Chapter 4

Over the next few days, I started clearing out my things, piece by piece.

I didn't want to live here anymore, in the place that had once held so much of everything good and now only turned my stomach.

I had just zipped the last piece of clothing into the suitcase when a notification popped up. Edwina had posted something new.

I tapped it open. It was a video compilation.

Harrison had personally sawed down the pear tree in our yard, the one my father planted before he died, and built Edwina a swing out of it.

The solid-wood interior my family had chosen was gone, all of it swapped out for pink.

The flowers and plants my mother used to grow had been pruned into something unrecognizable.

The wine I'd been saving for my baby had been poured out.

Edwina smiled wide into the camera.

【Someone who loves you never thinks your requests are unreasonable. They only worry they haven't given you enough.】

A few seconds later, a comment appeared under the post.

【Fiona, this post is visible only to you. Do you like it?】

My fingertips went white where I gripped the phone. I dialed her number.

"Edwina, you are one ungrateful animal."

"My parents were so good to you all those years. Aren't you afraid of what this will bring down on you and that baby in your belly?"

The next second, a startled cry came through the line.

"Ah—"

Then Harrison's voice, cold and heavy.

"Fiona, you actually have the nerve to send Eddie horror pictures and call to threaten her!"

"If anything happens to Eddie, I will never let you off!"

I opened my mouth to say I hadn't done anything, and a message from my part-time boss came in.

【Fiona, you're fired!】

【Our shop got hit with malicious returns and locked orders because of you, the homewrecker who broke up someone's marriage. The losses are huge!】

【We've already been forced to shut down, and I will hold you accountable for the damages!】

I opened my laptop and found the shop buried under vicious one-star reviews, some of them with my photo attached.

Tears welled up and blurred everything in front of me.

I pulled up my chat with Harrison and typed out my furious question.

【You're going to destroy everything I have, all for Edwina?】

But the message went through, and there was no reply.

Just as I was about to go find him and get a straight answer, the care facility called.

"Is this Miss Swanson? Your mother just had a bad shock. She's in serious condition now, we've already gotten her to the hospital. Come quickly!"

My heart dropped. I couldn't afford to fall apart. I ran for the hospital like I'd lost my mind.

But the moment I walked in, the online mob recognized me, the ones who never bothered to learn the truth.

They swarmed me in the lobby, snapping photos, screaming curses.

Some of them even put their hands on me.

My mind started slipping. I sobbed and begged them to move aside.

It only made them worse.

Not until the nurses' station threatened to call the police did they finally, grudgingly, let me go.

I raced to the doors of the emergency room, and all I saw was my mother, covered by a white sheet, being wheeled out.

I crumpled to the floor, crying until my voice gave out, and finally passed out.

When I woke again, it was already evening.

In a daze I finished the paperwork and carried my mother's ashes back to the old house.

I dug through a pile of clutter until I found my father's memorial photo, and I turned the gas up as high as it would go.

Just like when I was little, I lay down between them, and I pressed the lighter.

At that same moment, Harrison was peeling grapes for Edwina, who had just finished her checkup, murmuring softly to the baby in her belly to give its mother less trouble.

The next second, Emmet's call came through.

"Harrison, it's bad! The old house is on fire, and Fee's still inside!"