Savannah froze so abruptly that the bouquet in her hands trembled.
For a second, she thought she had heard him wrong. The late-morning sun blazed over the circular driveway, musicians were setting up near the white chapel, and staff moved across the estate lawn with the frantic precision of people preparing for a wedding no one could afford to let fail. It was her wedding day. In less than an hour, she was supposed to walk down the aisle in silk and lace, smile for the cameras, and marry the man everyone in Charleston insisted was perfect for her.
And yet there stood Daniel, her family’s driver for nearly a decade, holding open the trunk of the black town car, panic written all over a face she had only ever known to be composed.
“Daniel…” she whispered, tightening her grip on the ivory roses. “What are you talking about?”
His voice broke. “If you go into that church the way he expects—smiling, dressed like a bride, trusting him—you’ll be walking straight into a trap. Please, ma’am. You’ve trusted me for ten years. Trust me one more time.”
She stared at him. Daniel was not a man who dramatized anything. He was steady, respectful, the kind of person who never spoke unless necessary and never crossed a line that wasn’t his to cross. In all the years he had driven her, he had never interfered in her life. Never raised his voice. Never looked afraid.
But now his hands were shaking.
“Your fiancé is coming,” he said. “If he sees you out here, it’s over.”
A cold wave slid through Savannah so fast it felt physical.
“But this is my wedding day,” she said, her voice unsteady. “You want me to climb into the trunk of my own car?”
Daniel glanced toward the gates, then back at her. “Sometimes the thing that feels absurd for one minute saves you from regretting the rest of your life. Please.”
And for one strange second, Savannah heard her grandmother Eleanor’s voice in her head:
Sometimes the person pushing you into the ditch is the one keeping you from getting hit.
She looked at the black interior of the trunk, then back at Daniel’s face. Something in his eyes made her stop asking questions.
She lifted the train of her gown, swallowed her pride, and climbed inside.
The smell of rubber and hot metal hit her immediately. Her dress caught on the edge. A moment later, Daniel shut the trunk, and the world disappeared in a hard metallic click.
Darkness.
The first thing she felt was humiliation.