Before the Dawn Falls
Spring Belle
Five years ago, my then girlfriend betrayed me for Ethan Reid.
Together, they staged a car accident that killed both my parents. Then they hired someone to assault and murder my younger sister, who wasn't even sixteen, and framed me for it.
I was thrown in prison where I suffered every day.
It was Serena Cole who risked everything to become my defense attorney. She cleared my name and courted me with everything she had. She told me I was all she could see, that I was her whole world.
When I finally gave her my whole heart, I looked down from upstairs and saw her kissing Ethan like she couldn't get enough of him, days before our wedding.
Right there in our wedding car, they crossed every line.
"Bold move, bride. Not worried the groom might see?" Ethan whispered.
"His legs are crippled because of you. You know better than anyone whether he can even make it downstairs," Serena replied.
"What's this, feeling guilty now? Every dirty thing I ever did to him, you were the one who planned it. You want me to tell him that?"
"If you say a word, I swear I'll take you down with me," came her ragged response.
Ethan bit her ear roughly, driving her over the edge.
"Sure, sure. I know you love him so much. So doesn't this make it even more exciting? Say it. Who's your daddy?"
She broke apart beneath him, saying his name over and over, breathless and undone.
The tears hit me before I could stop them.
She had known. All along, she had known everything that happened to me. And not only that, she had helped plan it.