her eyes keep darting to Christopher’s touch on me, I can clearly see she doesn’t like him touching me one bit.

As we take our seats directly across from his mother, Christopher reaches over my lap and buckles a seat belt over me. Mrs. Davenport doesn’t like seeing this either. I miss the smile she had painted on her face before. She’s not even trying to hide her distaste now.

“So let me get this straight,” she finally says as the plane starts to move. “The man who kidnapped you—Richard—forced you to marry Ember, who he also kidnapped?”

“Yes,” Christopher says as he reaches for a shelf that stores glasses and some decanters of colored and clear liquid. He looks at me. “Do you want a drink?”

I shake my head. I worry I won’t be able to hold down what is in my stomach once this plane actually lifts off into the sky.

Christopher pours his mother a drink without asking if she wants one and then pours himself one. “The man was called Richard, and he normally kills anyone who trespasses,” Christopher begins. “I guess I should consider myself lucky he deemed me the one to marry his daughter… or who he considered his daughter… even though Ember is just as much a victim as I was. He made it look like I died in an accident, which sadly is how many other people actually died, and he kept me chained in the basement.”

I bite the inside of my cheek to stay quiet. I’m not a victim. I don’t like being referred to as one, but I also don’t feel it’s appropriate to correct Christopher in front of his mother. Instead, I look out the window at the passing scenery and try to not let the panic setting in overtake me.

“They told me you died while taking pictures. That you fell to your death in an old mining pit of acid. I had no idea. I just assumed that— I had no idea.” She shakes her head and breathes deeply. “What kind of sick man would do this?”

“There is no way you could have known I was still alive.”

“And you both escaped? Where is this Richard now?” she asks as she takes a long swallow of her drink. She leaves red lipstick marks on the glass, and I am once again reminded of the makeup I lack.

I wonder what this woman must think of me.

I feel plain and simple.

I also feel dirty and wrong.

I’m out of place, and I don’t belong.

“I waited until the perfect time. We started a fire that burned down the town. We thought Richard died in the fire, but the police just told us that might not be the case. Regardless, we are free from him forever. If he is alive, he’s a wanted man and will have to hide in holes until someone eventually finds him.”

“I think I’ll