Another Innocent Life Destroyed

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Tears ran down my face.

But apologizing was all I could do.

I couldn’t even save myself.

As if she had heard me, something changed on the monitor beside her.

Her heart rate suddenly accelerated.

The doctor hurried over.

“She’s responding. She must have heard Mr. Whitmore’s voice.” He sounded delighted. “You need to keep talking to your wife. Give her a reason to fight. Her injuries are severe. If she gives up on living, there’s only so much we can do.”

Julian rushed forward and sank to one knee beside the bed.

His eyes were full of tenderness and pain.

“Stella, I swear I’ll make the people who hurt you pay. Don’t be afraid. I’m here. Whatever happens, whatever you look like, I’ll love you until I die.”

Grief and despair almost drowned me.

I had accepted my death.

I thought I had already cried every tear I had.

But this girl was innocent.

Because her body resembled mine, they had tortured her and destroyed her life.

“You monsters. All of you. You’re going to rot in the deepest pit of hell.”

Thunder rolled outside.

Lightning split the night. Wind whipped dead branches against the window, tapping and scraping like something weeping.

As if the storm itself were crying out for justice.

For me.

For this innocent girl.

“Even heaven seems moved by your devotion to your wife,” the doctor said.

Hayes helped Julian into a chair.

“Don’t worry. Slade took two bullets. He won’t get far. I’ll get answers. For you, for every victim, and for all their families.”

The detective and the medical staff left one after another.

The room emptied.

The pain in Julian’s eyes vanished instantly.

His gaze turned cold.

He walked to the bedside and looked at the woman as though she meant nothing.

A flicker of murderous intent crossed his face.

Then he reached toward the IV tubing.

“No!”

I lunged forward, desperate to stop him.

At that moment, the girl moved a finger.

A tiny movement. Achingly difficult.

Toward me.

She was telling me not to stop him.

She wanted to die.

I went cold and rigid.

Her life was so fragile, so close to ending, that she could see me.

Hear me.

And she wanted me to let her go.

After what they had done to her, she had nothing left to live for.

I sank helplessly to my knees and closed my eyes.

Julian’s phone rang.

His hand paused at the tubing.

After a moment, he withdrew it.

He checked the screen. Gavin.

Probably business.

He answered as he walked out.

“What happened?”

I couldn’t make out the reply.

He walked quickly, head lowered, straight toward the elevators.

I was forced to follow.

As we passed the fire stairs, I felt a familiar pull.

I stopped and turned sharply toward the dark stairwell.

Quiet, heavy footsteps approached from the shadows.

One after another.

Lucian.

With his connections, he must have learned somehow that the police had found “me.”

The bracelet made from my bones circled his wrist.

He glanced in the direction Julian had gone, then turned the other way.

Toward the hospital room.

A horrifying, helpless thought entered my mind.

Was he here to kill me?

So he had risked his life to save me two years ago.

What did that really prove?

I was still the thorn in his side.