Chapter 4

"What are you talking about?" I yelled, my voice cracking. "I bought this plot. It' s my mother' s."

Brittany let out a little laugh, a sound like glass shattering. "Oh, sweetie. Money can buy anything. This land was part of an old estate my family used to own. A little clerical error, a generous donation to the cemetery fund, and voilà. It' s mine again."

I looked at Ethan, my last shred of hope begging him to fix this. "Ethan, tell her. Tell her she can' t do this."

He wouldn' t meet my eyes. He just stood there, a puppet whose strings were being pulled by the woman beside him. "Sarah, Brittany owns the land. Her name is on the deed. There' s nothing I can do."

"Nothing you can do?" I shrieked. "This is my mother! After everything... you' re just going to stand there?"

Brittany stepped forward, her eyes gleaming with malice. She looked from me to her Doberman, who was now sitting primly by her side. "Well, maybe there is one thing," she said slowly, tapping a finger to her chin. "I might be willing to let your mother stay... for a price."

I held my breath. I would do anything.

"Apologize," she said, her voice soft but laced with steel. "Get on your knees and apologize to Prince again. For scaring him earlier. Do it properly this time. Three times. And maybe I' ll reconsider."

It was the ultimate degradation. To kneel in the dirt of my mother' s violated grave and apologize to the dog that had attacked me. To sacrifice the last of my dignity for the slimmest chance of protecting her final resting place.

"Ethan..." I pleaded one last time, my voice a broken whisper.

"Just do it, Sarah," he said, his voice strained. "It' s just a few words. Don' t make it a bigger deal than it is."

Tears streamed down my face, hot and silent. I looked at the disturbed earth, at the cold, unfeeling machine poised to destroy the only thing I had left of her. My shoulders slumped in defeat.

Slowly, painfully, I lowered myself to my knees. The wet soil soaked through my pants. I bowed my head, the shame a physical weight on my back.

"I' m sorry, Prince," I choked out, the words tearing me apart. "I' m sorry."

"Again," Brittany commanded.

"I' m sorry."

"I can' t hear you," she taunted.

"I' M SORRY!" I screamed at the ground, my voice raw with agony.

Brittany smiled, a slow, satisfied spreading of her lips. She nodded at Ethan. He walked over to the side of the grave and picked up a small, ornate box that I hadn' t noticed before. The box they had given me when my mother was cremated. Her ashes.

He handed the box to Brittany. My heart stopped.

"Thank you for the apology," Brittany said sweetly. "But I' ve changed my mind."

With a flick of her wrist, she opened the box and turned it upside down. A small cloud of gray dust drifted into the night air, scattering on the damp ground, vanishing into the dirt.

My mother. Gone.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. The world went silent. Then, a primal scream ripped from my throat.

Brittany laughed. "Oops," she said, dropping the empty box. She ground it into the mud with the heel of her expensive shoe. "Her ashes are home now, aren' t they? Mixed with the dirt, just like they belong." She looked down at me, her eyes filled with a victorious, psychopathic glee. "You see, Sarah? I don' t want your man. I just wanted to destroy you. And it was so, so easy."

Something inside me, something I didn' t even know existed, snapped. The pain, the humiliation, the grief-it all coalesced into a single point of white-hot rage. With a guttural roar, I launched myself up from the ground and flew at her, my hands outstretched like claws, aiming for her throat.