Share

Chapter 11

Author: Peters
last update Last Updated: 2025-03-15 04:03:47

Grey.

“Camilla was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

I heard Camilla’s stepmother giving her own tribute as I walked in.

The sun felt colder than usual, even though it was high in the sky, burning with its usual intensity. But as I sat there, on the front row of Camilla's funeral, I couldn't feel a damn thing. I was numb, disconnected, not really sure what I was mourning—was it her, or was it the unborn child that had once been inside her, the one that would never take its first breath? I looked down at my hands, my knuckles white from the grip I had on the seat in front of me. I didn’t care who was watching. I didn’t care who noticed the tears slipping down my cheek. The sunglasses I wore didn’t hide the raw pain I was feeling, but at least they offered me some comfort, shielding me from the gaze of the crowd.

I had to keep it together, before people start asking questions, nobody knows that I knew who Camilla was before her death. I tried to stay calm, but all I co
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • From Dust to Ashes: A scorned Bride    Chapter 79

    Chapter 77Camilla."I want to see the photographs," I said after few minutes of silence.Raphael slid a couple of ring-bound folders across the desk in my direction. “I need to make a call,” he added. “We might be onto something. A woman’s gone missing in Los Angeles—an X-ray tech. Her flatmate hasn’t heard from her in two weeks. Age, height, hair match our Jane Doe. And here’s the kicker, she’s a nurse.”After he stepped out, I opened the first folder and started flipping through the images at a quick pace. Earlier, when I had seen the body, her arms had been placed along her sides. Her wrists and inner thighs had been obscured from view. A self-harmer, maybe? Covered in stab wounds, ones inflicted by her own hand? It sounded implausible. But the timing, the history... it was probably nothing. Just a cruel coincidence.The first images captured the wider scene, bare ground scattered with rusty oil drums, coils of wire, scaffolding poles. The Grand Union Canal curved along the backgr

  • From Dust to Ashes: A scorned Bride    Chapter 78

    Camilla.I’d reached the point where I had to expose Julia and her mother, but first I needed proof. I had to dig up every person they’d silenced over the years. I wanted them behind bars, and my psychology degree was about to pay off.One of the unwritten truths of the National Health Service was that “dead wood floats.” It was a part of the culture, that quaint reluctance to remove the incompetent. And it suited my purposes.I walked into Westtime Mortuary, where the duty supervisor, bald, square-jawed, with pouchy jowls, pulled a face as soon as he saw me.“Who sent you?” he demanded, his tone clipped.“I’m to meet Detective Inspector Raphael.”“He didn’t tell me. No appointment on file.”“Can I wait here for him?”“No, only family members of the deceased can use the waiting room.”“Then where?”“Outside.”His sour scent mixed with stale sweat clung to the air. He looked exhausted, probably had pulled an all-nighter. Normally, I’d have empathy for tired shift-workers, just like I d

  • From Dust to Ashes: A scorned Bride    Chapter 77

    Julia.The second Camilla stepped out of the front door, I felt the air leave my lungs. Like the earth had tilted for a second and thrown me off balance. Her face was the same, but her eyes… they burned with something new. I didn’t have time to think about it before I heard the front gate swing open behind me. My mother stormed down the steps like a woman possessed.“You stupid, useless bitch!” she screamed, her palm colliding with my cheek so hard my head snapped sideways.I stumbled backward, shocked not by the slap, those came easily but by the look in her eyes. Panic. Rage. The kind only a woman backed into a corner can carry.“Mama, what?”She slapped me again.“She’s alive, Julia!” she screamed, her voice cracking. “What the hell are we supposed to do now? Do you know what this means?! Every fucking thing we built, everything we stole, everything we hid, she’s going to take it all back!”I felt my heartbeat rise, my skin prickling under her fury. I reached up and touched my che

  • From Dust to Ashes: A scorned Bride    Chapter 76

    Camilla.I couldn’t stop pacing in the living room, my fingers resting lightly on the swell of my belly. Grey was finally home. The trial was over. Justice, in some twisted, long-delayed form, had prevailed.I turned to Miri, who sat curled up on the couch, watching me like I was a glass vase teetering on the edge of a high shelf.“You’re sure about this?” she asked, her brows pinched together in worry.I nodded, though my heart beat with an intensity I hadn’t felt in months. “It’s time. I need to face Julia and Georgina. I need to look them in the eye and let them know they didn’t break me.”“You’re pregnant, Cam,” she said softly, eyes drifting to my stomach. “They tried to kill you once. There’s no telling what they’ll do now.”“I know,” I said, a small smile tugging at my lips. “But I have a plan. They won’t lay a finger on me.”She stood, walking over, placing her hands gently on my shoulders. “Just... promise me you’ll be careful.”I placed my hand over hers. “Always.”The dress

  • From Dust to Ashes: A scorned Bride    Chapter 75

    Grey.A week.Seven goddamn days behind bars. Cold walls. Colder stares. But every single day, Camilla came.Her face was the only familiar warmth in this place, even with the sorrow in her eyes and the forced strength in her voice. She always smiled when she saw me—even when I could tell she’d been crying. She always touched the glass with her palm like it was skin and whispered, “I will get you out.”But today, the chair across the glass from me stayed empty.I watched the clock. Ten minutes past the visiting hour. Then twenty. My knee bounced like a goddamn jackhammer, and I stared at the door like I could will her through it.But she didn’t come.I don’t know what scared me more—her absence or the quiet that came with it.I leaned my head back against the wall of the holding cell, fingers laced together as I stared at the fluorescent lights flickering above me. That buzzing was driving me insane. My mouth felt dry as chalk. My heart... hollow.“Grey!” the officer called.I stood

  • From Dust to Ashes: A scorned Bride    Chapter 74

    Camilla.The second I got the call, my heart dropped. “Grey’s been arrested,” the voice on the line said. “Charged with murder.”For a moment, I forgot how to breathe. Grey? Murder? No. No way. That man has many flaws, stubborn, reckless, frustratingly noble but a killer? Not him.“I’ll be there,” I said, already grabbing my bag before the call even ended.The police station stank of sweat and stale coffee. The fluorescent lights overhead flickered like they were too tired to do their job. I hated this place already.“Camilla Easton, here to see Alexander Grey,” I told the officer at the front desk.He raised a brow at me, like he didn’t believe someone like me belonged there. I didn’t care. I could’ve threatened him with a lawsuit or two, but I didn’t want to draw attention. They led me down a narrow hallway lined with doors and silence. When we reached the interrogation room, the door creaked open and... there he was.My breath caught.Grey looked like hell.His lower lip was split

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status