The Runaway Wife

Chapter 15

As the partiers melded around the outsiders, Jylie gently grabbing her friend's arm and whispering her orders before letting go. "If anything goes wrong, just call me and I'll come to help. Meanwhile, I'll scout out the place and try to distract your husband which might be a bit of a challenge."

Giving her a gentle pat on the back, Jylie then flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked toward John, who was standing in the center of the room talking to a tall, blonde man. They were the only two at the party without masks on. He raised his eyebrow when he spotted Jylie approaching. Seeing him sent chills down Jackie's spine and she quickly slipped into the crowd to escape.

"So," Raine, John's blonde best friend who had been visiting another country for the past three years, held up his cup of wine. "What does Hikari even stand for? Is it 'Horses In . . . . Khronicles And'--"

"That's not how you spell chronicles," John muttered as he looked around the room, sipping from his own glass. He had on another fabulous red suit from his huge closet and had styled his dark hair differently today. "And no. It's named after some woman. I think she was a ditzy chick who married a rich genius or something. I don't know. It's stupid. Who really cares, though? All that matters is that I own it."

"Whatever." Raine shrugged. He was a rich brat who didn't really care about anything so it didn't matter to him. That's why he and John got along so well. He paused when he saw some blue haired chick approaching. "Ooh. Nice." He looked over her curvy, somewhat overweight body. "Not bad. Not amazing but not bad." Unfortunately, she already had her sights set on John it seemed. Too bad for her. That guy was taken and still believed that his runaway wife was coming back. Fat chance of that.

John smirked. He's met this woman before. She'd been about to kill him one time but stopped. Probably figured he was too handsome to murder or something. "Can I get you a drink?" he asked her as she got closer, catching Raine off guard. Jylie knew he'd recognized her and pretended to laugh.

"If you don't mind." She turned to look Raine over, then smiled. "Could you excuse us for a few minutes?" she asked sweetly. "I have something to discuss with Mr. Hadley."

Raine didn't like obeying anybody but this chick seemed after more than John's money so he obliged and walked into the crowd, looking for some other interesting person to talk to. Once he was gone, Jylie turned back to John and smirked. "Nice to see you again."

As the tall blonde guy walked around the scantily clad women, he sighed. All of the people here were just snobby, rich gossipers who weren't interested in awesome things like parasites or explosions. They only wanted to discuss money and other people's affairs. He was considering leaving the party when he laid eyes on a strange women dressed in red. His first thought when he saw her nervous movements and choice of color was that she'd come to try and snag John from his wife who had disappeared. Women in red often wore it since it was his best bud's favorite color but it never worked. Despite how much he'd played around when he was younger, he'd apparently been super loyal to his wife when they'd married.

"Hey!" She jumped when he tapped her shoulder, making him giggle.

Her eyes were wide with fear when she looked over her shoulder at him, gasping. "What do you want?" she whispered, looking down at the shiny floor.

"Just wanted to introduce myself." Raine liked her already. She seemed like the easy to tease type. "Name's Richard but you can call me Raine. What's yours?"

She fiddled with her gloves, trying to come up with an answer. "It's . . . Mary." That had been her grandmother's name and it was the first thing that came to mind in that moment. "Mary Smith."

"Wow." Raine scratched his head, laughing loudly. "That has got to be the most boring name I've ever heard. You'd think your parents would pick a pretty name to match your pretty face." He had said it as a joke but wasn't expecting her face to turn beet red. Despite being married to one of the supposedly biggest flirts in the country, she'd never heard such forward compliments before. Her reaction made him even more interested. "So, what are you doing here? You really look like you want to escape." She'd glanced at the exit several times already.

"I . . . uh . . . came with a friend. She uh . . ."She pointed at Jylie, unsure what else she could say. Every word Miya had taught her about socializing and talking her way out of stuff had been forgotten as soon as they'd entered the party. "I came with her." Jackie looked down at the floor again, biting her lip. Her parents would be cringing at her awkwardness if they were still alive.

Unfortunately, this strangeness seemed to draw Raine closer instead of pushing him away, so he stayed and kept making conversation with her, asking about her family, hobbies, and what her favorite color was. At this rate, she'd never be able to find her daughter and get out of this loud place.

"I heard that your wife ran away," Jylie said, smirking when she saw the look of pain in her enemies' eyes at the mention of Jacelyn. "Have you told your daughter that she left you because you're a genocidal maniac?"

"She thinks she's on a vacation," he said, calming down. He couldn't afford to make a scene in this kind of place. "Besides, I have a feeling that Jackie's nearby."

"You keep thinking that." She raised her glass, not even glancing in the direction of his wife. "Anyway, I came for something more important than your love affairs. A friend told me that you're planning to poison some of your coworkers who've become a thorn in your side. Is that true?"

"If it was," he took a sip, "I'd have the perfect person to blame it on." He gave her a knowing look. John had known for a while that she was the one randomly showing up and disrupting his organizations. However, he wasn't sure if she was part of rebellion or just fighting him for the fun of it. Either way, he'd hoped she'd come so he could frame her for the deaths everyone was about to witness. If that didn't work, he could frame the two rebels he'd seen walk in behind her.

Jylie glanced around the room and spotted the cameras attached to the ceiling. Obviously, he'd planned to have her come and start blowing things up or something. Then, he'd put those people he hated in the crossfire so they'd be out of his way. Unfortunately for him, she had way more powers than he ever could have imagined. "Well, it's been fun but I see someone else I'd like to talk to. G'day." Ending the conversation, she strutted away.