Rain fell like it wanted to drown the entire world.
Sarah reached the Moretti gates and grabbed the cold iron bars to support her weakened body.
Her wet dress clung to her like a second skin.
Three days.
Three days since the warehouse and the gunshot.
Three days since she’d watched Adrian fall.
“Please…” she begged as she leaned against the massive gate for support.
“Just open the gate.
I need to have a word with them.”
Two guards stood on the other side, still.
They didn’t answer or spare her a look.
Three days ago, men with guns came for her.
It wasn’t the first time she was ambushed.
The De Lucas’ enemies were still trying to end their family’s revival by getting rid of her.
Her husband, Adrian Moretti, had shoved her behind him, taking the shot himself.
Sarah could only watch as blood spread across his white shirt, his body falling to the ground before her.
Everything around her had become a blur after that.
The gunshots that followed, killing her enemies, and even the ride to the hospital while she held Adrian’s hand.
It wasn’t what Sarah was expecting to happen that night.
She was about to share some good news with Adrian, expecting him to be over the moon, not seeing him in a hospital bed, fighting for his life.
He’d been dying ever since, and the bill continued to rise uncontrollably.
The number on the estimate was the kind of money she used to spend without thinking.
She didn’t have it anymore.
Adrian’s accounts were locked, sealed tight by his family.
She had pawned her grandmother’s thin gold chain, and it was only enough to buy him one day of oxygen and nothing more.
She’d gone to Adrian’s men for help.
She told them Adrian was dying and in need of help, but they only lowered their eyes or looked away.
They called her Mrs.
Moretti, their voices low and polite, but none of them moved when she ordered them.
Sarah understood without needing anyone to spell it out.
She was only Adrian’s wife in name and on paper, not part of their family.
This house was her last chance.
She had already exhausted all avenues, and this was the only one left.
Sarah tightened her grip on the bars, her entire body shivering under the rain.
“Help him,” she pleaded.
“Please.
Adrian is dying.
Only you can save him.”
A cold breeze blew against her along with the harsh rain.
Sarah could barely keep herself standing.
Her body demanded that she rest.
She hadn’t slept in three days.
“I’ll do anything,” she continued.
“Anything at all.
Please.”
The heavy oak main door creaked open.
The guards immediately straightened their forms and waited for an order.
Cecilia stepped onto the covered marble porch at the top of the steps while an assistant stood close behind her.
Cecilia glanced at the gate and lifted one slender hand.
One of the guards immediately moved and opened the gate, while the other dragged Sarah inside before her legs gave way.
He dropped her unceremoniously at the bottom of the steps.
“Look at you,” Cecilia said, not hiding the mockery in her tone and in her eyes.
Her voice was soft and gentle.
“On your knees in the rain, looking like this.”
Sarah swallowed the lump in her throat as she looked at her mother-in-law.
“Please… Please help him…” she whispered.
“Help him?” Cecilia tilted her head, her chin barely touching the back of her hand.
“You want our help, after everything you brought to his door?”
“I didn’t—”
“My son had a good life,” Cecilia cut Sarah off.
Her tone remained gentle, but Sarah could hear the venom in her voice.
“He had a good life waiting for him, and then he met you.”
Sarah gritted her teeth.
She didn’t know whether it was caused by the cold weather or her mother-in-law’s words.
“Your family made enemies, Sarah, and those enemies came looking for you.
When they did, my son stepped in front of the gun, putting his life on the line.”
Sarah’s eyes stung with tears.
She squeezed her hands into tight fists, her nails digging painfully into her palms.
She could not refute a single thing Cecilia had just said.
“He took a bullet meant for you,” Cecilia continued, “and for three days now, he has been slowly slipping away.
A little more every hour, all because of you.”
She let the silence stretch as she looked down on Sarah.
“You were always a danger to Adrian, Sarah, and you still are.”
The memory resurfaced, reminding Sarah how Adrian swiftly moved, taking the shot for her.
His taller, leaner frame blocked her from her enemies.
The crack of the dry shot rang in her ears before his weight dropped to her feet.
Sarah lowered her head, allowing the tears to run down her face, mingling with the rain that washed through her.
“I never wanted any of this,” she whispered, but loud enough for Cecilia to hear.
Cecilia let out a low chuckle and shook her head.
“I know you didn’t,” she agreed.
“But Sarah, what you wanted doesn’t matter now.
Only what you can do next.”
Sarah forced herself to look up, meeting Cecilia’s gaze.
“Tell me.
What do I need to do for you to help him?”
Cecilia didn’t give her answer immediately and watched Sarah’s helpless form.
“Let him go,” she said eventually.
The words didn’t register with Sarah.
She blinked in confusion while rain continued to fall around her.
“Sign the divorce papers, leave his world, and never come back.”
