Chapter 249
He grew up with the finest things. This cheap metal?” She held it up to the light. He’d never touch something so worthless.”
Laurel raised her hand to throw it away. I grabbed her wrist before she could, my fingers tightening around it.
“You’re hurting me,” she winced.
“What are you doing?” I asked, voice low.
She tried to pull away. “Throwing trash where it belongs.‘
“This tacky thing is offensive to look at,” she continued, ‘Astrid brought it to humiliate us.”
Her words hit me like a physical blow. I searched her face for any sign of recognition. Her eyes showed only disgust, not a flicker of awareness of what she was holding.
When I’d given her the pendant five years ago, I’d specifically told her it was from my mother. Now Laurel was calling it garbage.
“You really don’t recognize this at all?” I asked, keeping my voice steady.
She started to speak, “Why would I before stopping mid–sentence.
Looking down at the pendant again, her expression changed. “I don’t remember…” She bit her lip.
“Audrey asked me to return it to you.” Astrid cut in, her voice cold. “When I met Audrey four years ago, she always wore this pendant. She told me it came from someone she loved more than anyone.”
She looked directly at me. “She still wore it after marrying you. But when you woke up, she gave it to me for safekeeping. She didn’t want you knowing about it.”
Astrid’s lips curved slightly. “I thought she was hiding it because she didn’t want you knowing she’d once loved someone else. Yesterday I learned the truth. This pendant was from you. The person she loved more than anyone… was always you.”
Each word hit me like a hammer. My mind raced to make sense of it.
The pendant I’d given Laurel had somehow ended up with Audrey? And she’d been wearing it for years?
How could that be possible? And why would she claim I’d given it to her?
Astrid had said I was the man Audrey loved most. But that couldn’t be right. Audrey told me about her first love the man from Pinehaven Village. We’d first met at my grandfather’s nursing home four years ago.
None of this made sense.
“That’s all I came to say,” Astrid said. “Audrey wanted me to return this to you. She’s giving back your mother’s pendant and with it, all her feelings for you.”
I grabbed her wrist. “What are you talking about? Yes, this was my mother’s. But five years ago, I gave it to Laurel!”
My grip tightened as confusion and anger surged through me. “How did Audrey get it? How did she know where i
from?”
Astrid yanked free. “Ask your precious Miss Rose about that.”
She straightened her dress. “Audrey never lies. She’s divorced you now, cut all ties. She has no reason to lie about something like this.”
1/2
Chapter 249
Laurel’s POV
My head spun as I stood on stage, staring at the pendant in my palm before glancing at Blake.
Audrey having this pendant wasn’t part of my plan. Rachel never mentioned it in any of her phone notes! Not once!
Everything was unraveling.
No. I wouldn’t let it.
I bit down on my lip and grabbed my phone, dialing quickly. When the call connected, I turned away slightly,
“You at the spot yet?” I whispered.
The voice confirmed on the other end.
“Do it now,” I ordered through clenched teeth. “No survivors.”
I hung up and turned back toward Blake, feeling a smile stretch across my face that I couldn’t control.
So Audrey had a pendant. Big deal.
In minutes, both she and Rachel would be gone. Permanently.
With them dead, my version becomes the only version.
Nothing would stand between Blake and me. Nothing.
Chapter Comments
1
POST COMMENT NOW
<SHARE
