In the Name of the Small Chapter 1

After my death, my husband didn't avenge me.

He fell in love with my killer. He spoiled her rotten.

They spent their nights lost in passion.

Once, when she casually mentioned my name, Sebastian’s voice turned to ice.

"Why bring up a dead woman? It's morbid."

Ally smiled, pleased.

She thought Sebastian had truly forgotten me.

She didn't know that the man who came to her bed each night, the man who let her believe she was driving him wild, was a stranger—a madman, a fool paid to play a part.

And Sebastian watched from the shadows, filming everything.

Then, at her son's christening, he played the tape for the world to see.

* * *

"Congratulations, Mrs. Croft. You're pregnant."

The doctor's words sent a wave of pure ecstasy through me. Sebastian and I had been married for ten years, and the childless ache in my heart had been my greatest sorrow. Now, the dream was real.

I reached for my phone, desperate to share the news with him, but before I could even dial, Ally burst into our home with her men.

She shattered my phone on the floor. Her bodyguards dragged me from the bed and forced me to my knees. I instinctively curled my body, trying to shield the tiny life in my womb.

Ally saw the movement. Her face twisted in a mask of rage, and she struck me across the face, her voice a venomous hiss.

"You're pregnant?"

"How could a washed-up old hag like you deserve Sebastian? How dare you be his wife! How dare you carry his child!"

"You should just die! If you were dead, Sebastian would finally see me. He would marry me!"

"Everything would be perfect if you just died."

Her eyes were wide with a hysterical madness. I stared at her, thinking she was completely insane. I knew she was obsessed with Sebastian, and I knew she hated me.

But I never imagined she would kill me.

I fought, but her men were too strong. They dragged me up to the roof terrace.

And then, with a light push, she sent me over the edge.

There was a sickening thud.

I hit the ground.

Agony unlike anything I had ever known consumed me.

Blood blurred my vision. I managed to turn my head, my eyes falling on the rose garden below. The buds were just beginning to open. Roses were my favorite. Sebastian had planted the entire garden himself, tending to each bush with a devotion that bordered on worship.

Before he left on his business trip, he had promised me, "Elara, my love, when I get back, we'll sit in the garden and drink tea among the roses."

Sebastian… I don't think I can keep that promise.

I tried to keep my eyes open, tried to cling to life, but the fall was too far. The pain was too much.

I just wanted to sleep for a little while. Just until the hurting stopped.