Chapter 17: Chapter 17

362 words

<html><head></head><body>Rain slanted against the tombstone. Victoria Montgomery's fingers trembled as she wiped droplets from her mother's photograph. "Mom, I'm home." She leaned against the cold granite, rainwater tracing paths down her cheeks. Her mother's frail voice echoed in her memory: "Promise me... don't go looking for Ethan again..." "I broke my promise." Victoria pressed her forehead to the stone. "I couldn't help myself." The downpour intensified, triggering memories of another stormy day. Lucas Whitmore had stood beside her, smirking. "Ethan, what kind of 'life' is this withered rose of yours?" She'd thrown Ethan's designs into the rain herself. Water dripped from his lashes, but he never spoke. Just like the countless days afterward, when he never said another word to her. The car door jerked open while raindrops still clung to Victoria's fingertips. "Surprise?" Lucas waved their marriage certificate. "I'm here to take you home." Victoria seized his collar. "You dare come here?" "It was Sophia who killed your mother!" Lucas struggled. "I had nothing to do with it!" Her phone vibrated. The files from her assistant revealed everything - forged medical records, photos of school bullying, surveillance stills from the accident scene. Most damning was the truth about that high school car crash. Sophia had aimed for Ethan, but took his parents instead. "Let's start over." Victoria's sudden smile chilled the air. "After we settle accounts." Lucas nodded eagerly until she shoved him into the car. "This is... the hospital?" His voice shook. "Remember?" Victoria killed the engine. "Ethan donated his Rh-null blood for you here." Lucas turned ashen. Buried memories surfaced - stealing Ethan's design awards, orchestrating the crash through Sophia, even using Victoria to hurt him. "Get out." Her voice cut colder than the rain. The abandoned school's rusted gates creaked in the wind. Lucas finally recognized the crash site. "Victoria, I—" "Kneel." She pointed across the empty field where Ethan's parents' car had once parked. "Facing that direction." Through the curtain of rain, Lucas finally saw the hatred in Victoria's eyes. Not misplaced anger at Sophia, but pure fury for him - the architect of all their tragedies. "You owe him." Victoria raised her phone. "Now pay up." </body></html>