Chapter 4

The escape was a blur. Ethan had a car waiting. We drove for hours, the desolate Texas landscape slowly giving way to rolling hills. He talked about our future, about a house in Virginia, about rebuilding what we had lost. I nodded and said nothing, the image of Molly's face the only thing in my mind.

As we neared a deep, scenic canyon, I feigned a wave of nausea.

"Ethan, please, can we pull over?" I asked, my voice weak. "I feel sick."

I pointed to a cliffside overlook. "Over there. A ranch hand... he was kind to me once. He told me this was his favorite spot. He said you could see the whole world from here."

Ethan, believing he was in complete control, humored me. He pulled the car over.

We walked to the edge. The wind whipped my hair around my face. Far below, a river snaked through the canyon, a silver ribbon in the fading light.

I turned to face him. The mask of the broken victim fell away.

"You're a liar, Ethan," I said, my voice cold and steady.

He looked confused. "Jocelyn, what are you talking about?"

"Molly," I said, the name a blade in my heart. "I know the truth. I've known for a year. A nurse at the facility you sent her to had a conscience. She contacted me. Molly's dead, Ethan. She died from an infection, from negligent care. The 'best care money can buy' was a lie."

His face went pale. The confident strategist was gone, replaced by a man caught in his own web of deceit.

"Jocelyn, I... I was going to tell you..."

"No, you weren't," I interrupted, my voice rising with a year's worth of suppressed rage. "You were going to use her ghost to chain me to you forever. You destroyed my family, you sold me to a monster, you let my sister die alone... all to possess me."

I took a step back, closer to the edge.

"I would rather die than live in a world you control."

His eyes widened in horror as he realized what I was about to do. "Jocelyn, no!"

He lunged for me, but it was too late.

I threw myself off the cliff. The wind rushed past my ears, a final, screaming lullaby. Then, the shocking, brutal cold of the river swallowed me whole.