From Surgeon's Hands to Avenging Fire

hands insured for millions. My husband, Davis, was a power

y mother in a hit-and-run. Then, to silence me, he had h

ve my innocent sister to suicide, then held her fate

reer, and my sister. The man I had vowed to

e was wrong. He had only created a monster of his own, one with a brillia

pte

a Man

geon with hands insured for millions. My life was

d my

forsaken place. My left hand, or what was left of it, throbbed. The pain was a dull, constant drumbe

s silhouette stark against the weak light filtering

believe in fairy tales. The same eyes that had once promised me forev

shiver down my spine. It was a smile that belonged to a predator, no

ugh the silence, flat and emot

ously in the dim light. The smoke curled around him, obsc

reaming. The dogs that had done this to me, his family' s vicious guard dogs, were still pacing in their pens, their low growl

hat had been haunting my waking hours, a sound th

desperate sob. F

ause of him. I could hear her muffled cries through the t

ring that dissolved into the stale air. He watched me, gaugi

ation-destroying video he' d thr

ing for answers, for any ex

, the words raw and painful.

nd that echoed in the concrete c

illed your mother, Brenna. She was drunk. She hit your

memory of the phone call, the earth-shatt

hannels," I said, my voice barely a

the powerful corporate lawyer, had used his connections, his money, his influence, to ensure that Kiley, his secret lover, walked free

y identity, ripped away from me. They cited a vague "loss of professional standing." D

a sudden, severe aneurysm. A complex, life-threatening surgery, on

as one

vis," I spat, the word

he surgery, Brenna. Or Fabiola' s video, which has al

ollege-aged sister, was being threatened. Her life was already destroyed by his malicio

h the grime on my face. My mother was gone. My career

The man I had loved. The man I

I married. This was a m

promise rather than a threat. Even to my

sound that chilled me to

is footsteps echoing

sound ripped from my gut. "What ki

hat fleeting moment, held a flicker of something I couldn' t qui

ts, Brenna," he said, his voic

, plunging me back into the suffocating darkness, leaving me