Chapter 4

Even so, I still felt a pang of pity for Tilda.

That night, passing the guest room, I saw her fiddling with the expensive gifts Mortimer had given her, and I stepped inside.

Tilda held the most valuable piece, the ocean-sapphire necklace, against her own throat and flaunted it at me.

"And here I thought, being Kate Sullivan's sister, you'd have the inside track and win him over first. Seven years in this house and Mr. Barnes still doesn't care for you. What a useless thing you are!"

I looked at the necklace at her throat, silent a moment, then asked her.

"Do you know where these things came from?"

"They were Kate's. Mortimer prepared them as their wedding gifts. Pity she died before he ever gave them to her."

Tilda's hand froze, but her chin stayed just as high.

"So what if they were hers? Mr. Barnes gave them to me, which means in his heart I stand higher than Kate ever did!"

"Soon I'll take your place, marry into the Barnes family, become the new Mrs. Barnes, and have everything money can buy!"

I only shook my head. "No. You'll die."

"Something worse than dying, even."

In Mortimer's heart, no one could ever replace my sister.

The only reason he treated Tilda any differently was that she resembled my sister more than I did.

Once that illusion shattered, Tilda would end up in a worse place than I had.

But Tilda was certain I was just jealous of her, and she shoved me hard.

The sleeping pills spilled from my arms and scattered across the floor.

Looking at the pills on the floor, Tilda's expression turned strange.

Mortimer pushed the door open and came in too.

At the white pills all over the floor, his brow drew faintly together.

Tilda, still fretting over how to be rid of me, saw her chance and threw herself into his arms, sobbing.

"Mr. Barnes, does Kate really hate me that much?"

"She said I'm not worthy of wearing these, and that if I ever dared come near you again, she'd kill me the way she killed her sister Kate!"

Mortimer said nothing, but the look he gave me was cold as ice.

He drove me to the stretch of shore where my sister had died, and pushed my head down into the seawater.

Salt and bitterness flooded my nose and mouth. Choking, I couldn't get out a word, and could only fight to break free.

But the harder I struggled, the harder his hand bore down on my head.

Slowly the strength drained out of me, and my whole body sank on its own.

Tilda was terrified too. She lunged forward to stop him, and he flung her off with one hand.

He gripped my chin and forced me to look at him.

"Kate, are you really this vicious? Killing your own sister wasn't enough, and now you want to destroy someone else?"

"Tilda is your cousin! I'd like to cut open your heart and see if it's black inside!"

I wanted to tell Mortimer it wasn't that I was vicious.

It was that I had never once had a choice.

Not back then, when I took the blame for my sister's death.

And not now, with Tilda's lie.

But before I could open my mouth, Mortimer took a call.

His eyes lit with a startled joy, and he told the person on the line.

"I'm on my way!"

He turned and hurried to the car, and Tilda went with him.

Only, before she left, she took off that costly necklace and pressed it into my hand.

"Don't go back to the Barnes house. I know these seven years have been hard on you."

"From now on, go live the life you want."

I did not climb back to shore.

Seven years of grinding down had taken my dream, my child, my dignity, and my right to be a mother.

I had nothing left worth holding on to.

I turned and walked, step by step, into the sea behind me, and let the water swallow me whole.

……

Elsewhere, Mortimer got a call from customs. An unidentified woman had come through the border who looked very like Kate Sullivan, the one lost in the shipwreck seven years ago. They wanted him to come confirm it.

He rushed to the appointed place. Before he could catch sight of the figure he had longed for day and night, his eye caught the news scrolling across the big screen.

"Breaking news. A pregnant woman has died after taking her own life in the coastal shallows."

"The victim's identity is not yet confirmed. Anyone with information, please contact us at once…"

Mortimer thought the shallows in the report looked oddly familiar, very like the one he had taken me to that afternoon to frighten me.

Wanting to confirm it again, the phone in his pocket rang. It was the family doctor.

"Mr. Barnes, do you know where Miss Sullivan went? Her latest checkup shows she's already three months pregnant…"

Kate was pregnant?

A flicker of joy crossed the depths of Mortimer's eyes, one even he didn't notice.

Before he could say a word, the news cut to my face, swollen and bloated from the sea.