The Runaway Groom

Chapter 11

The sudden bellow startled Irene, and as she spun around, she inadvertently knocked the box, sending it crashing to the floor with a loud bang!

Isaac was glaring at her, and he appeared at once incensed and murderous!

Flustered, she quickly explained, “I–It was an accident...”

She dropped to a crouch and tried to pick it up, but she felt something catching her wrist before she could reach the box, and the weight behind the grip threatened to crush her bones.

It was agony–her hand could have fallen off just then, and she was sweating from the pain.

“Keep your dirty hands away from it!” Isaac yelled in rage, his eyes red as he promptly flung Irene away.

Caught off guard, she stumbled backward and hit her head against the corner of a wardrobe nearby. The ensuing pain seemed to cut into her heart and numbed her. There was a dull ring in her head, and she could feel something warm flowing out–she reached out and felt around the back of her head, and felt a stickiness.

Unsurprisingly, it was blood, but it was not much.

She looked up, and saw between her disheveled locks of

hair that Isaac was carefully picking up the box, and his reaction alone made it obvious how important the box was to him.

He opened it, fearful that the contents were destroyed, and carefully studied it. Still, it appeared that the box had protected the contents.

He felt a sense of relief, but the thought that Irene almost broke it left his temper flaring–so much so that he could kill her!

Turning to glare at her with red, murderous eyes, he roared, “You really want me to kill you, don‘t you?!”

On the other hand, Irene got to her feet with much difficulty. Her numbness had dissipated, but now it was sheer pain gnawing at her nerves, and she stopped herself from shaking as she said, “Sorry...”

She could see that the box was a treasure to Isaac.

“Sorry? You think sorry would cut it?”

To him, she was as shameless as she was conceited!

Even as he closed in on her, the crushing pressure that his mere presence projected left Irene panicking and retreating fearfully.

Thud,

cornered against the wall, even

seized her chin with a pincerlike grip, and Irene thought she heard the sounds of bones dislocating. It hurt so much that she could not make a sound, and all she could do

a reaper straight from hell–his presence making one‘s

She tried to struggle but could not, even as he breathed into her ears, “I

emphasis he placed in the word ‘destroy‘ left her

fallen on the floor again if she

her standing otherwise. Meanwhile, Isaac returned the box to where it was. There was a photo frame beside it, holding

toward it without meaning to, and her eyes lingered for two

found the contents of the box a little familiar, Isaac roared at her before she could get a good look, “Get

curiosity–there was a chance Isaac would kill her if she lingered in the

room, Isaac‘s cruel visage eased as he looked at the contents of the box, a rare

and the owner of these objects were the last bastion

he remembered the little figure and the determination as she dragged him along

the clearest, purest

allowed his ice–cold

when Henry rushed to the scene.

little

poor temper... but he should not go so far as to hit a woman,

accidentally touched

a family photo?”

“Yes.” Irene nodded.

LLLLLL

what had happened right then, Henry sighed. “I don‘t think I can help you on this one... That box matters so much to him that I wouldn‘t touch him

box was to Isaac, especially when he kept it beside a photo

have something precious as well — the first birthday present she received from her late grandfather

not sure how she had lost it either, but when she was seven, her grandfather had brought her here to Jefferson Manor. She was too young to understand what was happening aside from there being a funeral, or who had just died–she only found out that it was Isaac‘s parents‘

child as carefree as any other, she ran off for

she saw a

was barely ten

she had

the boy struggle to survive ,

L1