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eel container, the rough metal biting into her back. The white dress she wore was rapidly turning crimson, the blood soaking the fabric
n's a
d raised her, the man she lov
d her back, prodded Asha's bleeding leg with her stiletto heel. "Look at you, the little par
ngly in the cavernous, abandoned warehouse. "She's a sentimental fool. While she was crying over Darien, we w
y place. Her voice was as calm and sharp as a scalpel. "I altered his medical reports, of course. A slight adjustment to
nee, gave a weary sigh. "I'm sorry, Asha. But they offered me a way out of my debts. Al
tural sound, something animal and broken, tore from her throat. Her vision tunneled, focusing
her voice thick with a jealousy that had festered for years. "Darien was obsessed with it un
ped. The despair evaporated, replaced by an ice-cold, te
red, her voice a rasp,
ecessed button on the bottom
widened. "Wh
s too
d Julian were thrown like dolls, their screams swallowed by the roar. Evelyn, in a last, desperate act, tried to pull Asha in front of her as a shield, but A
he chaos to settle. The cold calm still held her. She pushed herself up from the steel contai
unnatural angle. Kinsley's eyes went wide with terror as Asha loomed over her.
leg. He looked up, his face a mask of disbelief and horror. "You're insane..." His voi
et hers, pleading. She remembered bouncing on his knee. She remembered the sigh in his voice when he said the
had shoved Evelyn. The doctor's silhouette was barely visible through the flames,
eliberate, conscious act. Each face b
tumbled toward it, every step an agony, and scooped it
ed floor beneat
ard, through a gaping hole in the warehouse wall. She was still clutching
he was
of the Puget Sound waited. She lo
the words lost in the wi
s, a crushing weight pulling her down into the abyss. The distant wail of
sharp and violent, tor
, exploded in her ear. "Asha Th
es fle
urn of a bullet wound. The world was a blur. She was in
ision slowly cleared, focusing on the face above her: a face she had just
an whose ashes she had he
d slender, unmarred by blood or grime. She was
, a scattering of syringes and a small baggie of white
er upright. Darien's eyes, the color of a stormy sea, were filled w
overdose? Or just ru
against the present moment with the force of a tidal wave. The p
eam. It wasn't
past. Before the betrayals, bef
yn poisoned him dose by dose. She had known nothing, fought him, pushed him away, let them win. Bu
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