RUNAWAY GROOM VANISHES AT ALTAR—5 DECADES LATER, BRIDE LEARNS IT WAS HER FATHER’S SECRET PLOT Rain slicked the church steps as Daniel Mercer stood trembling in a rented tux, bouquet in hand, heart hammering like it wanted out. Inside, Eleanor waited beneath lace and lilacs, unaware that in three minutes, her groom would bolt down the alley behind the chapel, vanish into a waiting cab, and never return. The town called him a coward. She called him dead to her. For fifty years, she never spoke his