Chapter 3

Leora's POV

The heavy doors of the emergency room brutally chopped life and death into two halves.

I stood in the hallway, watching Caden's tiny ten-year-old body jolt upward violently on the hospital bed, then crash back down.

My vision suddenly blurred.

A single, scalding tear dropped without warning onto the cold hospital floor.

It was the first tear I had shed since Owen died.

"Now your heart aches?!"

Berta rushed up, pointing her finger right in my face, her voice shrieking with fury: "You cold-blooded freak! You had to watch your own son hover between life and death before you finally dropped the act?!"

I didn't look back. My heart was violently spasming, but I kept my lips sealed shut, grinding my teeth to bury all the secrets.

"Speak!" Uncle Henry grabbed the collar of my trench coat, his eyes burning. "Who the hell are you protecting?! Are you so obsessed with that killer that you’d let your own son die for him?!"

Before he even finished, an uproar like a tidal wave erupted right outside the ER lobby.

"Security can't hold them back!"

Dozens of reporters carrying heavy camera equipment swarmed into the ICU sector like a pack of wolves, shoving microphones practically under my chin.

"Mrs. Hartwell, why are you covering for your husband's murderer?"

"Rumor says Owen found out about your affair, is that true?"

"Are you refusing to cooperate to buy the killer time to escape?"

I stood in the center of the mob, like an island under siege.

"Owen treated you like royalty, he nearly died saving you—yet you watched him bleed out." Another reporter shoved forward aggressively. "Are you just waiting for Caden to croak so you can swallow the entire Hartwell fortune for yourself?!"

The interrogations, the camera flashes, the blaring alarms of the heart monitors... they blended the hospital into a boiling cauldron of poison.

"Shut your mouths!"

A hysterical scream tore through the noise.

Sylvia pushed through the reporters. Her hair fell in a messy heap, acting like a woman completely robbed of her sanity. She lunged at me and delivered a vicious, full-force slap across my face.

My head snapped sideways. The taste of copper instantly filled my mouth.

"You monster!" Sylvia grabbed my shoulders, shaking me violently. "Owen died for you! I only had one son, and you just watched him die! And now you're going after Caden too!"

She was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe, her fingernails digging deep into my flesh.

"What sin did I commit to have my son marry a viper like you?! Who is the killer?! What is so special about him that you’re willing to step over my son's dead body and gamble my grandson's life to protect him?!"

I slowly turned my head, spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and stayed perfectly silent.

"Leora."

A warm hand landed on my shoulder.

Douglas stepped in. With a dark scowl, he signaled the bodyguards to push the reporters back. His face, the picture of measured gentlemanly grief, loomed close. He leaned in until only our small circle could hear, lowering his voice into a calculated, coaxing tone.

"I know you were terrified that night. But this is getting out of hand. Sylvia is breaking apart, and Caden is clinging to life in there."

He stared intensely into my eyes, a venomous flash of testing the waters flickering deep in his pupils.

"Tell Detective Calloway the truth. Whatever they have over you... as long as you speak, the Hartwell family will back you."

My fingernails nearly drove through my palms.

"You killed my cousin!" Faye suddenly lunged forward, grabbing a fistful of my hair while wildly clawing at my face with her other hand. "You curse! If Caden doesn't survive this, the Hartwells will end you!"

Her sharp nails slashed down my cheek, drawing immediate blood. The cameras around us flashed in a frenzy.

"Speak! Who killed Owen!" Faye wrapped her hands around my throat, her face twisting in pure fear and rage.

The cursing, the ripping, the air being slowly squeezed out of my lungs.

This circus of secrets was plummeting toward a point of no return.

Right as I was about to black out—

"Stop it. All of you."

A low, gravelly, almost casual voice carried over from the very back of the press mob.

"I'm the one who killed Owen."