Page 81 of Runaway Bride’s Husband

As I realized that, my whole world stopped spinning and my stomach completely bottomed out. I jumped to my feet. The last thing I saw was both Ryan and Daniel shooting me quizzical looks before I spun around and raced out of the bar.

Jeez, this is really becoming a habit. But seriously. I can’t stay there. What the fuck? He’s being paid. Ryan Thayer is getting money from my family. What. The. Actual. Fuck?

“Maggie!” Ryan called, but he didn’t follow.

This time, it wasn’t him who came after me. It was Daniel.

“Maggie, wait!”

I pushed through the door and into the cool night air, barely even aware of the people I nearly knocked over as I stumbled onto the sidewalk. It felt like I couldn’t breathe, like I was suffocating on oxygen-filled air.

The one person in the world I had trusted with everything was being paid to get me down the aisle, but that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that I had no idea whether he’d been doing this all along for the money and if, maybe, that meant Ryan Thayer had never even wanted me at all.

CHAPTER 35

RYAN

Iwatched Daniel take off after Maggie with my heart in my throat and regret already burning a hole through my soul. That should’ve been me and yet, I couldn’t very well race after her when I was the person she was running from this time.

Besides, with the news that the wedding was definitely back on out there now, it would only make things worse for her publicly if she was seen arguing with me on a sidewalk. It was better this way. No matter how much it hurt to let her go.

“What the hell just happened?” Marcus asked a few full seconds later, looking completely bewildered as he looked between me and the door. “Was it something I said?”

“No.” I set my drink down carefully, ignoring how hard Holden was shaking his head behind Marcus and standing to look him in the eye. If I was going to ruin my life, I wanted to do it the honorable way. Not that it would make a difference or soften the blow, but still. “I’m in love with your sister, Marcus.”

Holden planted his face in his hands but stood too, lingering like he wasn’t sure if he was about to have to break up a fight. Marcus didn’t take a swing at me, though. His eyes merely narrowed in confusion as he glanced back at the door like he was thinking about taking off after her too, even if only to confirm the truth of what I’d just said.

“You’re what now?” he asked, finally swinging his gaze back to mine. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know, but I’m in love with her and that’s why she ran. Well, it’s probably more because she now thinks I was being paid to spend time with her, so thanks for that, but the long and short of it is that she ran because of me. Not you.”

“You’re in love with her?” he repeated slowly, staring at me like I’d just announced I was joining a cult in Belize that existed exclusively to help protect the swamps from Toucans. When he eventually managed to speak again, only one word came out. “Why?”

I ignored the question despite every urge to launch into a monologue about how great she was. It was highly doubtful that would be helpful in this situation, so I stuck to the facts instead. “What your family is putting her through is insane. I realize that Daniel is your best friend and you probably can’t fathom why she wouldn’t want to be with him, but she’s planning this completely crazy wedding in the hopes that for once in her life, your parents will see her for who she is.”

Holden sighed loudly, swiping up a full drink I was ninety percent sure wasn’t even his from the bar. “This is escalating pretty fast, Ry. Consider landing the plane.”

I rolled my eyes, but he wasn’t wrong, so I looked back at Marcus, who still hadn’t said another word, and made my point. “She’s hoping that if they can just see her for who she really is, they’ll lay off her and let her be her weird little self instead of someone’s wife. At least until she can find someone they’ll approve of who will actually embrace her quirkiness instead of trying to pretend it doesn’t exist.”

I scrubbed a hand over my jaw and reached for my drink, draining it in one long gulp before setting the glass back down on the counter with a soft thump. “She deserves that, don’t you think? She deserves someone who’ll love her for exactly who she is, and I don’t know him that well, but somehow, I doubt Daniel is going to want a wife who insists on having a carnival as a wedding reception and a potentially haunted chapel as a backdrop for the ceremony. Just some food for thought.”

Holden groaned. “You really are screwed.”

“Truly, madly, and deeply,” I agreed, then stormed out after them.

As soon as I pushed through the doors, rain drops stung my overheated face and soaked through my shirt, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. Maggie and Daniel stood under a streetlight just down the way, arguing in the rain like this was the final scene of an overly dramatic romance movie.

In this movie, however, I wasn’t the true love who was running after them to save her from choosing the bad guy. Instead, I suddenly saw the situation for exactly what it was. Daniel was the best choice and I was the bad guy, standing between her and a man who could give her everything she’d been raised to want and need.

He had the money, the prestige, and the family name that actually meant something. The future he could offer her was miles from what she would have with me. Hell, I couldn’t offer half of what he could.

It’s the Thayer curse, isn’t it? Being stuck in the almost or what-if zone.

Maggie turned when she saw me, her face streaked with mascara from a combination of rain and tears. “Is it true? Did Marcus pay you to get me back and to go through with the wedding?”

“Yes.” My voice came out ragged and scratchy against the pain of seeing her this upset and knowing I was the cause, but I swallowed past it. “I’m sorry, Maggie. It’s true.”

Although it was right there at the tip of my tongue, I didn’t tell her that I hadn’t taken a cent despite how many times he’d offered. I could’ve told her, but I didn’t see a way out for us, at least not with a happy ending, which meant I had to take a step back.