Chapter 2
Katherine was settled in the guest room, wrapped in blankets, but she wouldn’t speak. She only stared at the wall, clutching her chest as if she could still feel his hands.
Grace stood in the hallway with Robert and Frank.
“Who is Beatrice to her?” Robert asked quietly.
“I don’t know,” Grace whispered. “Katherine never spoke of her. Not once.”
Caleb sat at the kitchen table, head in his hands.
Grace pulled out a chair and sat across from him.
“Tell me everything. Now.”
He took a long, ragged breath.
“Beatrice was everything to me. We were going to marry. Then one day she was gone. No note. No call. I found out later she’d run off with someone else—someone she’d been seeing behind my back.”
He looked up, eyes burning.
“Katherine was her best friend. She knew everything. She helped her lie. She watched me wait for her, day after day, and never said a word.”
Grace felt sick.
“And you thought… marrying her was the answer?”
“I thought if I made her feel even a fraction of what I felt… she’d understand. She’d tell me where Beatrice went. Why she left.”
“You married an innocent girl to punish someone else?” Robert’s voice cracked with rage.
May you like
“She’s not innocent!” Caleb shouted. “She helped destroy me!”
---
