Chapter 4

Life seemed to fall back into its old rhythm.

I still lived in the apartment Chase had bought for our future together—working during the day, and heading to the hospital every evening to look after my mother.

He was busy with his new bride and barely reached out to me anymore.

Not hearing from him was, if anything, a relief.

After work, I bought a box of my mother's favorite meat pies and brought them to the hospital.

I walked into her room to find two young women already seated around her bed. I rushed forward, eager, and when they turned around, I saw it was my best friend, Olivia Carter, and Alice.

My voice came out shaking. "Olivia, why did you bring her here?"

My mother smiled at me. "Ollie was worried I'd get bored, so she brought her friend along to keep me company.

"I've never met Alice before today, but I like her already. Such a sweet, pretty girl, and her husband's out there cheating on her with some homewrecker. Disgusting.

"Alice, honey, listen to me—women like that always get what's coming to them."

Alice rose slowly to her feet and walked over to stand in front of me. She gave me a look that was all smile and no warmth, then turned back to my mother, her voice gentle and utterly merciless.

"You're right, ma'am. Homewreckers always get what's coming to them.

"So when's your daughter's turn? Oh, wait—she's already gotten hers. It just happened to land on you instead. Stage-four stomach cancer. I'd say that's a fair trade."

My mother went white as a sheet, forcing her weakened body upright to glare at Alice. "What are you talking about?"

My best friend, righteous fury written all over her face, pulled out two marriage certificates and flung them straight at my mother's face.

"Alice's not lying. Nora really is a mistress!"

"Look—Alice and Chase are already legally married. They're the real husband and wife here. Nora knows perfectly well that Chase has a wife, and she's still shamelessly living in his apartment, spending his money to cover your medical bills—money that belongs to a married couple! Alice has every right to take it back!"

June nineteenth. Her little girl's birthday.

My mother stared, frozen, at the date printed on the marriage certificate, and then coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Mom!"

I lunged for the call button in tears, but my best friend and Alice grabbed me and held me back together.

Alice let out a cold laugh. "Your own mother just said it herself—filthy homewreckers deserve what they get. If she doesn't get punished today, you'll never learn your lesson, and you'll just keep coming after my husband!

"Good riddance if she dies. Chase's money doesn't grow on trees. Why should he have to pay for the two of you leeching off him?"

I begged my best friend to save my mother, pleading, but all I got back was a sneer of contempt.

"Best friend? I don't do best friends with filthy mistresses. Alice's my real best friend now.

"You've spent your whole life trying to one-up me—prettier than me, better grades than me, even a better boyfriend than me. That fake, holier-than-thou act of yours has always made me sick. Nobody wants your charity. Everything happening to you right now is exactly what you deserve!"

I stumbled back a step, my ears ringing.

So this whole time, everything I'd done for her, she'd seen as nothing but charity.

I'd thought we were friends. She'd always seen us as enemies.

Before I could say another word, the two of them pinned me to the ground, and I could only watch, helpless, as my mother began convulsing violently on the bed.

On the heart monitor, her pulse spiked into a frantic, jagged rhythm—then slowly flattened into a single, unbroken green line.

My mother was gone.

Something in me snapped. I wrenched myself free of their grip, grabbed the knife my mother always used to peel my apples, and lunged at the two of them.

They were going to pay for my mother's life with their own.

"Nora, have you lost your mind?!"

Chase burst through the door just in time to see the tail end of it, with none of the context.

He roared and charged at me, throwing himself between me and Alice without a shred of fear, using his own body as a shield.

A split second before the blade hit his chest, I twisted my wrist at the last possible moment.

The knife plunged into my own chest instead. Blood sprayed across Chase's face.

Chase clutched me to him, howling in agony.

"Nora!"