They Sent Me To Prison For Her, I Bought A Grave For Me Chapter 02

They Sent Me To Prison For Her, I Bought A Grave For Me Chapter 02

Crispin’s fingers closed over the wrist I had injured years ago.

Pain shot up my arm, sharp enough to steal my breath, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Who gave you permission to change it?”

“Who the hell are you?” Mrs. Moss snapped. “Let go of Ms. Fallow.”

Crispin shoved her aside.

Something inside me broke.

“What does my name have to do with you?”

I wrenched free with all the strength I had left.

“You’ve seen how I live now. Just leave me alone.” My voice cracked into a near scream. “I’m begging you, Crispin. Stay out of my life.”

His hand stopped in midair.

“Fine.” His face hardened. “I guess I wasted all those years raising an ungrateful brat.”

Only when his footsteps disappeared down the stairwell did the tension leave my body.

I hurried to help Mrs. Moss steady herself.

“Are you hurt? I’m so sorry.”

“I’m fine.”

She patted my shoulder. She could see how humiliated I was, but she didn’t ask a single question.

“Take care of yourself, Mirelle.”

Back inside my apartment, I collapsed onto the couch.

A tremor ran through me, and the voices from Westmoor came flooding back.

“What’s wrong? You had no problem driving drunk. Now you won’t drink piss?”

“Come on. Get on your knees and lap it up like a dog. Maybe then we’ll believe you didn’t kill anyone.”

“Born rich, and look at you now. Where’s that precious brother of yours? Why isn’t he getting you out?”

Humiliation had been part of everyday life at Westmoor.

They made me kneel and lick scraps of food off the floor. They forced pencils into my hand and ordered me to draw jewelry designs for them.

When I couldn’t, they broke my right hand.

After that, I started vomiting blood.

I begged to see Crispin. At first, he still came.

Then, for reasons I never understood, he began accusing me of lying. Eventually, he stopped visiting altogether.

A corrections officer delivered his final message.

“Your brother has people watching you in here. He said he’ll visit when you stop putting on an act.”

The day I was released, freedom didn’t feel like freedom. I disappeared from Kingsmere without telling anyone.

I never sought treatment. If I survived another day, fine. If I didn’t, that was fine too.

I had finally adjusted to the quiet life I had built in Greyfen.

Why did Crispin have to find me now?

I lay awake until dawn. Then I took my umbrella and returned to Larkmeadow Memorial Park.

After handing in my resignation, I sat alone on a bench beneath the dripping trees. The medical report in my pocket was crushed between my fingers.

Two weeks earlier, I had collapsed in the cemetery office.

When I woke, one of my coworkers was holding me and sobbing.

That was how I learned I had less than a month left.

The rain grew heavier, drumming against my umbrella as I tightened my grip on the report.

Without warning, a warm hand closed around my wrist and hauled me to my feet.

“Crispin said you were hiding out here. I thought he had the wrong place.”

I recognized Ephraim’s voice before I even looked up.

“You vanished without a word,” Ephraim said. “Did you think our engagement meant nothing?”

I looked up and met his unreadable stare.

“Do you ever think about anyone but yourself?”

Me?

Selfish?

He had slept with Jessa in the bed meant for our marriage, on my birthday. By morning, all of Kingsmere knew.

He had no right to call me selfish.

My gaze dropped to the wedding band on his left hand.

It matched Jessa’s.

Including the three years I had spent in prison for her, they had been together behind my back for five years.

Nausea surged through me.

I shoved him away, stumbled to the nearest trash can, and vomited until my stomach cramped.

Ephraim frowned and stepped closer, placing a hand against my back.

I recoiled from him.

His hand froze.

Then his voice turned cold.

“Are you pregnant with some other man’s child?”

I stared at him.

He glanced at me with open suspicion.

“Was his last name Fallow? Is that why you took it?”

I slapped him.

The crack echoed through the rain.

My whole body trembled with rage.

“You’re disgusting, Ephraim.”

I tried to walk away, but he caught up, grabbed my arm, and shoved me into the passenger seat. The doors locked before I could get back out.

“Let me out!”

“Crispin is already at your apartment,” he said. “Weren’t you going home?”

The fight drained out of me.

I turned to him in disbelief.

“Do you enjoy tormenting me?”

His brows pulled together.

“Stop saying things you don’t mean. Once we’re back in Kingsmere, the arrangement between us can continue.”

Then he seemed to remember something.

“Technically, you and I were never married,” he added. “Jessa and I are.”

He watched me carefully, waiting for a reaction.

I looked away and almost laughed.

“Congratulations ,” I said. “I hope you get the family you wanted.”