The day of the funeral, the house was packed with mourners.
Ken wasn't among them.
He'd been invited to a televised interview, spotlighted as an outstanding young business leader, his face filling the screen. My parents' memorial portraits hung on the wall not far from that same television.
The guests whispered among themselves. Ken Gilbert had turned over a new leaf, they said. A reformed man. They told me to look on the bright side, to move forward with my life.
"Ruby, what's done is done. Grieving won't bring them back."
"Put the past behind you. Focus on building a good life."
"Anyone can see that Mr. Gilbert truly cares about you."
Ken Gilbert truly cared about me.
So much that he'd torn my child from my body and shattered my family into pieces.
So much that he'd spent years chasing every woman who caught his eye, cheating without a shred of remorse.
Now that he'd had his fun and was ready to play the reformed husband, I was supposed to forget everything. Devote myself to our life together, heart and soul.
On what grounds?
My dead parents. Everything I'd lost.
Who was going to give any of that back to me?
That was the day I made my decision in silence.
I would avenge my family.
I would kill Ken Gilbert with my own hands.
And just as I'd predicted, there was no such thing as a reformed man.
After a stretch of apparent peace, Ken's true nature resurfaced. He was simply more careful about it.
When he accompanied me to the hospital, he'd flirt with the nurse changing my bandages the moment my back was turned. While we planned our wedding together, he'd sneak off to wrap his arms around my maid of honor behind closed doors.
He thought I didn't know.
He thought I'd learned my place.
What he didn't know was that every waking second, I was counting down to his death.
I paused and looked down at Madison.
My lips curved into the faintest smile.
"Did you really think I didn't know about you two?"
"I just didn't care."
"Because in my eyes, you and Ken are the same. You've both been dead to me for a long time."
I raised the knife.
Then sirens split the air.
Madison's eyes lit up like she'd spotted a lifeline, and she began thrashing wildly beneath me.
"Ruby, let me go! Now!"
"The Gilberts have enough power to make your life a living hell. You have no idea what they'll do to you!"
I watched the barely concealed grin spreading across her face.
My own smile widened.
"I told you. Nothing is going to happen to me."
"I wouldn't have done any of this if I hadn't already planned my way out."
Gun barrels surrounded me in a ring of black steel. I felt nothing. No fear. No hesitation.
I turned calmly to the lead negotiator and said one sentence.
The deep furrow between his brows slowly eased.
He turned around and snapped the handcuffs onto Madison's wrists.
Madison froze.
