Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I had my lawyer draw up the divorce papers. Lucien would leave with nothing. Not a cent of what he’d made over the years.

I was on my way to his office with the papers when my assistant called.

“Mrs. Sterling, something’s happened! Mr. Sterling took a construction crew to the cemetery. He says he’s going to dig up the baby’s ashes.

“And he hired some medium to do a ritual. He says… he says the baby’s spirit has been haunting you. That’s why you’ve turned into a jealous woman and done all those terrible things.”

When I hung up, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

Years ago, Lucien and I had bought a plot for Hope, the daughter we lost. We wanted her to have a home down there, somewhere sheltered from the wind and rain.

Now he and I had come to hate each other. But whatever was wrong between the two of us, why drag an innocent child into it?

When I got to the cemetery, Hope’s urn had been tossed onto the grass.

A circle of people in black robes stood around it, chanting.

I spotted Lucien right away. He had his arm around Lillian and was tucking a windblown strand of hair behind her ear.

At a glance, it looked just like him and me, seven years ago.

Choking down my rage, I picked up Hope’s urn and held it tight against my chest.

The chanting cut off. The lead medium pointed at the urn and bellowed, “That is the evil spirit! That is why Mrs. Sterling has been childless all these years!”

Lillian, nestled against Lucien, added fuel to the fire. “That’s right! She’s got so much blood on her hands. No wonder she can’t have kids!”

Lucien frowned—and said nothing to stop them.

The medium whipped out a black bowl and flung foul-smelling goat’s blood straight at me.

“Be cast out! Evil spirit, begone!”

Dark red soaked through my white dress in an instant.

But I’d shielded Hope’s urn so well that not a single drop touched it.

I wiped the blood from my face and looked at Lucien.

He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “This is for your own good,” he said, low and grim. “Once we’re free of this spirit, we can finally have a child of our own.”

It was absurd. All of it.

I pulled the divorce papers from my folder and threw them in his face.

“Sign.”

Lucien looked at me as if I’d said something insane.

“You’d really divorce me? We’re past the point where we can be pulled apart.

“When Lillian’s daughter is born, I’ll have her call you Mom. To make up for losing Hope…”

I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, there was nothing left in them but a dead calm.

“Lucien, you should never have used Hope against me. Not once, and certainly not again and again.”

I lifted a hand, and the Lorenzo guards behind me understood at once.

They pinned Lillian down. Every kick those big men threw landed on her stomach.

Lillian screamed. Before long, there was blood.

Red flooded Lucien’s eyes. He snatched up the divorce papers and signed without reading a word.

“Let her go!”

I clapped, laughing. It felt wonderful.

I couldn’t wait to see whether a broke divorcé could still afford to feed seven sons.