Left to Die at the Altar

Chapter 2 Suffocating in White

There was no dignity left to save. I let go of Dante’s trousers and crawled.

The silk dragged over the marble and caught under my knees, but the oak side door was only a few yards away.

I had noticed the servants’ entrance during the rehearsal. If I could reach it, I might get outside.

Elena’s heels followed me across the stone. She knelt with a worried look for the guests, then spread her skirt around my upper body and blocked their view.

“Oh, you poor thing.” She placed a comforting hand on my back.

Under her dress, her heel came down on my hand. She ground my knuckles into the marble until pain shot to my elbow.

“Still fighting, you gutter rat?” she whispered into my ear. “You really thought you could become a Romano? You’re nothing. An orphan who got lucky. Dante is mine. This family is mine.”

I managed a strangled gasp. At least the pain kept me conscious.

The pews erupted behind us. “She’s turning blue!” a woman screamed. “Someone call 911!”

Someone began tapping at a phone.

A gunshot cracked through the cathedral.

The crowd screamed. I lifted my head and saw Dante at the altar with his pistol raised. Smoke curled from the barrel.

“No one is calling anyone. Lock the doors. Now.”

His men obeyed. The cathedral doors slammed, and the bolts slid home.

“This wedding is suspended.” Dante’s announcement bounced off the stone walls.

“It will resume when my fiancée learns that the honor of the Romano name is not a toy she can use for attention.”

He looked at me on the floor.

“It is a duty. Until she is ready to respect that duty, she can reflect on her behavior in the back.”

Whatever love I had left for him ended there. He had locked the doors to protect his pride while I suffocated.

I stopped crawling. There was no escape. But there was another option.

I bit through my lip. The taste of blood and the pain kept me awake long enough to find the hard lump sewn into my bodice over my heart.

The micro-transmitter sent one signal, directly to my father. He had made me promise to use it only when I was one breath from death. Dante had never understood how much power my father held.

I squeezed until the electronics cracked inside the casing. The signal was gone.

Dante’s men approached, their polished shoes scuffing the marble. They meant to drag me out of sight.

Then the floor began to vibrate.

The vibration became the roar of heavy engines. They were coming straight toward the cathedral.