My Remains Were in That Bag

“If Julian had that kind of ability, would Stella have become CEO in the first place?”

Richard glanced expressionlessly at Pearl.

“And don’t forget who actually earned that place at Cambridge. Stella. Pearl went using her academic record.”

After everything else, learning that Pearl had stolen my place at Cambridge didn’t even surprise me.

There was only numbness.

I had studied desperately, every day, to get in.

Then I was told I had failed.

Richard had put on a magnificent show of rage. He rushed at me and kicked me in the stomach so hard he broke a rib.

Vivian stood beside him, sneering.

Useless bastard. A waste of effort. Nothing would ever come of me.

Then they told me to pack my things and get out.

Julian pleaded for me.

Only then did they generously allow me to stay, provided I spent the entire night kneeling in the living room, repenting.

Looking back, I felt nothing but disgust and bitter disbelief.

They had used the same trick for years.

Richard and Vivian played the villains, tormenting me and crushing me down.

Julian played the savior, stepping forward to rescue me.

That was how they had controlled me for nineteen years.

I closed my eyes. Grief spread through my chest.

All I had ever wanted was a little genuine affection.

They wouldn’t even give me that.

“What good is being clever when you’re born like Stella?” Pearl rolled her eyes and picked up a mirror, admiring her perfect face with obvious satisfaction. “She still has to slave away for the real daughter. Some differences start before you’re even born.”

The arrogance of someone who had always benefited from the system.

Stupid and vicious to the bone.

Richard took a call and left.

The moment he was gone, Julian pulled Vivian onto the balcony and carefully shut the door.

I wanted to hear this.

“Mom, the police found a serial killer’s DNA on Stella’s wedding ring.”

Julian looked uneasy.

Vivian was far calmer.

“What are you panicking for? The more clues the police find, the safer you are.”

“It isn’t the police I’m worried about. It’s that lunatic Blackwood. He won’t stop looking into her disappearance.”

To him, the police were nowhere near as frightening as Lucian.

Vivian didn’t seem concerned at all.

“Everyone knows they were enemies. He’s looking for her because he wants to make sure she’s really dead.”

Julian opened his mouth, then hesitated.

“Enough. Concentrate on meeting the Duchess of Talworth. You’ve just lost Southbank. You cannot disappoint your father again.”

Vivian turned the prayer beads in her hand.

“As for Stella, stop worrying. Neither the police nor Lucian Blackwood will ever find her body. Because…”

A cold, vicious smile touched her mouth.

“I didn’t leave so much as a splinter of bone.”

Blinding white light struck me.

I fell into a bottomless void.

When I opened my eyes, I stood on a strange, unsettling street.

Everyone wore a mask. People moved quickly, coming and going without lingering.

I had just turned when a man in a devil mask hurried straight through me.

He carried a cloth bag.

The instant our bodies overlapped, pain cut into me, deep as bone.

Fragments of images burst through my mind.

My body being chopped apart.

My ribs removed one at a time.

I understood immediately.

The man was Victor Slade, the serial killer who had disposed of my body.

And the bag in his hand held pieces of me.