Chapter 2

Five years passed.

The marriage was stable, if not passionate. Ethan was a good provider, always considerate, though sometimes distant, lost in his own thoughts.

Ava had found a quiet rhythm in their life. The sharp edges of her grief for her mother had softened, replaced by a dull ache.

She managed their home, volunteered at a local library, and tried to build a life from the ashes of her old one.

Ethan was often busy with his company, Miller Holdings, a sprawling empire.

One Tuesday evening, Ethan was supposed to be at a late business dinner.

Ava was reading in the living room when she heard voices from Ethan' s study. The door was slightly ajar.

She recognized Ethan' s voice, and then another, deeper one – Dr. Marcus Reid, Ethan's old friend and a surgeon at the city's top hospital.

Curiosity, a rare flicker in her usually placid routine, made her pause.

"...can't keep this up, Ethan," Marcus was saying, his tone serious. "The guilt should be eating you alive."

Ava froze. Guilt?

"I know, Marcus, I know," Ethan's voice was strained. "But what's done is done. Sophia's mother is alive. That's what matters."

Sophia.

The name echoed in Ava's mind, a cold premonition.

"And Ava's mother?" Marcus pressed. "What about her? That organ was meant for Sarah Williams. You diverted it, Ethan. You played God."

Ava' s breath hitched. Her hand flew to her mouth, stifling a gasp.

Diverted her mother's organ?

"It was the only way," Ethan said, his voice low, almost a growl. "Sophia was desperate. Her mother was dying. I had to help her."

"And marrying Ava? Was that part of the plan too?" Marcus's voice was laced with disbelief.

"It... it was a way to make amends, in my own head," Ethan admitted, his voice heavy. "A penance. To give Ava a good life, to protect her. And... it kept things quiet."

Ava felt the floor drop from beneath her.

Penance? Her marriage, her life for the past five years, was Ethan's twisted form of atonement for effectively killing her mother?

His devotion, it wasn't to her. It was to Sophia Bellweather.

The room spun. Her mother... dead because of Ethan. Because of Sophia.

The man she had trusted, who had seemed like a savior, was a monster.