Rhedeg i ffwrdd.
Welsh for Running Away
Two hours later, Adrienne was at the airport with Justin. She wasn’t thinking. She didn’t care. She knew it was wrong in some way. But she felt tired of doing everything that everybody around her expected of her. She lived with a stepmother who never saw anything good in what she did, a father who didn’t know how to stand up for her, and now she had a mother who mapped out her future without even telling her. Maybe the time had come for her to think about herself. Time to follow her heart and go after what she wanted. And that’s Justin.
Jin walked in to the lobby of the airport, carrying a small bag with him. She texted him that she left the party and she needed him to bring some of her stuff to the airport.
He looked at her with a sober expression on his face.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Adrienne,” he said to her.
“I don’t,” she said to him. “But for the first time in my life, I’m just…doing what I want.”
He smiled at her and looked over at the counter where Justin was, booking their flights.
“And it’s him?” he asked.
Adrienne nodded. Then she asked him, “Jin…did you know that Mom arranged a marriage for me?”
Jin raised a brow. “No. If I knew, I would have done something about it. I’m against arranged marriages, Adrienne. I knew Mom played matchmaker. But I didn’t know she’d already sentenced you.”
Adrienne nodded. “She told me at the party.”
Jin smiled. “She was so worried. She didn’t know how to tell Christine that you didn’t want to go through with it. But then, you didn’t show up at the party and texted me that you left. Now, she feels so guilty that she scared you off.”
“Oh my God, Jin.” Her hand went to her mouth. “Is she okay?”
Jin grinned. “She’ll be okay. Let’s make her contemplate on what she’s done for a while. She can’t meddle with our lives like this.”
“Do they know?”
“That the guy they set you up with was already your boyfriend?” Jin asked. He shook his head. “Only I know. Because when your betrothed showed up at the soiree, I immediately recognized him. I remembered him from the bar the first time I met you. I didn’t know he was the Justin Adams, whose family had been so close to us all these years. But I wouldn’t tell her that, Yen. Let’s enjoy this little joke to ourselves for a while.” He grinned.
“What about Justin’s parents?”
Jin stared over to where Justin stood again. “I think…his phone has rung non-stop. I won’t be the one to break the news to them. If you ask me, our mother and his parents all deserved to be taught a lesson.” Then Jin winked at her. He handed her a small bag. “I just grabbed whatever I could. Your IDs, wallet and passport are in the pocket. Where are you going, anyway?”
Adrienne smiled at Jin uncertainly. For the first time, she didn’t know where her destination was, but she had complete faith in Justin. She trusted him with her heart, and now, she’s trusting him with her life.
“I don’t know. I don’t care. Right now, I just…wanna be with him.”
“I told Mom that I thought you ran away and that I was going to come after you. I’ll probably just tell her you wanted to go back to New York and think for a while. After all…all this hoopla could be overwhelming, too. I’m sure she should give you time considering she kept it from all of us how she tried to manipulate your future.”
“Jin, please don’t let her think that she’s going to lose me again. This is just… something that I have to do. I broke up with Justin a couple of weeks ago because his family arranged for him to marry somebody else. His family disowned him. I couldn’t do that to him. So I gave him up so he could get to know the girl chosen by his parents for him. And it almost tore me apart. He didn’t give up on me though. He fought for me nevertheless.
“I hurt Justin when I gave him up. We’ve been through the worst in our lives. I need to make this up to him, now that I know his parents will no longer disown him if he chooses to be with me.” Adrienne took a deep breath. “I just want us to savor this moment.”
Jin nodded. “As long as you’re happy, Yen.” He leaned forward and gave her a hug. “I hate it that I just got you back and now he’s taking you away from me,” he whispered and his voice really did have a trace of sadness.
“You won’t lose me, Jin,” Adrienne said, tears welling up in her eyes as she hugged her brother back.
“I know. But when I see you again, I have a feeling you’ll be…Adrienne Adams. Impressive ring, by the way. Congratulations.”
She giggled then she pulled away from him. “Take care of Mom, okay? Don’t let her get too sad. Yes, she shouldn’t have meddled with my life like this. But I don’t want her to be depressed. Besides, she already apologized to me and promised to call it off.”
Jin nodded. “Of course. I don’t agree with what she did, but she’s still our Mom. She deserves to know that her plan worked out after all…well, after feeling sorry about it, of course.”
Justin appeared behind them. He looked at Jin for a while and then he extended his hand to him.
“I’m Justin.” he said to Jin.
Jin shook his hand. “And I’m the guy who will beat the shit out of you if you hurt my sister.”
“Jin!” Adrienne hissed at her brother.
“It’s okay, honey,” Justin said. Then he turned back to Jin. “I will take care of her, you don’t have to worry. She will be safest when she is with me.”
Jin nodded. Then he turned to Adrienne. “Keep in touch. Call me if you need anything. And I mean anything!”
Adrienne nodded. Then she hugged Jin again. “I love you, Jin,” she whispered to him. And she meant that. Even though, she just met her brother, she managed to build a sibling bond with him the way Kimberly never did in the twenty-five years she thought she was her sister.
