“No,” Marco said sharply. “And she never will.”
Selena tsked. “You’re so tense. You should be grateful. I took care of the problem for you.”
I clamped a hand over my mouth, bile rising in my throat.
Problem?
She called my daughter’s death a problem?
Marco exhaled harshly. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
“Oh, spare me,” Selena sneered. “She ran into the street. What was I supposed to do? Swerve and crash my car?”
“She was a child!” Marco hissed.
“And now she’s gone,” she said smoothly. “And that means Olivia will finally stop being so obsessed with her perfect little world and realize she never really mattered to you. I do.”
Tears blurred my vision.
“I covered for you,” Marco said, voice strained. “I made sure no one traced that car back to you. You should be grateful.”
“I am,” Selena murmured. “So why don’t we celebrate?”
The sound of a zipper. A breathy laugh.
I turned and fled, silent tears streaming down my face.
My daughter wasn’t just gone.
She was murdered.
And my husband had been sleeping with her killer all along.
When I woke, the sharp scent of antiseptic burned my nose. The harsh hospital lights made my head throb, and for a split second, I didn’t remember anything. Then it all crashed down on me.
Celeste was gone.
Marco had been cheating.
Selena had killed my daughter.
And Marco had covered for her.
A sound built in my throat—something raw, something unbearable—but I forced it down. My fingers curled around the scratchy hospital sheets, gripping them so hard my nails dug into my palm.
This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. But it was.
A chair creaked beside me.
“You’re awake.”
Marco’s voice.
My stomach twisted violently. I turned my head, my movements stiff and mechanical. There he was, sitting by my bedside, his face filled with concern, his brows drawn together like he actually cared. I wanted to scream. To claw at his face. To make him feel even a fraction of what I was feeling.
But I didn’t.
I swallowed the pain, the anger, the horror clawing at my insides, and kept my voice steady. “How long was I out?”
“Just a few hours.” He exhaled like he’d been holding his breath. “You scared me, Olivia.”
I scared him?
I wanted to laugh, to scream, to tear the whole damn room apart. But I just blinked at him, my throat tight. “Oh.”
His expression softened. “It’s been a rough day for you. You should rest.”