Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 87

Chapter 87

KISAREL.

I sat slowly on the edge of the couch because my legs did not feel steady anymore.

Moonie remained standing in front of me, arms folded, looking all impatient and beautiful and horrible.

“I got it six years ago.” I said.

Her face changed immediately. “Six years?” She scoffed.

“The time I ran away from the house,” I said. “When uncle Fred had threatened to kill me simply because I asked to see my father’s will.”

Moonie’s expression didn’t change.

“I was walking through the city, trying to figure out where to go. I didn’t have money. I didn’t have anywhere to stay. I just kept walking.” I paused, the memory surfacing in fragments. “And then I ended up near the Harrington Civic Hall. There was some event happening – a conference or a gala, I don’t know exactly what it was. People in expensive clothes coming in and out of the entrance. I wasn’t paying attention to any of it. I was just walking fast and looking for where to beg for some food.”

My fingers pressed into my arms.

“I remember standing somewhere in the shadowed area, trying to decide if I should go to a shelter or keep walking until morning. Then I saw someone.”

“Who?” Moonie asked.

“A woman.”

Moonie’s brows pulled together.

“At least, I think it was a woman,” I said quietly. “She had a hood over her head, and she was standing near the same shadowed area I had entered from. At first, I thought she was just standing there like me. Hiding, maybe. But then I saw her arm lift.”

Moonie’s lips parted slightly.

“She was holding a gun,” I said.

I could still see it if I let myself. The dark sleeve. The hand. The small black shape pointed toward a man near the curb. It had happened so fast, and yet my mind had kept the image with painful clarity,

“She was pointing it at a man,” I continued. “He was standing with other people around him. Security, I think. I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know anything about him. I just knew she was going to shoot.”

Moonie leaned forward a little. “And you ran?”

“I reacted.” My voice turned hoarse. “I didn’t think. I just moved. I ran toward him because he hadn’t seen her, and the men around him hadn’t seen her either. I wanted to push him away.”

My hand went to my shoulder before I could stop it.

“But I wasn’t fast enough.”

Moonie’s gaze dropped to where my hand had touched.

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Chapter 87

“The gun went off before I reached him properly,” I said. “The bullet hit me here. It felt like something hot tore straight through me. I remember my whole body feeling like it had been shoved forward from the inside.”

Moonie’s eyes moved slowly to my back.

“So that was where that ugly scar came from?”

The words were soft, but the venom in them still found skin.

I closed my eyes for one second.

Of course, that was what she would hear in all of this. Not that I was a frightened girl running from her father, who had threatened to kill me. Not that I had almost died for a stranger. Not the blood, the terror, the desperation.

It was the scar.

I opened my eyes again. “Yes. That’s where it came from,” I said, ignoring the way her mouth curved like she enjoyed knowing that I had gone through all that.

“The shooting caused chaos immediately. People started screaming. I remember falling, or almost falling. Everything became too loud at once.” I swallowed. “I didn’t see the man’s face properly. My hair was in my eyes, and I was dizzy, and my vision kept coming in and out.”

Moonie was barely breathing.

“He covered me with his jacket,” I said. “I remember that clearly. He tried to move my hair away from my face, like he wanted to see me.”

My throat tightened.

“But someone grabbed him.”

“Who?” Moonie asked immediately.

“I don’t know. One of his men, I think. They pulled him away. He didn’t want to go at first, or maybe I imagined that part because I was barely conscious. But they dragged him off because the shooter might still have been around.”

Moonie’s face had gone very still again.

I hated the way she was looking at me, like every word that came out of my mouth mattered.

“I knew the police would come,” I said. “And if the police came, they would ask for my name. They would call my family. Uncle Fred would find me.”

My voice cracked on the last part.

“I was more scared of him finding me than I was of the blood.”

“I forced myself up,” I continued. “I don’t even know how. My legs were shaking so badly. The jacket was still on me. I held it around myself and walked away from the premises before anyone could stop me. I didn’t get far.”

My fingers tightened around my arms again.

“There was an old service lane behind some buildings, not too far from the hall. Quieter. Darker. I think I went there because I didn’t want anyone to see me. Then everything started spinning. Gerald found me there.”

I looked down at my hands.

“I begged him not to take me to the hospital. I begged him not to call the police. I told him I couldn’t go back home, I told

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Chapter 87

him I would rather die than let Uncle Fred find me that night.”

Moonie was quiet for a moment, as if she were registering everything I said in her memory.

“And the watch?” she asked.

I drew a long breath.

“It was in the jacket pocket. I found it later, after Gerald helped me recover enough to understand what had happened.”

“What about the jacket? Where is it?” She asked, and I almost scoffed.

“Gerald said it had too much blood on it. He discarded it.” I lied. I couldn’t let her take that from me, too. I didn’t know why. But I couldn’t let her.

Moonie stared at me for a long time.

Then she asked, slowly. “You’re sure about everything you just said?”

I frowned harder. “Why wouldn’t I be sure?”

“Because you were wounded. Dizzy. Bleeding.”

“I know what happened.”

She looked at me for another second, then her mouth began to curve into something that looked like a real smile.

My stomach tightened immediately. “What?”

She straightened, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

“What is going on?” I asked, standing up too. “Why are you smiling like that?”

She did not answer.

“Moonie.”

“You’ve told me enough.”

“Enough for what?”

Before she could reply, the front door burst open.

I screamed and stumbled back.

Three men in black suits entered the house so fast that my mind barely had time to process the movement. For one horrifying second, I thought of the hooded man again.

Then I saw their faces properly.

They were Oceans‘ men.

Moonie froze.

One of them stepped forward, face blank. “Miss Moon.”

My heart slammed against my ribs.

Moonie’s eyes moved from the men to me.

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Chapter 87

For one second. I expected fear.

Instead, I saw satisfaction.

The man continued, “Mr. Stark wants you. Now.”

Two of them moved to her sides immediately and took her by the arms.

“No… Moonie.” I stood up immediately. “The necklace. You promised.“”

That smile was still there, and it was full of something I did not understand.

“Oh, cousin,” she said softly. “You really never know the value of what you have until someone smarter takes it.”

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