CHAPTER 3: THE MONSTER SHE ALMOST MARRIED
CHAPTER 3: THE MONSTER SHE ALMOST MARRIED
Ryan fled the church.
Emma and Victoria followed.
The chase ended inside an abandoned lakeside house.
There, Emma discovered the horrifying truth.
The missing women were alive.
Barely.
Ryan had imprisoned them for years.
He never wanted a wife.
He wanted control.
Every relationship was carefully planned.
Every engagement was a trap.
He targeted women who had nobody to protect them.
Women the world would quickly forget.
Emma was supposed to be his next victim.
The final victim.
As police surrounded the property, Ryan laughed.
Then revealed one last secret.
"I knew Mother was investigating me."
Emma looked at Victoria.
"You knew?"
Victoria nodded.
Tears filled her eyes.
"I found evidence years ago."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
Victoria's voice broke.
"Because every woman I warned disappeared sooner."
Ryan had powerful connections.
Witnesses vanished.
Evidence vanished.
Cases vanished.
The only way Victoria could keep Emma alive was to make Emma hate her.
To keep pushing her away.
To stop the wedding before it happened.
Every insult.
Every cruel comment.
Every public humiliation.
Had been an attempt to save her.
Emma suddenly remembered every moment.
The warnings.
The strange looks.
The desperate interruptions.
Victoria had never been trying to destroy her life.
She had been trying to save it.
Ryan was arrested that night.
The missing women were rescued.
And as the police led him away, he smiled one final time.
"You're too late."
Emma frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Ryan laughed.
"There was never just one of me."
Months later, investigators discovered evidence that Ryan had been part of a larger network.
The case exploded across the country.
And Emma finally understood something terrifying.
Victoria hadn't saved her from a bad marriage.
She had saved her from becoming the next missing woman.
The woman everyone would have forgotten.
May you like
Except her mother-in-law.
The only person who never stopped fighting for her.
