Chapter 5

Ethan's hand tightened around the phone until his knuckles went white.

Everything he'd done to Nora came flooding back.

He'd gotten every person in the Pack to fake his death. He'd let her drown in guilt for six years, still unmated at thirty.

He'd had a career and a family. She'd spent those same years talking to a headstone.

He'd shoved her into danger and stood by. He'd forced her to record a lie while she was bleeding from her neck.

He'd threatened Margaret's life to get what he wanted. And then let Serena kill her.

Ethan's eyes went red. He crossed the room in three strides and grabbed Serena by the collar. His palm cracked across her face before she could react.

"Serena. You really outdid yourself."

"You provoked an old woman to death. You bribed the donor. You had reporters mob Nora. You pushed her over the edge."

Serena's head snapped to the side from the impact. Blood appeared at the corner of her mouth. She stared at him, disbelieving.

"You hit me?"

"I didn't do any of those things. Someone's setting me up to drive a wedge between us."

She started crying, tears streaming down.

"I'm carrying your pup. I would never do anything like that."

Ethan's face didn't soften. His eyes were flat and cold.

Serena looked at him. She couldn't hold it in.

"Ethan Sterling, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Fine. Yes, I did it. So what?"

"We're already Bonded. She kept showing up, circling you. I know you were secretly checking her profile every day. Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

She laughed, high and unhinged.

"I was just warning her to stay away from you."

"How was I supposed to know that old woman would be so fragile? One little conversation and her heart gave out — ha."

Ethan's face went white. He kicked Serena hard.

"Serena, you're dead."

He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the river bridge. He bound her ankles with rope and hung her over the edge.

"Serena — if I can't find Nora, you're going down with her."

Serena screamed at the black water below, sobbing.

"You can't do this to me. I'm your mate."

"I'm carrying your pup. You love pups. You know that."

"I know I was wrong. Please forgive me."

But Ethan wasn't listening. He was watching his phone for any sign of Nora.

By the following dawn, Nora had not been found.

The only thing they recovered was the pair of canvas shoes she'd been wearing when she jumped.

Ethan sank to his knees. He held the shoes. His eyes were red. His whole body was shaking.

Serena was waterlogged and barely able to see. She knelt and begged.

"I'm sorry. Please. Give me another chance..."

"I only did what I did because I loved you..."

The vein in Ethan's forehead pulsed. He closed his hand around her throat.

"Shut up."

"I gave you everything you asked for. Why did you still have to kill Nora and her mother? I want you dead."

He drove his boot into her stomach. Once. Again.

The pain was brutal. Serena doubled over, blood seeping through her clothes. She moaned and held herself.

Finally, Ethan grabbed her blood-smeared hand and pressed it to the separation papers.

"Since you can't be trusted, you don't get to be my mate anymore."

He turned to his assistant.

"Take the evidence to the Pack Council's enforcement office. Get the best attorney."

The assistant moved quickly, then hesitated.

"Alpha — what about Miss Fairfax's... arrangements?"

"What arrangements?"

Ethan's brow tightened. His grip on the shoes tightened.

"We haven't found a body. She's not dead."

"Expand the search. Find her."

On the other side of the city, the evening light spread across the balcony. I sat there and looked out at nothing.

The day I fell off the bridge, Damien Calloway pulled me out of the water.

When I opened my eyes, I was at his place.

The video I'd posted before jumping had gone viral. The whole territory was talking. I was no longer the home-wrecker everyone had spat on.

Damien lent me his phone. I read through the comments one by one.

"The twist is insane. Ethan Sterling and Serena are garbage."

"Nora is heartbreaking. Six years of grief, finally agreeing to move on — and then finding out the man she buried is alive, Bonded to the woman he cheated with, and they have a pup on the way. I can't."

"Serena is pure evil. She already had everything and she still had to push Nora to the edge..."

Someone even sent me a direct message to apologize. And someone else posted a video of Ethan at the bridge — screaming, sobbing, falling apart.

I looked at all of it and felt nothing.

The people I loved most were gone. There was nothing left to fight about.

But Ethan didn't believe I was dead.

Every day, he recorded a video and posted it. His way of reaching me, he said.

"Nora, I've figured it out. The truth is, you're the only one I ever loved."

"I was manipulated by Serena. That's why I did those terrible things."

"I've ended the Bond with her. The pup didn't make it."

"She deliberately caused Margaret's death. I got the best attorney and had her turned over to Pack enforcement. She'll face consequences."

"Nora, if you're alive, please reach out. Give me one chance to make things right."

In every video, Ethan looked wrecked. Red-rimmed eyes. Falling apart.

I calmly held down the "not interested" button on each one and cleared them from my feed.