Chapter 1

The crisp white envelope lay on my kitchen counter, no return address, just my name, Ashley Carter, typed neatly.

Inside, a single sheet of paper, a confidential lab report.

Tiffany Bellweather. HIV Positive.

My breath hitched.

Tonight. The new house. Mark was supposed to be showing me the final touches, the house we were meant to fill with a life, a future.

A sick feeling churned in my stomach, a horrifying echo from a life I' d already suffered through.

I drove there, my hands gripping the wheel too tight.

The lights were on.

I walked in, no knock, no announcement.

And there they were. Mark, my fiancé, and Tiff, his high school flame, tangled together on the floor of what was supposed to be our master bedroom.

The air left my lungs.

Last time, this exact scene, or one very much like it, had played out.

Last time, I' d found Tiff' s pills, suspected something, tried to warn Mark.

Last time, Tiff had "accidentally" fallen down the stairs during our confrontation. Mark blamed me.

Then came the real horror.

Tiff' s grave. Mark, his face a mask of cold fury, forcing me there.

The live stream. The world watching as his hired thugs tortured me, violated me, ended me.

My mother, her heart broken by grief, a stroke stealing her life.

My father, David, a strong man, ruined financially by Mark, then silenced forever by those same thugs.

All because I tried to warn him about Tiff.

This time, the lab report was in my purse. Proof.

But this time, I wouldn' t warn him.

This time, I wouldn' t say a word.