CHAPTER 97

Ryan's POV

Ignoring the emptiness I suddenly felt when her body was lowered feet down the ground, I glanced away to stop myself from breaking down but it was impossible because the action alone hit me hard.

She is gone. Never to be seen again.

I want to break down now but I can not. I am a man. I have a wife who is looking up to me. The way Valerie reacted to her death was shocking and I have to control myself so she doesn't end up crying again.

But I can't hold it back.

How can I when this woman meant so much to me? Is it the pain of losing her when I least expected it? Or the pain of thinking about the people who killed her?

Maybe if it had been a natural death, I wouldn't be in so much anguish. Maybe if it weren't planned by the people I know, I wouldn't be hurt this way.

Why her? Why Mother?

Everybody loved her. She was a great woman. She was wealthy but no one knew she was because her husband was handling everything except, of course, her supermarket which is now closed down.

Lo