My vision went black. The report crumpled in my grip and slipped to the floor.
Tears spilled down my face, but no sound came out. I was a fish with a hand around its throat, gasping for air that wouldn't come.
My daughter was gone.
Now my mother was gone too.
The last person on this earth who loved me, and Mabel had killed her.
With my daughter and my mother both dead, what was left to be afraid of?
Mabel's coy laughter drifted to my ears. "Big sister, are you satisfied with your gift?"
I looked at the woman smiling prettily in front of me. Something savage filled my eyes, and the last thread of reason inside me snapped clean through.
I lunged and locked both hands around her throat, squeezing harder with every breath. "How did you kill my mother, Mabel? Like this?"
"You psycho!" Mabel shrieked beneath my grip, her face flushing a deep, mottled red.
That's right. I had lost my mind.
You murdered my mother. If I wasn't going to lose it, who would?
"Amber! Mabel gave you a gift out of the goodness of her heart, and this is how you repay her? Why do you always have to hurt her?"
The next instant, Guy shoved me to the ground. Pain tore through my lower spine like a blade.
He cradled Mabel in his arms as though she were the most precious thing in the world. The look he turned on me was the one you'd give a piece of trash.
I lay sprawled on the floor. And then, slowly, I laughed.
Ten years.
I had loved this man for ten years.
The first time he looked at me like that was the day Mabel and her mother walked through our door.
The first time he raised a hand to me was the day Mabel ran to him crying that I'd bullied her.
The first time he abandoned me without a second thought was the day Mabel screamed for help.
Again and again and again. He had never once chosen me.
It was his indulgence that let Mabel destroy everything I ever loved.
I pulled myself upright. My gaze locked onto Mabel, cold as a blade, and I raised my voice so every guest in the room could hear.
"Mabel, all that money Guy gave you, you funneled it straight into Max Fox's accounts. What's going on between you two? Some kind of affair?"
Guilt flickered across Mabel's face. She blurted out in a panic, "Don't make things up! The only man I care about is Guy!"
I let out a sharp, scornful laugh and turned to face the crowd. "You all heard that. My adopted sister just confessed she's in love with her brother-in-law."
Whispers ignited through the room like wildfire. Fingers pointed at Mabel.
"The Fox family's second daughter looks so sweet and innocent. Who knew she'd go after her own sister's husband?"
"Wait, hasn't the older sister even divorced Guy yet? Doesn't that make Mabel the other woman?"
I watched Mabel throw herself into Guy's arms, tears streaming prettily down her cheeks, and my stomach turned.
Guy soothed the woman clinging to him, then walked to the center of the banquet hall. He picked up a microphone, gazed at Mabel with eyes full of adoration, and spoke for every person in the room to hear.
"The only woman who will ever be my wife is Mabel. Amber Fox was always the interloper."
Just like that, the crowd's judgment swiveled onto me.
I watched the two of them with frozen eyes. Nothing stirred inside me anymore.
But when I heard the word interloper, I still smiled.
Interloper?
I met you when I was eighteen. I married you when I was twenty-two. Was I intruding on your little underground affair?
I couldn't be bothered to argue. I walked straight up to Mabel and demanded through clenched teeth, "Where is my mother's body?"
Mabel's lips curled in triumph. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and wrenched my head down, her voice dripping with venom. "Your mother? She's already been burned to ash. You want her? Go pick her up from the funeral home yourself."
A violent tremor ripped through my body. I said nothing. I tore myself free of her grip and ran for the exit.
I had barely climbed into a taxi when Mabel caught up, her fingers clamping onto the door like claws. "Sister, why are you leaving so soon? Didn't you like your present? I really do want you to be happy. Don't go. I'll give you my place. Just stay—"
"Get off." I had no interest in performing in her little show. I looked at the driver, my voice flat and dead. "Drive."
The car had barely pulled away when Mabel darted in front of it, arms flung wide.
A split second later, the screech of brakes cut through the air. Not from the taxi.
From the Maybach behind us.
Guy's car.
CRASH.
The impact sent the taxi skidding sideways. My head slammed into the window glass, and the world turned red.
Through the blur, I saw Guy climb out of the Maybach and sprint toward Mabel.
He didn't so much as glance in my direction.
I closed my eyes. A bitter smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth.
The divorce papers should have been delivered by now.
Guy James, from this moment on, we are nothing to each other.
