ROSE ON THE LAKE 18+

🌹CHAPTER FOUR🌹

You were my sunshine
When I only saw rain
You brought me laughter
When all I felt was pain
I'll search the ends of the earth, the seas, the skies;
Just to see that smile again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A floating form on the lake.

Floating, not swimming.

He snapped out of his trance and quickly dived into the lake; clothes, shoes and all.
He could tell she wasn't alive before he reached her. As the reality hit him, his heart shattered into a million pieces and melted into bouts of raw pain.

Willing himself not to breakdown, he pulled her to the edge and placed her on a bed of thistles.

He couldn't believe it. Just yesterday, she'd kissed him telling him how much she loved him and regretted marrying his brother. But today here she was, a lifeless form on the ground and still as beautiful as ever.

He held her hands, lacing his large fingers with her slender ones. They were cold. Too cold. He pressed them to his lips, reminiscing about her featherlight touches. He could almost feel the lingering sensation they always left on his skin.

Hot tears burned his eyes. He'd thought the worst day of his life was the day she married his brother but this, it was unbearable. Nothing could be more heartbreaking than to discover your lover's dead body after she drowned_

Drowned? Impossible!

Rose was the most accomplished swimmer he knew. They always swam in the lake together as teenagers and sometimes even in the river that divided the Garwood Estate from their neighbors, the Garton farmlands.

Just then he noticed the unusual pallor of her skin. She looked pained. He painstakingly examined her for any irregularities and to his greatest dismay, he realized she must have wrestled with someone. Her wrists and neck were covered with finger impression of bruises. It was obvious the seam of her nightgown had been ripped in two from neck to waist. He spotted bite marks on her neck, chest and the side of her breasts.

This was no accident. She had been molested and murdered.

His hands immediately balled into fists. His grief quickly turning to anger which catapulted him with stunning ferocity.

He'll make them pay. But not yet. First he needed to inform the authorities. With that thought in mind, he called the police and waited till they got there.

They proceeded to ask him a few questions, and assessed the entire area. Since she was found in the lake, securing the crime scene will be impossible.

***

Dillan Garwood was a man who always took great pains in looking good, but not today. He hadn't slept at all, if his swollen eye bags were anything to go by. He was still in the clothes he wore to dinner. Only they didn't looked like dinner clothes anymore, much more like an old maid's rumpled dish rag. His hair was unkempt and rumpled from having ran his fingers through it.

He was like a tortured soul who'd taken a trip to the underworld and back, restless with only one thought running through his mind.

She's dead. I killed her.

How it happened, he couldn't tell. One moment she was fighting him, and the next she gave up. If only he had realized that she was giving up the ghost and not her will.

He didn't mean to rape her.

Well, actually he did.

He only wanted to take what he deserved. What she owed him as a wife. What he'd paid for. She didn't love him, that much he was aware of. But she wanted his money. So he provided her with everything a woman would wish for. It was only fair that he was compensated for his pains. And what better way to do that than have his way with her body?