“You can’t—”
“I can.” Cecilia’s voice was cold.
“And I will, because I won’t let my son destroy himself for you.”
Sarah choked on a sob.
“If I sign, you’ll save him?”
“I’ll give you my word.
Adrian would live.
I’ll give him back the life you almost took from him.”
“And if I don’t sign?”
Cecilia’s lips curled into a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Then I’ll let him die and watch him slip away.
I tell myself that he’d made a choice and he’d have to live through it.
Adrian made a choice.
Now, it’s your turn.”
Sarah couldn’t speak.
“I want you gone for good, Sarah.
Not one word from you.
Don’t even dare to show yourself before him and make him chase after you.
Do that, and we’ll get him the best care money can buy.
Adrian would live.”
The rain roared in Sarah’s ears.
Leave him and never see him again.
Cut herself out of his life entirely, and he would live.
Sarah shivered before she looked at her mother-in-law’s expression, trying to find any deceit in her words, but there was none.
“If I go…” she started slowly, “you’ll really save him?
You promise me?”
A slight frown appeared on Cecilia’s face.
“I’m his mother.
Do you think I would allow my son to die under my watch?
Of course I want my son to live.
But you need to sign your name on that paper, and I’ll give you back his life.”
Sarah shut her eyes.
She had nothing.
No money to pay, no power to force it, no one left to ask.
She, alone, couldn’t even save her husband’s life and put him in danger instead.
“Okay,” she said eventually.
The word almost took everything she had.
“I’ll sign it, so long as you’ll uphold your word.”
Cecilia turned to the assistant next to her, then gestured to the guard to bring Sarah closer.
Sarah could only cry as the guard pulled her from the wet ground while Cecilia’s assistant produced the folder and a pen, holding them out to Sarah to sign.
“Sign, and it will be done,” Cecilia said.
Sarah looked at the opened folder, her name printed on the bottom line next to Adrian’s.
She took the pen with her hands shaking.
‘I’m sorry, Adrian.
I’m so sorry.’
She caught the date on the page.
Three days ago.
Cecilia had known she’d come crawling for help.
‘Let him hate me.
Let him curse me, but please, just let him live.
I’ll find a way.
I’ll find a way for both of us.’
Her hand moved.
The pen scratched against paper.
Each stroke felt like she was carving her own heart.
A single tear dropped on the page, almost touching the ink that was yet to dry.
The assistant snatched the folder from Sarah’s hands before her tears could ruin the papers.
Sarah looked up to Cecilia through tears.
“Let me see him for the last time,” she said as she choked on her tears.
“Just once.
Please.
I won’t say a word.
I won’t touch anything.
I only want to see him before I go.”
Cecilia’s frown deepened.
“No,” came her immediate answer.
“The deal is for you to disappear for him to live.”
Cecilia smoothed her dress.
“You paid the price.
Now leave if you want him to live.”
“Please—” Sarah’s voice cracked.
“Just once.
Just let me see him one last time.”
“I know you are worried about him, but he won’t be alone for too long, Sarah.
When he’s well again, we’ll find him a proper wife, and he will learn to forget about you.
He would marry a woman born from our world, with a name that matches his own.
He’ll have the life he was always meant to have.”
Cecilia glanced at the signed divorce papers her assistant had brought for her to review.
Satisfied with what she’d seen, she nodded.
“Get her a car,” she said, already turning away.
“See her out.
Ensure she won’t step inside the hospital where Adrian is.”
Sarah froze, and even before she could react, strong arms pulled her away, dragging her to a waiting car.
She screamed until her voice turned hoarse, begging to see Adrian for the last time, promising she would uphold her words, but it was brushed aside.
The car pulled away despite her struggle.
Sarah slumped against the back seat, her hand pressed against her flat stomach.
She couldn’t let the Morettis know she had a piece of Adrian leaving with her.
She looked out the window, but the rain blurred it.
The great house behind them shrank until the dark hid it.
Suddenly, the glass panel sealed off the driver.
The locks instantly dropped at the same time, and none of the buttons on her door worked when she tried them.
Then the car sped up.
Sarah started banging on the divider.
“What’s happening?!
Please, slow down!
Slow down!
Please!” She screamed desperately, but the car only accelerated.
Then white light grew in the rear window, and it closed in as the seconds passed.
The engine roared behind them.
Before Sarah could understand what was happening, something slammed hard into the back of the car.
The road ended, sending the car into the void.
Her hands flew instinctively to her stomach, cradling the only thing she had left.
‘Not you, too,’ she begged as everything around her fell.
‘Please, anything but you.’
For a moment she was weightless, then a pause before gravity moved.
In that last second, before everything went dark, Sarah thought of Adrian’s smile.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect us.’
The car struck the ground far below, and the world went silent.