Mr. Cole’s Runaway Bride

Chapter 1

At the party, Ethan Cole’s brothers boxed me in.

“I heard you were into Ethan since you were a kid, even insisted on being his ‘wife’ in games. So do you still like him now?”

Every gaze swung my way.

I looked past them to the man in the corner, pouring himself a drink as if none of this had anything to do with him.

“I was childish back then and caused Ethan a lot of trouble,” I said. “I don’t like him anymore, and I’m almost engaged.”

Somewhere close by, a glass shattered.

Ethan stared at the splash darkening his shoe. The rims of his eyes went red. He didn’t move for a long time.

I could have married him six years ago.

He never knew every near miss between us was something I staged.

Because I woke up.

This world was a tragedy on paper. Ethan was the hero. Grace Bennett, my older sister, was the heroine. I was the clingy villain who ruined the plot.

Our families were next-door neighbors and close. Ethan was three years older, just like Grace. You could call us childhood friends.

He always looked out for me, more than he had to.

I thought it meant he liked me.

From the day I was born, he was there whenever I cried or laughed. He was woven through twenty-two years of my life, and loving him felt as natural as breathing.

I can’t even say when it started.

I remember playing house when we were little. Ethan said he would be my dad, Grace would be my mom, and I’d be their baby.

I burst into tears, snapped a toy shovel, and said I should be the “mom” and that one day I’d wear a wedding dress and marry Ethan.

Grace laughed and nudged me into his arms. “Fine, fine. You marry him.”

Ethan didn’t say no. He called me “wife” and draped his grandma’s bright red handkerchief over my head like a veil.

I was five.

With that red veil, I dreamed for seventeen years.

Then came Valentine’s Day my junior year. It fell on a weekend.

I was out shopping with my roommate when I saw Ethan and Grace walking side by side. He reached over and flicked a leaf from her hair, then bought her a box of chocolates.

“Elena, did you see that? He bought chocolate. Do you think he likes your sister? Does she know you like him?”

My world buckled.

It only takes a moment to go bad. I convinced myself nobody loved me. Jealousy took root, and once it sprouted there was no reining it in. I couldn’t bear that the man I’d loved for so long kept someone else in his heart.

So at my graduation party, I spiked Ethan’s drink.

I took him home early.

He lost control the second we crossed the threshold, scooping me up and carrying me into the bedroom. His kisses fell hard and fast, roaming from my mouth to my stomach, then everywhere.

I was thrilled and terrified.

I didn’t just want to have him. I wanted Grace to walk in on the chaos.

Then he’d have no choice but to marry me.

And that was when I woke up for real.

Images from years ahead crashed through my head. Ethan would think it was a drunken mistake and, out of duty, marry me. It wouldn’t take long for him to learn the truth. He would hate me. Our life would rot into daily fights.

During one of them, he’d shove me on the stairs. I’d spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair.

Grace would never marry. She’d die in a car crash on a trip.

The day she died, Ethan would bolt out the door like a madman, leaving me, sick and helpless, alone. I would die in that bed.

Only after my death would I understand this world was a tragic novel. Because of my jealousy, everyone lost. No one got out clean.

“What are you thinking about at a time like this?” Ethan’s rough, held-back voice dragged me back.

His breath skated over the shell of my ear.

I touched his face and started to cry.

His eyes were so beautiful, but they had never truly held me.

He panicked, desire burning off him in waves. “Why are you crying? Do you… not like me?”

I did. I liked him down to the bone.

But I wasn’t cruel enough to let everyone die.

“Ethan, I regret this. I’m sorry. We can’t keep going.”

He froze. Then the last of his control snapped.

And right as I was struggling with him, Grace came home.

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