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Chapter 2

Autor: Ewan Wynn
The last second before I lost consciousness, I saw Stella holding an empty syringe of sedatives.

As she caught my collapsing body, her eyes flickered with a helpless, guilt-ridden remorse.

"Spencer, why didn't you listen? Why'd you secretly throw your meds away? You shouldn't have remembered this."

When I finally came to, my entire body ached as I lay sprawled across the bedroom.

A sickening, sluggish weakness dragged at my limbs from the forced injection of sedatives.

Stella was standing by the window, twisting a pack of women's cigarettes into a crushed mess, her frustration bleeding through every motion.

I stared at her in dead silence, my fingernails digging so hard into my palm that they broke the skin, before I finally managed to force out a gravelly rasp.

"Why? Stella, you knew how much I loved Evelyn!

"Why on earth did you all cover this up for five years? Why protect a murderer like Lucian?"

Stella froze mid-motion.

She stepped over, grabbing my shoulders and leaning in close.

The perfume I used to love burying my face in now made my stomach churn.

"Spencer, since you already know the truth, I'll apologize to you.

"But five years ago, Lucian ran a high fever for seven whole days from the shock and almost didn't make it. He finally managed to move past it.

"I'm not going to let you ruin his life over something that's already in the past.

"Whatever you want as compensation, I'll give it to you."

Evelyn’s vibrant life was just going to be bartered away for a financial payout?

I stared at Stella, completely losing my mind, and shoved her away with every remaining ounce of strength in my body.

My throat burned so raw I could taste iron.

"Compensation?! What I want is for Lucian to pay with his blood!"

The next second, a heavy, vicious slap cracked through the air.

A burning, searing pain flared across my cheek.

Stella instantly froze, panic flashing in her eyes as she stumbled back, her voice stuttering in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, Spencer, I... I didn't mean to do that."

That reflex slap from Stella completely shattered the very last thread of hope clinging to my heart.

Tears streamed down my face as I shook uncontrollably.

"Stella, Evelyn was your child, too. She was only three years old!

"That day was her birthday. You were the one who promised to pick her up for her birthday party, which is why she waited so patiently by the school back gate for you.

"If it weren't for you, she never would have been waiting there. And if Lucian hadn't been joyriding like a maniac, she wouldn't be dead."

Stella shuddered violently, all the color draining from her face.

Watching her look away, unable to meet my eyes, a chilling numbness washed over me.

I couldn't understand it.

The Stella who once loved us more than she loved her own life, the Stella who had promised to spoil our daughter like a little princess… When had she become such a monster?

How could she be so casual, tossing out a bribe of compensation just to erase the agony I had suffered every single second of the past five years?

All these years, keeping it a secret from me, letting the killer strut around right in front of my eyes and act like he owned the world.

After a long, suffocating silence, I closed my eyes, beating down the violent storm raging inside me.

"Isn't that what you wanted to compensate me for?

"The only thing I want in this world is to see Lucian behind bars."

The air stayed heavy for a long time before Stella's voice finally filtered through, muffled and quiet.

"Fine. I promise you."

As I heard her words, my body, which had been fighting tooth and nail against the sedative, finally gave out.

As my heavy eyelids slipped shut, my world finally faded into silence.

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  • A Spring Beyond Reach   Chapter 10

    Ten days later, Callum and I were getting ready to head to Aresland, where Claire was based, to clear our heads and get away from everything.While we were waiting to board our flight, an anonymous message popped up on my phone.It turned out to be from Stella.The text messages she sent were flooded with raw, agonizing regret and self-loathing.I didn't even have the patience to read through most of it, skimming straight down to the final line.She was still pathetic enough to hold onto a sliver of hope for a reconciliation.[Spencer, I finally realize how unforgivably wrong I was. I deserve to die a thousand deaths.][I had no idea Lucian intentionally murdered our daughter, and I didn't know what kind of poison he was pumping into your veins to tear you apart... I’m so, so sorry.][Can you please just look back at me one last time? Give me a chance to make it up to you.]Those carefully chosen words, written with such desperate, agonizing caution.If I had been the person

