“Mom–!!!”
Evelyn stared at the empty box on the ground, watching the last of her mother’s ashes wash away
in the rain. She broke down completely.
She snapped her head up, eyes rimmed in red, and fixed Sophie with a look that could have torn her apart.
Gathering every ounce of strength she had, she swung and slapped Sophie hard across the face.
“Sophie Monroe! What did you do?!” she shouted.
Sophie stumbled from the blow; blood welled at the corner of her lip. She clutched her cheek and
began to cry.
“What’s going on?!” Graham rushed in at the sound, immediately stepping in front of Sophie. He
frowned at Evelyn, who looked as if she might go mad.
Sophie melted into a tearful, theatrical performance. “Graham… I’m so sorry. I was just trying to
help Evelyn with the box and it slipped. I didn’t mean it–I already apologized, but she… she’s
insisting I pay for it with my life.”
Graham glanced at the empty urn and the rain–sodden ground. His face tightened. After a long,
tense moment he turned back to Evelyn, his voice heavy.
“Evelyn, Sophie didn’t do this on purpose. Let’s drop it. But you struck her–hard. That’s assault.
You need to apologize.”
Apologize. Evelyn couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her mother’s ashes were gone- deliberately scattered, she was sure–and he expected her to say sorry?
It felt as though her heart had been ground to dust.
Finally, everything fell into place: in Graham’s world, Sophie was the one he protected above all
else. Evelyn realized, with a hollow clarity, that she meant nothing.
She bit her lip and refused to speak, but the tears flowed anyway.
Sophie kept up the act, sniffling. “It’s okay, Graham. She’s just devastated. I don’t blame her…”
“See how forgiving Sophie is?” Graham said, expression hard. “Evelyn–apologize.”
Evelyn’s gaze flamed with defiance, but she stood her ground.
Chapter 8
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Graham had had enough. He turned to his aide. “Escort her back. Confine her to her room. No
meals until she apologizes.”
They carried out the order.
Locked in her room, Evelyn refused to back down no matter who tried to reason with her. For days she fasted–no food, no water–making her protest in the only quiet way left to her.
In the end, it was Graham who gave in.
He opened the door and looked at her–weak, pale, hollow–eyed–and his voice carried an
irritated exhaustion.
“Why are you so stubborn? Fine. Sophie kept begging me on your behalf and said she’d forgiven you. Don’t act like a child again.”
Evelyn met his eyes and, despite herself, laughed–tears streaming down her face, her laugh brittle and raw. How could he defend that favoritism with such brazen certainty?
Her laugh stabbed at something in him. He changed the subject. “It’s your birthday today. I arranged a party for you at the Evermont Base family quarters. Come on–behave, and no drama.”
The party was lively.
Graham showered her with expensive gifts and resumed his old, attentive manner. Guests
admired how completely General Sterling adored his young wife.
Evelyn moved through it all like a puppet–numb, disconnected.
In the corner, Sophie watched with a look of jealous triumph.
When the guests left and Graham went to see them out, Evelyn slipped back to her room. The
divorce petition, she knew, would probably be approved any day now. Quietly, she began packing
her few belongings.
Sophie followed, closing the door behind her with a strange smile. “Happy birthday, Evelyn.
Birthdays should be exciting. I prepared a special gift for you.”
Before Evelyn could react, Sophie grabbed a candle from the dressing table and hurled it toward
the curtains and the wardrobe.
Flames caught instantly and licked across the fabric.
“What are you doing?!” Evelyn cried, lunging for the door to call for help.
Sophie struck from behind with a brutal chop to the back of Evelyn’s neck.
Chapter 8
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The room spun. Evelyn blacked out, collapsing to the floor.
In the dimming moment before she lost consciousness, she saw Sophie lying beside her, a
self–satisfied smile on her face.
When she came to, smoke choked the air and the beams above groaned under the heat.
“Evelyn! Sophie!” Graham’s terrified voice cut through the chaos as he ran into the blaze.
Then, wrenching Evelyn’s heart into pieces, she watched him scoop up the limp Sophie without hesitation and carry her out through the flames.
He didn’t spare Evelyn so much as a look.
A burning beam crashed down and struck her. Pain ripped through her body, and everything went
black.
