The Fiancée's Grand Design

tream G650 felt thin and

my wedd

f nature. I was an architect, a woman who built her own life from blueprints and hard work

lly sa

s and our closest friends and family to a private island in the Caribbean. My wedding gown, a

Mark' s parents, Johnson Sr. and his wife, were more composed, their smiles tight and polite. T

d, his thumb tracing

e whispered, his vo

is suit a familiar comfort. I felt a tiny, secret flutter in my lower belly. A new life, a sec

e calm s

lack ski masks, holding black pistols, stormed i

Champagne glasses

avelly command that cut through the panic. "This

d on Mark's arm. I looked at him, m

y stopped on Chloe Adams, Mark's childhood friend, who was cowering near the f

der said, pointing the

a small, ter

. He looked from Chloe's terrified face to mine. I saw something in his ey

h a speed th

't move to

hove

another hijacker. The force was brutal, unexpected. I stumbled on the hem of m

round my throat. The rough fabric

out, my voice a

shielding her with his own body. "Don't you touch her!" he roared,

l sound. He dragged me to the center of the ais

om made his choice,

e me, they made an example of me. The man holding me ripped the delicate lace of my wedding gown

w Mark' s parents looking on, a flicker of something like satisfaction in Mrs. Johnson' s eyes. The

n. A cramp, violent and deep. I gasped, clu

looking at Mark. "

tone. He didn't even flinch.

a sea of black spots. The pain in my belly intensified, a searing, tearing agony. I felt a warm g

ide me, our secret,

was Mark, turning his face away, refus

e back of the plane, discarded like a piece of trash. The cabin was quiet. They must have

Mark, talking to the hijacker leader nea

said. "Just like we agreed. Take it a

"She saw your face when you

voice, colder than I had ever h

efully. If one word of this ever gets out, if anyone ever finds out this was a

e harder than a

se

all a stage, and I was the sacrifice. He had plann

replacing the pain and the grief. It was a fire that burne

I was as go

as w

I would dismantle his life, his empire, his

ed dreams, I made a vow. The love I had for Mark Johnson di

away. He would know what it was to fa