Gemma Ricca smiled at her reflection in the mirror. A faint sheen glowed from the wedding dress she wore. A simple bun adorned her hair. Her smile faded as once again doubts about marrying Anthony Moreno surfaced. Could she spend the rest of her life as a cherished possession? Because that’s what she felt like most of the time. One more thing Anthony owned.
With a sigh she moved to the large plate window, shoved it open, and leaned on the sill to catch a breeze and gaze at the thick wooded scenery.
The Morenos had wanted an exclusive wedding, closed to the public and reporters. She shrugged. That was fine with her.
From the window, she watched Anthony and his father, also named Anthony, stroll down a path by the log cabin that was as far from a normal log cabin as it could be. Large and sprawling, the home of a Moreno relative in upstate New York made a beautiful location for a wedding. No expense had been spared.
“You’re next in line, Junior.” Anthony’s father’s voice drifted toward her as he clapped him on the shoulder. “Now that you’re getting married, it’s time you prove to the family that you have what it takes to run the business.”
“What do I need to do?” Anthony squared his shoulders, more handsome in his tux than a man had a right to be. The sun tinted his dark hair with blue lights. He hitched his carved-in-stone jawline.
“You need to get rid of the oldest Esposito son. No need to dispose of the body. Word needs to spread that you are stepping into my shoes.”
“What if my wife finds out?”
“We don’t tell our wives any of our business. Their job is to do what they’re told, look pretty, and give us sons. Anything more than that, and they’ll be punished. Keep control of your household, son. Can you do that?”
“Absolutely.” He glanced at the house.
Gemma clapped a hand over her mouth and stepped behind the curtain. Anthony was going to murder someone? Her blood chilled. What kind of family business did the Morenos own? She’d been told they’d made their money in sales.
Gemma dropped to a stuffed ottoman. She was marrying into the mob? No, she couldn’t. Her hand rested on her stomach where her unborn baby was no bigger than a kidney bean. She wouldn’t raise her child to take over this business someday.
A quick glance at the clock showed half an hour until the ceremony. She’d have to leave now. Gemma glanced around the room. Her suitcase full of expensive clothes would have to stay. Without a car, she would have to flee through the woods in hopes of finding someone to give her a ride. She’d worry about clothes when she arrived at her apartment.
Fortunately, she’d kept her apartment with his good wishes, although she lived with Anthony. A woman needed her own space, he’d said, but that would end when they got married. Everything in her apartment had been packed up ready to be given away or brought to the mansion. All she had to do was grab her safe, a box of clothes, and the old address book which was all she had left of her mother.
Anthony wouldn’t know anything was amiss until she didn’t show up for the ceremony and someone came to check on her. That gave her a thirty-minute head start. It was enough.
She peered out the door. The hallway was empty. With no family or friends to speak of, her room was crowded with bridesmaids and friends. No, the women assigned the task of being her bridesmaids chattered together in another room, wanting nothing to do with the woman who would take Anthony Moreno off the market.
She slipped off her shoes and stepped into the hall. A shrill laugh rang out from the bridesmaids’ room. One of those women was more than welcome to her fiancé.
Where would she go? She vaguely remembered mention of an aunt, her mother’s sister.
She bit the inside of her lip and tiptoed down the back stairs and out a side door. Caterers, the florist, and a bartender milled around, some of them smoking cigarettes. Gemma flashed a grin and headed down a dirt path strewn with leaves as if it were a natural thing for a bride to do on her wedding day.
Once out of sight of the house, she hitched up her gown and sprinted as fast as her bare feet would allow. No way a rock would dare be on a path owned by a Moreno. Gemma had no idea where the path led, only that it headed away from the house. God, please let it lead to a road.
A stitch stabbed at her side. She stopped and leaned against a tree to rest. So much for using the home gym five days a week. Breath easing, she straightened.
Her veil tangled in a low tree branch. She pulled it from her head letting it sway as a beacon to freedom.
She burst through a thick growth of bushes.
A horn blared as a car missed her by less than a foot. The car screeched to a halt. A red-faced man stuck his head out the window. “Are you crazy?”
“Please. I need your help.” Gemma approached the car. “I need a ride into town. Please.”
His eyes roamed from her dirty bare feet to the soiled hem of her wedding gown to her expensively made-up face. “Climb in. Can’t say as I blame you for fleeing your wedding considering who you were about to wed.”
