Distracted by A.K. Evans

 

PROLOGUE

Ellery

Boundaries.

A line in the sand.

The straw that broke the camel’s back.

I considered myself a tolerant woman. I’d have to be to have accepted my fate eight years ago, but there was a limit to how much I was willing to endure.

A week ago, I reached that point, and I couldn’t have been more grateful that I’d spent the better part of the last five years preparing for this moment.

Of course, no amount of preparation made it any less terrifying.

Doing it this way meant I was going to be taking a huge risk. I knew I’d be putting a target on my back if I did.

But I had no choice.

I wasn’t sure I’d have stayed alive if I stuck around.

So, I did what I had to do to keep myself safe for the last week, and I pretended all was good in my life.

The reality was that I’d spent many nights awake feeling nothing but dread. It was everything I could do not to give into all the fear I felt and let it consume me in a completely different way.

I couldn’t allow that to happen.

If I did, I knew I’d never find my way out. I’d never see them again, and I’d never be happy. I’d already lost far too much.

Getting ahead of myself wouldn’t help, either.

This was going to take time, planning, resources, and grit.

Fortunately, my resolve was strong, and I was going to do whatever it took to find a way out of this mess.

That’s why I was currently on my way to the mall.

I hated the mall.

Hated it.

But today, the mall was going to be my saving grace, because nobody else knew how much I hated it. In fact, I’d devised a plan and come up with a strategy based on the fact that I’d learned how to pretend for the majority of the last eight years.

I’d done all of the little things necessary. I made the money, fulfilled the roles, and pretended I was content with my life. Happy, even.

But I wasn’t.

I hadn’t been genuinely happy since before I landed myself in this position.

No sooner had I pulled out of the driveway for what would be the last time, and onto the street in the fancy Range Rover I hated driving around because of all that it stood for and represented in my life, when I glanced in the rearview mirror and realized I was being followed.

Of course.

I always knew this was a possibility. In fact, I expected that the moment I needed to execute what I’d devised, someone would follow me.

That was why I was heading to the mall.

It was one of the few places I’d be able to go where I could be gone for hours without anyone questioning my disappearance. Plus, anyone who was ever tasked with having to follow me never followed me inside. They’d spend hours waiting in the parking lot until I finally exited the mall and returned to my vehicle.

Then they’d follow me back home.

I’d done this for months.

Not what I was planning to do once I got to the mall, but just going there. I did it because it was necessary. I had to make it believable.

It was the only way I’d eventually be able to get out.

Nobody knew what I had planned.

Nobody.

So, for all anyone knew, this was just another one of my spending sprees.

And I couldn’t say that it wasn’t expected. In fact, Patrick was expecting this was where I’d be going. If not today, then another day this week.

There was a function coming up this weekend, so I was going to have to get dressed up and attend it. Wearing the same dress twice to anything like this would have been frowned upon.

Yep.

The mall would be my saving grace.

I just wished I wasn’t being followed. My whole plan already had me feeling anxious; I didn’t need the additional nerves from knowing that someone was going to be there.

Deep breaths. I just needed to keep taking deep breaths.

Did they know? Was it possible someone had found out what I was planning?

No.

No, that wasn’t possible.

I was just working myself up too much.

This would be fine. It was all going to be fine.

By the time I parked the car in one of the spots in the mall parking lot, I had to take a minute to pull myself together. Because when I looked in the rearview mirror again, I saw that I’d been followed all the way here. I knew where the tail had parked, and I was well aware of the fact that if I appeared to be anything other than the woman I’d portrayed over the last eight years, I wouldn’t have the chance to get a head start.

Screwing this up was not an option.

After taking in one final deep breath, I reached across the center console to my oversized handbag. That was another thing.

I’d had to use this handbag on several occasions before, just so it wouldn’t seem strange that I was using it now.

Nearly everything that was mine had been left behind, but there were a few things I needed to take. One of those things was my laptop. So, I made sure I put that in my bag before I walked out the door this morning.

This was it.

With a fake smile plastered on my face, I exited the vehicle, hooked my purse over my shoulder, closed the door, and locked up the car.

Then, I took off toward the mall entrance, and I did it with a bit of a bounce in my step.

Whatever it took.

I was going to do whatever was necessary to make sure I could see this through and get out.

Once I was inside, I immediately walked into the first store on my left at the entrance. It didn’t matter that I didn’t intend to purchase anything from the store that carried accessories for teens and young girls. I merely wanted to take a few minutes to confirm that nobody was following me inside.

Granted, on the one hand, I felt confident and empowered enough to finally take charge. Or maybe it wasn’t so much about confidence as it was about desperation. Either way, even if I had reached the point where I couldn’t continue to stick around, I still feared for what would happen if anyone learned what I was planning to do today.

I might not have known who Patrick was eight years ago, but I knew him now. And accepting this in my life now was no longer an option.

I gave it some time in the accessories store, and when I was reasonably confident I had nothing to worry about, I didn’t hesitate. I made my way to the opposite end of the mall.

It had been eight years of feeling like a prisoner.

Eight years living someone else’s life.

I didn’t have any expectations about what would come once I got away, but I knew that this had to stop. If it didn’t, there was no telling if I’d be alive a year, a month, or even a week from now.

So, I left the mall from another entrance, tossed the phone in the trash on the way out, and hopped in the car I’d gotten for myself three days ago.

A car I bought for myself using my own money.

A car Patrick knew nothing about.

I turned it on and drove away, immediately heading to the place that I prayed would give me the last piece of the puzzle I needed to keep myself safe.

Because this wasn’t the life I had ever envisioned for myself.

Then again, I wasn’t sure that what I’d wind up with when I got out would be that, either. But what else did I expect?

All my dreams went out the window when I was forced to marry a criminal.

The only thing I could do now was hope that he’d never find me.