Chapter 1
When I found out my sister's body was gone, I clenched my fingers so tight around the nurse's arm my knuckles went white.
"Miss Swift, your sister's remains have already been transported out for full-body donation. All the paperwork was finalized ages ago."
A deafening roar exploded in my ears. My voice came out shaking.
"What did you just say… Who signed off on this?"
"I did." Dylan stepped into the hall flanked by a group of people, his gaze as cold as ice.
"I donated the entire body in the name of Chelsea Charity Foundation."
I was rooted to the spot, frozen solid, every drop of blood in my veins froze solid.
"Dylan! That's my sister… I never even got to see her one last time! How dare you do this?"
Chelsea curled into Dylan's chest, a flash of triumph glittering in her eyes before she schooled her face into innocent concern.
"Mr. Larc did this to help your sister accumulate good karma. Why aren't you grateful?"
"What right do you have to even speak of my sister?" My last thread of control snapped. I reared back and slapped her as hard as I could.
Before my hand could connect, Dylan locked his iron grip around my wrist, holding me frozen mid-swing.
"Margaux." His voice was so cold it didn't hold a single flicker of emotion. "Apologize to Chelsea."
"Apologize? You want me to apologize to the woman who killed my sister?"
A bitter, hysterical laugh burst out of me, and tears splashed down my cheeks.
He let out a cold, mocking snort and gently pushed Chelsea away from his chest.
"Margaux, your sister killed my sister all those years ago. An eye for an eye, it's only fair. At least your sister can leave the foundation a valuable donation, so she didn't die for nothing."
Every word he spoke drove a jagged knife straight into my heart.
We'd been married five years, and he'd never once touched me.
Every time he slept with a new woman, he only ever made me do one thing the next morning.
I had to tattoo over the hickeys he left on each of those women.
Women came and went in his life, one after another, until my heart turned to ash and all feeling drained out of me.
The only purpose I ever served as Mrs. Larc was to atone for my sister's supposed crime.
Chelsea stepped toward me, leaning in to fake a comforting whisper right against my ear.
"Stop wasting your energy. He loves me, anything I want is just one sentence away from him."
I stumbled back a step, my gaze locking hard on the pendant at her neck.
That was definitely my sister's personal keepsake, the one she never took off.
Chelsea caught where I was looking and stroked the pendent at her throat, a smug smirk playing on her lips.
"Mr. Larc put it on me himself, said it matches me perfectly. I hear there's another half to it."
I dug my fingertips so deep into my palm my nails broke skin. The other half of that pendant, the one my sister and I split between us, pressed ice-cold against my own chest right now.
Our parents died when we were young. It was just my sister and I, growing up side by side.
This was the most precious thing she'd left behind.
Dylan knew exactly what this meant to me… He had to.
Humiliation and rage burned in my chest, so intense they were this close to exploding right out of me.
Chelsea softly snuggled back into Dylan's arm, and her hand brushed the pendant at her neck like it was an accident.
"Ah! Dylan," a panicked look suddenly flashed across her face, and she ripped the jade pendant right off its chain in one rough yank.
"Ever since I put this on, my baby's been kicking nonstop, it's so restless… Is this thing bad luck…"
Before she even finished, her hand flew up, and she smashed it against the floor.
"No!" My mind went blank. My body moved before I could think.
But I still watched it shatter.
In that split second, every memory I had with my sister felt like it slowed to a dragging crawl.
I lunged at Chelsea like a possessed woman, but she only scurried away, all wide-eyed and timid, to hide in Dylan's arms.
Dylan flung my hand away violently, his eyes blazing blood-red.
"Margaux! My sister's life for your sister's one lousy keepsake. Isn't that more than enough?!"
He turned away instantly to wrap Chelsea in a protective, loving hold. His voice dropped to a gentle softness I had never once heard him use with me.
"Did that scare you? Let's get out of here."
I stared at their entwined backs as they walked away, and Chelsea glanced over her shoulder, throwing me a look thick with contempt and triumph.
That was when my heart finally died for good. Tears burst from my eyes in a rushing flood, but no sound could force its way past my tight throat.
For five years, I had let him cross every one of my lines, over and over again.
I'd stupidly thought that was the worst pain I could ever feel.
But Dylan was always crueler than I ever could have imagined.
Not this time. I would never give him another chance to hurt me.
I swiped my phone awake, scrolling until I found that long-buried name tied to the Moore family.
"I want to know the whole truth about that case from all those years ago."
