The Runaway Bride Is Marrying His Billionaire Boss novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Page One

Laurence slid the cursor back and replayed the end.

"Stay in this room until it's over. Make sure she runs."

My father listened with his hand on the doorframe.

When it ended, he said, "That's her voice."

"Yes, Dad."

"She told me you were already gone when she got upstairs." His mouth worked. "She told me you left because you couldn't face it."

"I left because you told me to marry him anyway."

He flinched as if I had slapped him.

He looked at Shelby, who had pulled her knees up on the chair and would not meet his eyes.

Then he looked at the second file on the screen, the one with no name.

"Don't play the other one," he said.

"Why not?" Laurence asked.

"Not tonight. Not with her in the room."

"Dad, what's on it?"

"Nothing I can say to you in a kitchen." He wiped the rain off his face with a trembling hand. "I need to sit in my car."

He turned and walked out onto the porch.

I heard the car door shut, and then nothing.

I did not go after him.

I had gone after him once, in a corridor, and he had told me to marry Brett.

Shelby fell asleep on the sofa with the towel over her head.

Laurence put a blanket on her, and then he stood a moment looking at the lake through the window.

Gray light was coming up over Pike Lake.

My father's car was still in the drive with its windows fogged.

Laurence brought two mugs out to the porch, and I took one and sat on the top step in his shirt.

The boards were wet, and the lake was flat and silver.

"I have a proposal," Laurence said.

"I've already married you."

"A different one." He sat down a step below me, with his back to the post. "My head of security found Brett an hour ago at the Lakeview Motel bar. He's drunk, and he's alone."

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