Chapter 1

I left the bedroom door ajar on purpose, so my husband could hear me making out with my lover all night.

The next morning, his eyes were full of anger as he pinned me against the bed, demanding answers.

"Did he even satisfy you? How many times did he really touch your body? Why not me?"

But I just tightened my silk robe, covering the marks on my skin, and threw his own question back at him.

"Aren't we just playing the same game? Has your little nurse, Tiffany, stopped satisfying you?"

Julian Grant's eyes burned red, but he had nothing to say.

Our marriage died the day he caused our daughter's death.

The wind bit through me as I drove alone to the suburban cemetery to visit our daughter.

Passing the lot where my father's clinic once stood, tears blurred my vision.

I had been the youngest, most promising doctor at the Academy. I gave up a place at a top-tier institution for Julian.

The year the malpractice lawsuit hit, an angry mob of patients' relatives nearly beat him to death.

My father sold the clinic he'd built over thirty years and emptied his savings to bury the legal case. To secure Julian's position at City General, he handed over a lifetime of surgical notes, contacts, and professional reputation.

He even joined a drug trial Julian was running, just to support his research. It cost him his liver. He didn't survive.

That was how Julian became the youngest Chief of Surgery in the city.

I was naive enough to believe t to believe a debt like that would be honored for life.

But after he brought the nurse, Tiffany, into our home, everything changed.

The man who once worried if I so much as frowned was now tearing my heart apart with his own hands.

I'll never forget it. My mother was dying of lung cancer, desperate for an imported drug. But Julian, to cheer up Tiffany, gave the only available dose to her ragdoll cat for a skin rash.

And I'll never forget the day our daughter stopped breathing.

Julian was in Tiffany's hospital room, tangled up with her.

I finally found my daughter's niche in the cheapest public cemetery.

A tiny, desolate space-not even a photo to mark her.

When darkness fell, I sat on the cold tile floor. Just as I used to when lulling her to sleep, I hummed Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star through the night.

I woke up the next morning to a chorus of shouting.

Blinking my eyes open, I found a crowd of neighbors circled around me, phones raised and recording.

"That's her! Dr. Grant's mad wife!"

"Nurse Tiffany said she went berserk last night-destroyed the whole community garden!"

"Those flowers were just planted by the management. They cost a fortune!"

"What a vicious woman. No wonder Dr. Grant keeps her locked away!"

Julian stepped forward through the crowd.

His face was a mask of pained regret.

"Neighbors, I apologize. It's my failure. My wife has been unwell. Emotionally unstable. Misunderstandings led to this. I will cover every loss. Please, don't hold it against her."

With those words, he sealed my fate as the "madwoman."

I stared at the man I had loved with my entire life, trembling with a rage so deep it felt cold.

"Julian, you're lying. I never left the cemetery last night!"

"Still making excuses!"

A security guard held up his phone. "The security footage shows a woman from behind. She's wearing exactly what you have on now!"

"That madwoman is a curse. Even her daughter's grave is tainted!"

"Get that urn out of here! Don't pollute our cemetery!"

I lunged to stop them, but several men forced me down, pinning me to the ground.

My face pressed against the cold tile, tears cutting through the grime on my cheeks. All that escaped my throat were choked, guttural cries.

They pried open the small niche and pulled out the black urn.

I fought wildly. The box fell and struck the floor.

The lid flew off. Pale gray ashes spilled out.

A sudden gust swept through, lifting the dust into a swirling cloud.

I could only watch, helpless, as the last trace of my daughter in this world simply...drifted away.

The crowd muttered and dispersed.

Julian slowly walked over.

He looked at me with complex eyes. "Audrey, you've always been the strongest... it's just a place for ashes. I'll buy a better burial plot later..."

"You know how delicate Tiffany is, how sheltered she's been. What you did yesterday-sprinkling that powdered medicine into her soup-went too far."

I gritted my teeth, every word tasting of blood.

"My daughter's last remains in this world...were those ashes.."

"I understand." He sighed. "But if I don't reassure Tiffany this way, what if her depression returns? What if it harms the baby she's carrying? Audrey, you should understand my position."

He paused, his voice softening slightly.

"Audrey, you need to be strong."