Part 2Regret Came Too Late

I scrambled backward in terror. “What are you doing? I’m not running! You can’t just attack me!”

“Oh, we know what you’re thinking, Miss Audrey,” one of them growled. “Even if you’re not running now, you will be later.”

“It’s easier to just break your legs now,” Mrs. Gable added with a vicious smile. “That way, we know you won’t be crashing Miss Lily’s big day.”

“My parents will hear about this!” I yelled, my voice shaking.

“And what will they do?” she laughed. “I’ll just tell them you were trying to escape and fell from the second-story window. They won’t lift a finger.”

“Do it!”

They swarmed me, their clubs rising and falling. I heard the sickening crack of my own bones. My white wedding dress blossomed with crimson, a horrifying sight. But they didn't stop. It was as if their goal wasn’t just to stop me, but to kill me.

“If I die here today, the Blackwoods will destroy you!” I gasped.

“You still think you’re their precious daughter?” Mrs. Gable spat. “You’re just some stray they took in by mistake! They wanted to throw you out the second they found Miss Lily. It was your brother who begged them to keep you. Said they could just treat you like a stray dog!”

“Trying to steal Miss Lily’s fiancé? You don’t deserve to live!”

A horrifying realization dawned on me, and I started to laugh, a broken, hysterical sound. “So this isn’t about the wedding. You’re trying to murder me.”

“An accidental fall during an escape attempt… entirely plausible, don’t you think, Miss Audrey?”

Panic seized me. I could die, but not like this. This wasn't the death I had chosen. What if the system didn’t count it? What if I couldn’t go home?

Fueled by a surge of adrenaline, I lunged forward, tackling the guard in front of me. I crashed into a small altar where my mother had lit a candle for Lily’s well-being. The candle tipped over, its flame instantly catching on the heavy drapery.

The room went up in flames.

“You little bitch! You set the house on fire!”

In the chaos, I dragged my shattered body out of the mansion. The estate was covered in security cameras; they wouldn't dare follow me past the gates.

I stumbled onto the main road, a gruesome sight in my blood-soaked wedding dress, dragging my broken leg. I tried to hail a cab, but car after car swerved around me, the drivers horrified.

Finally, a young woman pulled over, her eyes wide with concern. “Oh my god, do you need help?”

I begged her to take me to the hotel.

The hotel was owned by my father; the staff all knew me. The security guards and front desk clerks stared in shock but didn't dare stop me.

When I reached the entrance to the grand ballroom, my family was there, greeting guests with brilliant, happy smiles.

The moment they saw me, those smiles froze and shattered.