Chapter 2

I tightly held Christine''s hand resting on the bed. There was still a trace of warmth in her palm. But soon, she would lose all signs of life, becoming nothing more than a corpse. At the very least, I had to make sure she passed peacefully. With that thought in mind, I contacted the crematorium.

As I waited at the crematorium, memories of her life came flooding back. She had never married, only adopting Xavier as her child. In the time we spent together, she treated me like her own, filling the void left by my troubled childhood.

She was kind, and Xavier had once been loving. I thought my future would be happy until Eve Parker came into the picture and Xavier began staying out late.

At first, it was just one night. He came back, his eyes red, holding me close as he explained,

“It was just a reunion with old friends. The drinks were strong, so one of my buddies let me crash at his place for the night.”

I nodded, and I believed him. However, one night turned into two, and two became a week. Then, he started claiming he was working late, only coming home twice a month.

Sensing something was wrong, Christine took me to Xavier''s apartment one evening.

The night was quiet, and we saw him through the floor-to-ceiling windows, holding a beautiful stranger in his arms. Their embrace was intimate, and right as we arrived, they kissed.

Christine slapped Xavier across the face. He covered his cheek, but even then, he shielded the trembling woman in his arms.

When he met my eyes, he was calm.

“Mom, it’s not Eve’s fault. Hit me instead. I''ve decided to divorce Sara. I want to have a future with Eve.”

His words stunned me, and my heart ached with a sharp, unbearable pain.

Enraged, Christine slapped him three more times, making his face swell. Still, he stood firm, his gaze unwavering, while the woman behind him whimpered softly.

In the end, he was still her son, and she couldn’t bring herself to punish him further. She decided to leave most of her estate to me, as compensation for the suffering I endured.

Under the pressure of her ultimatum, Xavier agreed not to divorce me, bound by his sense of duty to his mother, and I, as foolish as I was, chose to trust him again. Yet, no one could have predicted what came next.

The very next day, Eve disappeared into the artificial lake near our neighborhood. Surveillance footage showed that I was the only one who had been near the lake, and it wasn’t long before I was suspected of murder.

Even though Eve’s body was never recovered, Xavier still erected a gravestone in her honor. He forced me to kneel at the lake.

“Sara, if it weren’t for you, Eve would still be alive! How could you be so cruel? She was too pure and innocent to be destroyed by someone like you! I should’ve divorced you a long time ago.”

No matter how I tried to explain, Xavier refused to believe me. There was no body in the lake, so there was no proof that I had anything to do with Eve’s disappearance. However, blinded by grief and hatred, he blamed me for the death of his first love and forced me to kneel until my knees scraped raw.

When I returned home, Christine saw my injuries. The sight of them was too much for her to bear, and she collapsed in a fit of rage. Now, the woman who had loved and cared for me was gone. Her body had been turned to ashes, sealed in a small urn.

I held the urn close as tears streamed down my face. Never before had I felt so powerless.

I stumbled through the arrangements for her burial, numb and broken. Just before the burial, a voice called out, stopping me.