  • A Spring Beyond Reach   Chapter 9

    With no other options left, Stella started reaching out to our mutual friends, begging for their help.Yet the looks they shot her way were filled with pure, unadulterated disgust, piercing her heart like shards of ice.Someone snapped at her, "Stella, you disgust me. Your own flesh and blood died, and you actually helped the killer walk free."No wonder Spencer left you. Honestly, the only thing that might actually make him happy at this point is seeing you drop dead."Humiliated and battered by the insults, Stella's face drained of all color. Having spent her entire life sitting comfortably at the top, she had never experienced this kind of public devastation.She fled the scene in an absolute mental collapse.The woman who always kept herself meticulously put-together looked like a hollowed-out ghost as if she had aged ten years overnight.Clutching the divorce certificate tightly, Stella muttered to herself in a daze, seemingly lost in her own delusions, "How could this happ

  • A Spring Beyond Reach   Chapter 8

    Stella, who had stayed silent from the start of the trial until now, finally spoke up. She looked at me, her expression a tangled mix of complex emotions."Spencer, I know you're upset, but everything has a limit. You’re taking this way too far."Her tone still carried that unconscious, condescending blame.I let out a cold, bitter laugh."Stella, save the high-and-mighty routine. Aren't you just confident because you think I don't have any real evidence?"Aren't you banking on the fact that the Andersons always win in the end?"Stella's expression flickered through several shades, telling me I had hit the nail right on the head.Having clawed her way up through the professional ladder for years, she genuinely believed she was untouchable enough to walk away clean.After all these years of marriage, I knew her just as well as she knew me.If I hadn't locked down ironclad, foolproof preparation, I wouldn't have subjected myself to looking at their sickening faces again.The

  • A Spring Beyond Reach   Chapter 7

    At eight o'clock in the evening.Stella returned home after a long, exhausting day at work.Pushing open the front door, the pitch-black, unfamiliar stillness inside caught her off guard.Instinctively, she flicked on the lights and walked through the rooms.That was when it finally hit her: today was already the third day.I hadn't come back once since breaking out of the psychiatric hospital.Standing in the dark, silent house, an unexplained panic began to gnaw at Stella's chest.Three days. Was I seriously still holding a grudge?Stella leaned back against the entryway wall, a rare flicker of disorientation washing over her.She opened the messaging app several times, hovering over my chat before closing it again, terrified of what she might see if I had sent a barrage of accusations and bitter attacks.In the end, she locked her phone screen.A strange, suffocating dread wrapped tightly around her. She rubbed her throbbing temples hard.Skipping dinner, she headed stra

  • A Spring Beyond Reach   Chapter 6

    The will to survive, which had all but faded, surged back to life.I forced my eyes open, meeting the mix of shock and heartbreaking relief in my best friend Callum Reid's eyes.When he saw me wake up, he sounded like a man who had just escaped death, his voice still trembling with fear."Thank God you held on long enough for me to get to you, man. You almost didn't make it..."It slowly came back to me. Right after I saw the hallucination of Evelyn standing by the door waving at me yet again, I had completely given up on living.I had wanted to end it all.Just as I was about to jump, I spotted Callum bursting through the side exit.As my mind cleared up and everything rushed back into focus, I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.It was as if I needed to cry out every ounce of agony that had been crushing my soul.Once we both finally calmed down, Callum wiped away his tears."Spencer, don't lose hope. I brought in some backup for you. Trust me, as long as we don't back down

  • A Spring Beyond Reach   Chapter 5

    When Stella got the news, the coffee mug slipped straight from her hand and shattered violently against the floor.Scalding hot liquid splashed everywhere, burning a large patch of raw red skin across her legs, but she didn't even feel it.A blank, suffocating daze washed over her before she snapped back to reality like a violent reflex.Running over a dozen red lights, she drove like a maniac all the way to the scene.When Stella laid eyes on the charred, smoking ruins of what used to be the patient ward, her head rang with a deafening buzz. Her legs buckled beneath her as she stumbled hard from the sudden loss of strength.After sweeping her wide, terrified eyes across the cramped, fire-gutted room, she held her breath for what felt like an eternity before finally forcing a trembling whisper from her throat."Where is he? It doesn't matter if the ward burned down, I know Spencer was just pissed off... But where's Spencer?"The doctor lowered his head heavily."When the night

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