TITLE:RUNAWAY BRIDE

Chapter 10: LOCKDOWN

The car sped off from the estate.

Alex was on the phone, voice sharp. "Double the security. No one in or out. I want cameras on every angle."

I was still staring at my hands. "They were at your mother’s house, Alex."

"Yes," he said. He hung up and looked at me. "And that means someone close to us is talking."

My stomach dropped. "You think it’s—"

"I think nothing," Alex cut me off. "I know."

Back at the penthouse, everything changed.

The doors were locked. New guards. New scanners.

I was officially in lockdown.

"You can’t leave," Alex said. "Not until we find who’s doing this."

"So I’m a prisoner?"

"You’re alive," Alex said. He walked to the bar and poured two glasses of water. He gave me one. "Drink."

I took it. My hands were still shaking.

"Who could it be?" I whispered. "My ex? Someone from your company?"

Alex sat across from me. For once, he didn’t look like a CEO. He looked like a man who was tired of fighting.

"I don’t know," he admitted. "But whoever it is... they want you scared. And they want me distracted."

There was a knock. One of the guards.

"Sir. We traced the number. It’s a burner. But we got CCTV from the estate gate."

He handed Alex a tablet.

Alex watched it. His jaw clenched.

He turned the screen to me.

A figure in a hoodie. Spray painting the gate.

Then the figure looked up. Straight at the camera.

And smiled.

It was my ex-fiancé, Daniel.

My glass slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor.

"He found me," I breathed.

Alex stood up. "No. He found *us*."

He walked to me and crouched down. Eye level.

"Lily. Look at me. You’re not going back to him. Not ever. Do you hear me?"

I nodded. Tears were burning my eyes.

"Good," Alex said. He wiped a tear off my cheek with his thumb. Quick. Then he stood.

"Lockdown starts now."