CHAPTER ELEVEN
OLIVEKNEWIFshe was going to escape, it had to be tonight.
This wasn’t going to work. He was so angry with her, with everything, and so convinced of his rightness. She’d tried connecting with him, tried to find their footing and he’d closed it all down.
He had said he’d never love her.
And she just needed...
She needed some control back. She’d given it all to him when she’d told him there had been no one else, no other men. That the baby was his and she’d loved her father and she was broken by his loss.
That she’d wanted Gunnar as a gift for herself. She’d told him that.
She felt unmade.
Unraveled.
Her father had told her never to fall apart like this. To never let her emotions cloud her judgment. To never let them take the lead.
And here she was.
She needed to regroup. She could not let him take control of her. She could not be...here with him, she just needed space to sort it all out.
And maybe part of her just couldn’t accept allowing him to win.
He wanted her here. Wanted to marry her. Wanted her on his turf.
Or maybe you just don’t want to be with someone else who looks at you like you’re a disappointment...
She shut that thought down.
Yes, her father had sometimes treated her like she might disappoint him. Yes, that had hurt. But daddy issues weren’t the thing here. Maybe. Probably.
Handily, in her new clothing, he had included clothes with which to make a track in this sort of weather. She still had her phone, though, and she had managed to charter herself a private jet, which would land soon enough, some distance away from his home. The airstrip there was private, and the pilot had been adamant that he could not land on it without permission from the owner, which was going to be a problem, since she needed the owner to not know that she was fleeing. It would sort of undermine her escape if he knew.
At midnight, with the snow falling softly outside, she put on the fur-lined leather pants, boots and parka that he had provided for her. And then she slipped from the bedroom, ready to make her way down the hall.
She was not going to keep him from coming after her forever, but she didn’t have to be secluded in his mountaintop retreat.
She was going to get back on her own turf, get her lawyers involved, get into a position where she could attempt to defend her business.
Attempt to defend herself.
He could not force her down the aisle, after all. If he was intent on ruining her either way...
This was the thing. If he did not have her, he would have to negotiate. And she needed to put Gunnar in a position where he had to negotiate.
He would have to give a forfeit of some kind. If he was holding her bodily against her will, then she became the token.
And she did not wish to be the token. So, she would not be.
Keeping her footsteps silent, she slipped through the living room area, and to the corridor that led to the sky tram.
Of course, it was only when she arrived at the sky tram that she had the thought that she actually had no idea how to run the sky tram.
She looked for a box and tried to figure it out. Look for controls. She couldn’t see anything. It was dark, and the snow was coming down thick.
But that was okay. She was intrepid. She knew exactly how they had gotten up, it was a straight line. And so, she decided to head down on foot. She knew that it would be a bit of a long walk, but thankfully she was outfitted. She was prepared.