جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

I kept scrolling through the comments like I was trying to hurt myself.Beyond my best friend, plenty of our other mutual friends had left their congratulations.[Alice's a great girl. If you ever treat her wrong, man, I'll be the first one to come after you myself!]That one was from Chase's closest friend. Just last week, he'd greeted me warmly, calling me "Mrs. Peterson" like it was second nature.[So happy for you, man, marrying the girl you love most! We're not going home sober tonight!]That one was my old roommate from college.[Let's keep the celebration among us. For my brother and Alice's happiness, everybody keep this quiet. Don't let a certain someone find out.]That one was Chase's older sister, Susanne Peterson. Years ago, when she'd needed money for a business venture, she'd borrowed eleven thousand dollars from me and told me I was the only future sister-in-law she'd ever wanted.[Don't worry, our lips are sealed! For the prince and princess's happiness, we'd ne

"Nora!"Chase called out to me, urgent, but I didn't slow down, didn't look back.I caught a cab to the hospital. My mother, Gina Sutton, looked so much better today—there was actual color back in her face.She handed me a peeled apple, her eyes bright. "Nora, how did the marriage registration photo turn out? Come on, show me."My throat closed up, and my nose stung with the effort of holding back tears.I had no idea how to explain any of this to her. I couldn't bear to let her know the truth.Just as I was gathering the courage to tell her, the door opened, and Chase walked in.He sat down at the edge of the bed and started rubbing my mother's shoulders with the same easy devotion he'd shown for ten years straight, his voice warm and low. "Nora thought the registration photo came out badly, so she sent it back to get retouched. We'll get the license in a couple days, and we'll show you then, Mom."Chase had just switched, without missing a beat, from calling her "ma'am" to ca

When I woke, the pain in my chest was so sharp it felt like the wound might tear open again if I so much as moved.I forced myself to sit up. Chase, keeping watch at my bedside, rushed to steady me. "Nora, just tell me what you need, and I'll take care of it. The wound hasn't scarred over yet—moving around will only hurt you."He adjusted the hospital bed to a more comfortable angle, settling me in, then made a call to the office. "Nora's hurt. I don't trust a hired nurse to look after her properly. I need to be here myself. Leo, I'm not coming in for the next few days. Sorry to ask, but I need you and the other managers to hold things down."I had no interest in whatever Chase was saying. All I wanted to know was how my mother was doing. Had they managed to save her?I gritted through the pain in my chest and tried to force myself upright. That was when the door burst open, and Dr. Larry Musk, my mother's attending physician, stormed in, his face dark with anger."How many time

After apologizing to the hospital director, Chase hung up the phone, his expression darkening.He pulled the still-sniffling Alice tight against him and looked at me with pure disappointment."Nora, I don't even recognize you anymore."How did you turn this vicious? Putting your own mother up to faking her death just to frame Alice—how could you even think of something so twisted?"Playing games with death like that—aren't you afraid it'll come back on you? That you'll actually curse your own mother into an early grave?"Alice cut a glance at me from the corner of her eye, the ghost of a triumphant smile tugging at her lips.My best friend, Olivia, stood with her arms crossed, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.In that moment, none of it mattered anymore—not proving myself right against Alice, not getting Chase to believe me. All I wanted to know was where my mother's body had gone.My mother's attending physician, Dr. Musk, was a man of real integrity, the kind who genui

It was a video of Alice hanging out and chatting with a group of girlfriends.She was curled up on the couch with a Budweiser, rolling her eyes nonstop. "That idiot Olivia actually asked me for a birthday present. Like she's somebody."I only bother hanging around her to pump her for Nora's secrets. Plus, with a face and body like hers, she makes me look even better by comparison. Someone like her, my friend? Please."And Chase's best bro is broke and pathetic—born to be somebody's errand boy his whole life."And don't even get me started on his sister. Almost thirty-five and still not married, mooching off her brother like some kind of leech. Chase's money is my money—why should she get to spend a cent of it? The second we're married, I'm kicking her out."...Alice went through every single person one by one, tearing them apart.The video ended with a shrill, twisted shriek from Alice herself.Everyone who'd just been defending her a moment ago now looked like their faces had