“I love you too, sis. Be happy, okay?”
“You know I will be.”
Jin left and Adrienne turned to Justin.
“That guy is going to be my brother-in-law?” he asked, raising a brow while staring at Jin’s back.
“Justin….”
“I remember wanting to punch all his teeth down his throat when I thought he was interested in you.”
Adrienne smiled. “He was. But not for the reasons you thought. He suspected I was his long, lost sister.”
“Thank God, you were!” Justin smiled.
“I’m surprised you didn’t recognize him.”
“He probably hates going to our little family reunions as much as I do. So, we never met each other. But I’ve always known the girl I was supposed to marry belonged to the Starck family. Once, when I thought he was going after you, I feared an unimaginable fate for myself. You—becoming my sister-in-law.”
Adrienne’s eyes widened. “Oh my God! That would be really messed up, right?”
“Yup. I didn’t even want to think about what I was going to do. I think I’d probably live halfway across the globe and never show up to family reunions ever.”
Adrienne giggled. “Why would you do that?”
Justin’s eyes narrowed at her. “Did you really think I could ever stop loving you, Adrienne?” He pushed a lock of stray hair away from her face. “I probably would want to kill myself every single day if I ended up with that fate.”
Adrienne smiled. “Then let’s be thankful that I was the missing sister of Jin Starck instead. So be good to him, okay?”
He pulled her to him and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “Yes…for now. So let’s get married soon so I can show him who’s the boss.”
Adrienne laughed. “Where are we going, anyway?”
Justin grinned at her. “We’re eloping to Italy,” he replied. Then he stared at her with a wistful expression on his handsome face. “Are you sure about this, honey? Because once you board that plane, there will be no turning back for you. When you go back to Paris or New York, you will be Mrs. Justin Adams.” His eyes were dancing and Adrienne could see just how happy he was. And she felt exactly the same way.
“Your parents called you yet?”
“Once every five minutes in the last two hours.”
“Did you answer them?”
“Nope. I did send my Mother an apology text message.”
“What did you say?”
Justin shrugged. “‘I’m sorry Mom. I really love my girlfriend. And I only want her in my future. Someday I hope you will understand.’ And that’s it.”
“Justin…she will think you went and eloped with your girlfriend,” Adrienne said.
Justin grinned at her. “And I am.”
“But…they don’t know me.”
“Yes. They don’t know I’m already in love with the girl that they wanted me to marry. And right now, I’m not too excited to break the news to them just yet.”
“Justin…they will be mad at us for running away.”
“You think?” he asked. Then he smiled. “They will get the ending they wanted. I just don’t want them to gloat just yet. I want them to pay even just a little bit of a price for it.”
“That’s why we’re eloping to Italy?” she asked.
He grinned at her mischievously. “That’s my excuse,” he said. Then his face turned serious. “The real reason is that…I know what it was like to not have you in my life and face an uncertain future without even knowing for sure that you’re going to be a part of it. I don’t want that anymore, Adrienne. I want to wake up with you in the mornings and hold you in my arms at nights. Right now… I just don’t care what anybody will think or feel. It’s our time, Adrienne. This time… what matters is just the two of us. Our parents…threatened our happiness before. I just want to make sure they couldn’t do anything to it again.”
“They will be disappointed when they find out we got married without them. Our mothers probably planned our wedding in their heads a long time ago.”
“But that’s the point. They were planning the wedding of the children they arranged to marry. That’s not us, Adrienne. We fell in love with each other without their help or influence. Our love story has always been about…just the two of us,” Justin said. “I planned to marry you in Italy. Like this. In a romantic setting fit for two lovers who won their fight against the world. Nothing should change that just because I found out that you and the girl I was arranged to be married to are one and the same person. I’m still marrying Adrienne Miller. Not Andrea Blanc.”
Adrienne smiled at him. She thought that he did have a point. She accepted her betrothal to the man she loved with all her heart. Not the person her mother thought she should marry. Sure, their parents might be disappointed and would probably get mad at them when they do not return tomorrow or the next day. But they’ve been through a lot in the past few weeks. She thought they deserved this little piece of heaven. And nothing changed between the two of them. Especially not their love for each other.
“Unless…you want a big wedding, honey,” he said. “In that case, we’re going to Italy not to get married…but to advance our honeymoon.” He grinned at her.
Adrienne smiled at him. She shook her head. “I never wanted a big wedding. Just because I found out that my mother is rich and can afford the biggest wedding of the century doesn’t mean it would change who I am and what I want. I am still Adrienne Miller—the girl with simple needs and desires. And right now…I only want one thing.” She stared up Justin. “You.”
He smiled at her. “Then I promise you, you won’t regret it, Mrs. Adams.”
“I’m not Mrs. Adams yet.” She laughed.
He kissed her lips and pulled her towards the check-in counters. “You will be in less than a week. So better get used to that name…Mrs. Adrienne Adams.” He winked at her.
As she walked beside him, she said her new name in her head.
Adrienne Adams.
“I like it very much.” She said to him. “It feels like… me.”