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9

BEGINNINGS

I t turns out Rey Garcia never existed, everything down to his persona was all fake. Every word, every touch, every whispered 'I love you'—nothing but an illusion. His real name was Fernando Reyes. My husband, or whatever he was, had no real identity, only the ones he created before discarding them like the women he destroyed.

He killed his first wife.

And I would have been next.

Turns out his mother passed away delivering his sister, and the psychiatrist believed that started his compulsion. A man driven by loss, rewriting the past over and over, turning wives into ghosts. But I refused to be another name carved into the graveyard he built. I didn’t become his victim but I did become his slayer. Thanks to him I became the mother my daughter deserved and Lily’s vengeance. Lily’s body was recovered. She would no longer be just another forgotten woman buried beneath his lies.

And me? I got the white picket fence I never thought I wanted… never thought I’d deserved. Despite all the evil he did, there was something good that came from it. That was my daughter.

Liliana.

Lily for short.

Named after the woman who fought to not be forgotten. Which brings me here. To the place where it all began. And where it all ended. Josh finishes pouring the gasoline over the house, his movements steady and purposeful as he drags a trail down to where I stand in the driveway. No one will ever live in this house again.

This evil will no longer exist.

And I will be the one to burn it all away.

For me.

For my daughter.

For Lily.

For her daughter.

I will burn this house to hell, and I hope it traps his soul inside, burning for all eternity.

I hope it suffocates him the way he tried to suffocate us.

Unfortunately, the remains of Lily’s baby were never recovered. A soul left wandering, a child stolen before ever taking its first breath. And the grave marking of David no longer reads Fernando…. his lies erased. And for the devil himself…

Nothing.

Just an unmarked plot of dirt. No tombstone. No name. No legacy.

A fitting end.

"Are you ready, baby?" Josh says as he places the gasoline can back in the truck, pulling out the box of matches from his flannel jacket. I stare at the house….the very house that almost became my grave.

"Ready as I’ll ever be," I say, grabbing the matches, opening the box, pulling one out.

I take a deep breath.

The last breath I will ever take as his wife.

Then—I strike the match.

A tiny flame flickers against the wind, small, fragile.

Then it grows.

I drop it.

The fire races along the gasoline trail, slithering like a serpent, swallowing every lie, every secret, every scream this house ever held. Up the steps. Into the doorway. Across the walls where he touched me. Through the bedroom where he whispered lies. The house goes up in flames. With it—every piece of him.

Josh wraps his arms around me, pulling me into him, his lips crashing into mine. And you wanna know the biggest fuck you I could ever give to the man who fed me nothing but lies? The man who made me sick, cheated on me, tried to take everything from me? Burning his memory to the ground. And fucking on the land he held most dear.

I hope from hell he can see it.

Josh bends me over the hood of his truck, my cheek pressed against the cool metal, as he rips my jeans down, exposing every inch of me Rey thought he owned. Then—he slams into me.

I moan. Loud, unashamed and wild because this is mine.

My body.

My pleasure.

My choice.

This is my revenge.

And this is how I bury him.

Josh thrusts into me harder, gripping my hips, taking me like I was made for this. "Look at the flames," he growls, his breath hot against my ear. I stare at the house as it collapses, burning, shrieking, dying.

He is dying.

"You did this," he thrusts. "You are a survivor," thrust. "A fucking force, Serena," another thrust. "And a damn good mama."

I splinter into a thousand pieces.

The fire devours the home I once thought would be my forever. And I moan into the night, fucked and free, as the past turns to ash behind me. Josh stays inside me, his weight grounding me, his hands still gripping me. Holding me together. I smile as I watch Lily run into the arms of the charred man as they walk hand in hand disappearing into the fields. I won and the price was not only finding myself but learning to be a mama.