Chapter 7

Everett let out a breath of relief. "Get some rest."

Then he took Brielle's hand and left.

Not long after, Audrey got word that her parents' remains had been found. Despite her injuries, she got out of bed and hurried to Sunspire Memorial Park.

The cemetery was usually quiet, but today reporters crowded around her parents' grave.

The moment Audrey appeared, they surged toward her with cameras and microphones raised.

"Ms. Vance, is it true you came between the search-and-rescue captain and his wife?"

"There are intimate videos online of you seducing men. Are they real?"

One reporter held up a phone. The screen was filled with countless explicit deepfake videos of Audrey.

The suggestive sounds blaring from the phone were especially jarring in the cemetery.

Audrey stood frozen, trembling slightly.

The wind tugged at her clothes, seeming to drain away the last of her strength.

She looked at Everett. "Did you set all this up?"

Everett avoided her eyes. "The reporters came to interview members of the Search and Rescue Unit. It's just a coincidence."

But every question they asked was about Audrey's private life.

The lie was painfully obvious, but Audrey didn't bother calling him out on it.

Once she had laid her parents' remains to rest, she would leave Sunspire and never appear in Everett's life again.

She looked at the reporters, her voice calm.

"This is a cemetery. Please keep your voices down and let my parents rest in peace."

Audrey stepped forward, picked up her parents' urn, and turned to leave.

Something cold suddenly snapped around her wrist.

She looked up in disbelief.

Everett had handcuffed her to her parents' gravestone.

He avoided her gaze. "You can't leave.

"People online are saying Brielle is the other woman. Her mental health is fragile. She can't handle that kind of stress."

Only then did Audrey understand.

Everett had arranged all of this just to clear Brielle's name and put an end to the rumors that she was the other woman.

"So you want me to stand in front of my parents' grave and admit I'm the other woman?"

Audrey stared straight at him.

Everett looked away.

"Help me one last time. Once Brielle has recovered from giving birth, I'll come home. I'll give you every paycheck I earn, and I'll buy your parents the best burial plot in Sunspire."

He ignored Audrey's refusal and the pain in her eyes.

He simply stepped back beside Brielle and watched as the reporters crowded around Audrey and hounded her with questions.

One angry onlooker suddenly hurled a can at her. It struck Audrey in the head, leaving blood running down her forehead.

"Audrey!"

Everett's eyes widened, and he started toward her.

But Brielle suddenly clutched her stomach with a cry of pain.

"It hurts! Honey, I still haven't recovered from giving birth. What if this leaves me with lasting complications?"

Everett clenched his jaw.

"Audrey, hang on. Brielle isn't as strong as you are. I'll take her to the hospital first and come back for you!"

He scooped Brielle into his arms.

"Just admit you're the other woman. Then the reporters will leave you alone."

With that, he hurried down the mountain with Brielle in his arms, leaving Audrey behind to face everything alone.

"You shameless bitch! You think a homewrecker's parents deserve to rest in peace? Dream on!"

A man wearing a baseball cap raised a Molotov cocktail and hurled it at her parents' gravestone.

Flaming liquid splashed across the grave.

Audrey's eyes widened in horror.

"No!"

Her wrist was still cuffed. The flames heated the metal until it seared the skin around her wrist.

As if she couldn't feel the pain, Audrey desperately tried to put out the flames spreading across her parents' urn.

At the foot of the mountain, Everett's heart suddenly began beating erratically. For some reason, he had the terrible feeling that he was about to lose something.

After making sure Brielle was settled, he turned to leave.

Brielle grabbed his hand tightly. "Where are you going?" There was a trace of unease in her voice.

"Back up the mountain. I'm a search-and-rescue captain. I can't see someone hurt and do nothing."

Brielle tearfully tried to hold him back.

Then the ground suddenly shook beneath them.

"It's an aftershock!"

Everett's eyes flew wide.

A landslide tore down the slope, burying the cemetery beneath a mass of rubble.

He stumbled to his feet and grabbed a disheveled reporter who had just made it down the mountain.

"What about the people up there?" His voice shook. "Where's Audrey?"

"I don't know. I was the last one out. She was handcuffed, so she couldn't get away. She's probably... dead."