“You know who I am?”
“Sweetheart, everyone in the state of New York knows who you are. Where to?”
She gave him the address and slouched in her seat. The path to freedom would be harder than she’d thought.
“Do you have any money?” The man asked.
“Yes.” Thankfully, she’d kept her inheritance in an account separate from Anthony’s.
“You’d best take it out of the bank before Moreno finds out you’re gone.”
The man was right. One more thing to do before she could leave town. “Can you drive faster? I don’t have a lot of time.”
The man drove her to town where she hired another man to drive her into the city. He dropped her in front of the elevator in the parking garage and wished her luck.
Gemma rode to the third floor, receiving several curious glances as she darted for her apartment. She gathered the gown around her then slammed the door behind her once she was inside. Fifteen minutes later, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved sweater, she had her safe and a large suitcase in hand.
Back in the garage, she tossed everything into the trunk of her car before driving to the bank. She wasn’t able to withdraw all her money—no bank carried that much—but she was able to withdraw fifty thousand, and have the rest held until she opened another account somewhere else.
Her heart stopped when she glanced at the clock. She’d already been gone from the wedding location for several hours. Anthony would know she’d left. Hopefully, he’d think she’d return. The man’s arrogance wouldn’t allow him to believe otherwise. Not at first anyway.
She put the cash in the safe in the trunk of her Cadillac, slid back in the car, and opened her mother’s address book. Someone had updated an address since her mother’s death. Her nanny, Rosa, perhaps? The elderly woman had warned Gemma not to marry Anthony, but the stars in her eyes had blinded her, much as the tears threatened to now. Rosa had written in the address to a place in Misty Hollow, Arkansas. She’d somehow known Gemma might need it someday.
She put the address into her GPS and headed toward her new home. Hopefully, a place she could start fresh where nobody knew, or cared, who she was.
With her hair stuffed under a baseball cap, she bought a pair of oversized sunglasses at a truck stop, so no one gave her a second glance when she stopped for gas or to catch a few hours of sleep in her car before continuing. She ate fast food and had never felt freer in her life.
Bless Nanny Rosa. With her mother’s death at Gemma’s birth, her father had withdrawn into himself, leaving Rosa to raise his child, thinking a healthy trust fund could suffice for his parental duties. Then, Gemma had gone off to a prestigious college, groomed for the privileged life of a rich girl and met Anthony Moreno. How things had changed. Now, at the age of twenty-five, she found herself pregnant and on the run.
She laughed. Running from the mob shouldn’t feel freeing, but now no one was waiting on her, advising her how to dress, and telling her what to eat. Yes indeed, she felt very free.
Less than three days later, she approached the Ozark Mountains, lush green against a bright blue sky. Hope leaped in her chest. No one had caught up to her, and her new home was only a few hours away.
She crossed the Arkansas border and turned to climb a mountain. The Cadillac’s engine purred despite the steep incline. Off to her right, she caught the occasional glimpse of a small river. Beautiful.
She turned a sharp curve at the bottom.
A deer darted into the road.
Gemma screamed and jerked the wheel.
In a flash, the car plunged over a small cliff, plowed down saplings as it sped downhill, then landed with a splash into the swiftly moving water.
Gemma lowered the window and climbed out before the water could fill the car. She grappled to hold on to the door frame, but the swift-moving water yanked her away and into the bank, only to grab her again and pull her deeper into the current.
She opened her mouth to scream for help only to take in water. The taste of marine vegetation and fish filled her mouth. She raised her head heavenward. “Help!” The water pulled her down, closing over her head.
Had she left Anthony only to die before living—truly living for the first time? “Help!” God, please.
She grasped for a low tree branch. Her fingers brushed the leaves as she passed.
Her limbs grew heavy. Her strength ebbed, and she went under again. “Help.” She swallowed more water. Heavy coughing wracked her lungs.
Standing on the shore in the distance, a man fly-fished.
Gemma caught sight of his wide eyes as she floated past. She stretched out her arm. Please.
He dropped his pole and raced down the bank alongside her. “Hold on. I’ll get you out.”
She couldn’t. She submerged again, not having the strength to claw her way up. Gemma relaxed and let the current take her where it would.
- Publisher : Winged Publications
- Publication date : August 17, 2022
- Language : English
- Print length : 229 pages
- ISBN-10 : 195665464X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1956654646