Two lovers, torn apart by betrayal, obsession and an unquenchable thirst for revenge.
How far would you go for love?
About to start the career of his dreams and marry the woman he loves, Sebastien Merrow has everything he could ever want, until a b...
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Not for the first time, Sarah Baker wakes to screaming. She sits up, disorientated for a brief second, before shooting off the bed. She doesn't turn on the light as she grabs her robe off the foot of the bed and pads across her shadowy bedroom, out into the hall, where the screaming is louder.
Pulling the robe tight around her, she crosses the hall towards the bedroom opposite hers, the staircase down to the living room nothing but a gaping dark maw opening up beside her.
The door to the room is ajar, and Sarah pushes it open gently. The only light in the room is from the pale blue shards of moonlight pushing through the partially closed curtains.
The woman is barely an outline in the shadowy space, but Sarah can picture her clearly. Caroline Lacroix is crumpled on the floor beside her bed, sobbing uncontrollably. Sarah rushes over to her and drops to her knees.
"Horace! He's going to kill Horace!" Caroline screams, grasping Sarah's arms so hard it hurts. "We have to do something, Sarah!"
"It's okay," Sarah soothes, extricating herself and smoothing Caroline's graying blonde hair. Caroline's nightmares were almost a nightly occurrence, for as long as they'd left Fox Chapel. It was almost like a sacred routine between them, a well-rehearsed dance in which they both knew the steps by heart. "It was just a bad dream."
Caroline presses her face against Sarah's shoulder. "He's going to kill him, Sarah. We have to save him."
Sarah wraps her arms around Caroline and rocks her gently, shushing her like a child. Caroline's mind had fractured that night in the Merrow's living room, as they both sobbed in each other's arms over their losses. Sarah had just lost her best friend, her confidant and partner in crime. Her twin soul. And Caroline... Caroline had thought she'd lost the man she had loved, a man that turned out to be a monster.
But she had lost so much more than that. She'd lost herself, her mind, her safe haven. She'd become adrift, and Sarah had become her lifeline.
Sarah knew that if Albert had found Caroline in that state, knowing what she knew, saying what she was saying, he would have killed her. He had killed Horace and was most likely behind Sebastien's disappearance. She refused to say death. There was no body, no records, no tangible proof Sebastien was dead apart from the word of Albert's son, and Sarah knew what they said about fathers and their sons. Apples and trees and whatnot. Would men like those stop at doing the same to their wife, their mother? Sarah did not want to take that chance.
So she had killed Caroline herself. Coerced her into writing a suicide note. Planted her personal belongings somewhere there would be no doubt. And then she took Caroline away. She took her away from the dangers of Albert and Rodrick. Away from the ghosts of Sebastien and Horace.
Sarah should have known they would have followed them here.
Caroline's sobbing subsides eventually, and Sarah helps her sit upright.
