Confusion

Prologue

15th July 1976

She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't move.

She couldn't run away.

She was trapped, a wounded animal cornered by a vicious predator, hungry for blood. All she could do was focus on her breathing.

Inhale, hold, exhale. Repeat.

Willing her brain to turn back on, to do something, she found her lips moving, almost uncontrollably as she gave in to her unfortunate fate.

"I do." Her breath shuddered as the words came out, barely above a whisper. She wasn't sure if the priest had heard her; wasn't sure she wanted him to.

Praying that she hadn't been heard – that she could still back out – she held her breath and glanced towards the priest.

He looked at her, a slight frown beginning to form on his face. She almost sighed in relief. 'I'm saved. Hes goi g to save me.' She thought. A smile made it's way onto her face, the first genuine one all day. A smile of relief, of freedom.

The priests expression, in a sudden and cruel twist of fate, switched from concern to joy. He grinned; a huge, shining, predatory grin, before all but shouting the dreaded words.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Her heart dropped to her stomach like a boulder over the edge of a cliff: heavy and fast, with a sudden jolt to finish.

She barely heard the deafening applause rippling through the crowd behind her, didn't register the hands at her waist, pulling her into a smothering kiss.

Wrong. Wrong! WRONG! It was all wrong. The lump in her throat, the pounding in her head.

And to think, she had been so excited just a week ago.

But to Clara, a week felt like a lifetime.

Because of her. Because of Annie...