Chapter 8
571words
He froze on the spot, stunned and unable to react.
In his mind, I had always been gentle and quiet.
Someone easygoing, especially when Lucien was around.
Neither Ethan nor Lucien had ever known the real me.
Before this, I had been blinded by love, always trying to please Lucien, shrinking myself to fit what he wanted.
Looking back now, I realized I had slowly been molded into a substitute for Vicky without even noticing.
It took three wasted years and the loss of my child for me to finally wake up.
They had never compromised in love.
They trampled over truth and our dignity, taking everything while giving nothing back.
Of course, they assumed we would keep giving in.
So they thought none of this was worth a divorce.
After I finished yelling, I hung up the phone.
Claire had come out of the bedroom and was leaning against the doorframe.
“This is who you really are, Caroline,” she said.
When the sun finally rose and its warmth spread across our skin, we felt a little steadier.
Ethan called again.
He said they had found the driver whose car we had smashed that night.
We rushed to the police station.
Ethan stayed in the shadows while we stood in the sunlight, facing a familiar man.
The driver looked unkempt, his beard grown out, his face exhausted.
He confessed on the spot.
Someone had paid him to drive near the cabin late that night.
If he saw anyone injured, he was told to demand money before helping.
If they couldn’t pay, he was to drive away and mind his own business.
He was already on the edge of bankruptcy, about to sleep inside of his car.
That was why he took the deal.
He thought he could make money twice.
But we couldn’t pay a single cent.
Remembering the instructions, he forced himself to watch me trapped in the fire.
He even refused help to another pregnant woman.
The driver broke down, covering his head as tears streamed down his face.
He hadn’t set the fire himself, but ever since that night, he’d been plagued by nightmares.
Terrified, he fled to another state overnight.
He said he hadn’t slept well in weeks.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Claire screaming, and me lying in a pool of blood.
When the police finally appeared, he felt relief instead of fear.
As soon as he finished speaking, Ethan pressed on.
“Can you still contact the person who paid you? Do you remember what he looked like?”
He opened his laptop, fingers hovering over the keyboard.
“Him? No… it was a woman,” the driver said hesitantly.
“Very pale. Red eyes. Maybe colored contacts…”
He pointed nervously at his phone.
“There should be transfer records. You can check.”
An officer unlocked the phone and searched for a long time.
There was nothing.
“That can’t be right…” the driver insisted.
“I swear she transferred the money. I was dizzy, but I saw it.”
No one spoke.
Testimony from an outsider carried more weight than anything Claire or I could say.
And there were no other vampires nearby.
Only them.
Only Vicky.
The truth was already clear.
Ethan stubbed out his cigarette with a sharp twist of his heel
After a long pause, he pulled out his personal phone and called Vicky.
But no one answered.
