Chapter 4

A knock came at my bedroom door while I was still buried in the memory.

For a second, I couldn't tell the dream from the room I was in.

"Anna, are you awake?"

It was Nathan Brooks, the only other living person in the graveyard apartments.

"I made grilled fish. Come eat."

I felt my way along the wall and opened the door slowly.

Nathan saw the cold sweat on my face, and his voice went sharp with worry.

"Is it starting again?"

He pulled the drawer open, tipped out a pill, and fed it to me.

He patted my back gently. "Anna, it's all right. Easy now."

I pressed into his chest and shook for a long, long time.

Nathan held on and calmed me down, and he never once got tired of it.

I fell back into a heavy sleep.

In the dream, something monstrous kept chasing me.

It dragged a broken, bloody body behind it.

No matter where I hid, it found me.

I cursed it and hit it, and nothing worked.

I turned around, and the face under that monstrous skin was Michael's.

Five years ago, my nudes were all over the internet.

My phone filled up with garbage and filth.

In an instant, all those dark memories came crashing back.

A few days before Michael's birthday, my friends pulled me out to a bar.

While I was there, I ran into a group of boys I had forced to apologize for bullying him.

My head was full of what gift Michael might actually want.

I never even noticed someone spiking my drink.

When I woke up, a naked man was walking toward me.

I understood in that second that someone had set me up.

I egged him on, and the moment his guard dropped, I grabbed the lamp and brought it down on his head.

I got out of the hotel, still shaking from head to foot.

I wasn't actually raped, and he went to prison for it.

The scars inside me slowly started to heal.

But then Michael came along and rubbed salt right into those scars.

I stood at the window of my rental and hurled my phone down in a fit of rage.

Then I picked up a paring knife and went into Sterling Manor.

Only Sophie was downstairs.

She was sitting on the couch with a book, and when I came in, she didn't lift her eyes.

"Still not over Michael?"

I didn't say a word.

She tossed the book aside and curved her lip. "You took my place with no shame at all and hung on Michael for over ten years.

"Charlotte, are you really that cheap?

"Or did getting raped turn you loose?"

My lips trembled, and my whole body was shaking.

I ground my back teeth together. "So the real heiress gets to be the other woman? She gets to ruin people?"

Michael walked into the living room just in time to hear that.

He marched over and shoved me aside, hard.

My forehead hit the corner of the table with a dull sound, and all I could do was suck in air.

I couldn't say where the strength came from, but I got off the floor and drove the knife into Michael's heart before anyone could move.

Blood broke open across his chest.

Sophie's scream went through my eardrums.

She called 911 at the same time.

I laughed in short, broken bursts.

"Michael, even if I die, I'm taking you to hell with me.

"You hate me, right? Well, I'll make sure you hate me as much as you possibly can!"

Michael didn't even flinch, as if that stab hadn't fazed him at all.

Only his eyes seemed to darken, as if the blood from his chest was seeping into them.

I got arrested.

I admitted everything without a word of denial.

I spent a week in the detention center, and then they let me out with no explanation.

The sunlight hurt, and it took me a while to adjust to it.

People on the street were chatting about the latest gossip.

"Hey, did you hear? The head of the Sterling Family got stabbed and was in a coma for seven whole days!"

"Did they catch the killer?"

"They must have. She's going to get what she has coming."

I pulled my thin coat tighter, breathed out a cloud of white, and left the place where I had lived for twenty-five years.

I settled at the cemetery, and there I met Nathan Brooks, an orphan the same as me.

We only had each other to rely on.

He cooked so well, I ended up gaining a few pounds.

I stared at the four dishes in front of me, a little stunned. "Isn't this too much for breakfast?"

Nathan carried over the last bowl of oatmeal and smiled at me.

"You didn't touch the grilled fish last night, so you must be starving. Eat up."

A knock came at the door while I still had a chicken wing in my mouth.

I took it for the property manager and opened up without checking.

Michael's cold, distant face appeared before me.