The sirens didn’t stop. They just changed. They went from a high-pitched scream to a low, dying moan as the ambulance finally cut its engine. It was sitting twenty feet from the ER doors. Twenty feet of asphalt and a line of black SUVs stood between my father and the air he needed to breathe.

I ran to the back of the vehicle. My hands fumbled with the latch. When the doors swung open, the smell hit me. Copper. Bleach. The scent of a life leaking out.

“We lost him,” the paramedic said. He didn't look at me. He looked at his watch. He looked tired. “He coded three minutes ago. We couldn’t get the equipment through the blockade in time.”

I looked at the gurney. My father’s face was the color of a winter sky. His eyes were half-open, staring at the ceiling of the ambulance like he was looking for an exit. I reached out and touched his hand. It was still warm. That was the worst part. The heat was still there, but the man was gone.

“Dad?” I whispered.

Silence. Just the hum of the hospital’s industrial fans.

I turned around. The black SUVs were moving now. The ‘VIP procedure’ was over. The glass doors of the ER slid open, and Clyde stepped out. He looked immaculate. His charcoal suit was pressed. His tie was perfectly knotted. He was tucking his phone into his pocket, his expression calm and focused.

He saw me standing by the open ambulance. He saw the sheet being pulled over my father’s head. He didn't flinch. He didn't even blink.

“Callie,” he said, his voice as smooth as silk. “You shouldn't be out here in the cold. You’ll get sick.”

I stared at him. I felt like my brain was melting. “He’s dead, Clyde. My father is dead because you wouldn't move the cars.”

Clyde walked toward me. He stopped a few feet away, close enough for me to smell his expensive cologne. “Estelle’s cat was in shock, Callie. It was a crisis. I had to ensure the specialists could work without interruption.”

“A cat,” I choked out. The word felt like a shard of glass in my throat. “You killed my father for a cat.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” he said. His voice sharpened. It was the tone he used with his underlings. “Your father was a convict who attempted suicide. His health was already failing. It was an unfortunate coincidence, nothing more.”

He reached for my arm. I flinched back so hard I hit the side of the ambulance.

“Don’t touch me,” I hissed.

His eyes darkened. The shadow of the man he used to be—the syndicate boss—flickered in his gaze. “Control yourself. We have a reputation to maintain. Go home. I’ll handle the arrangements.”

I didn't go home. I stayed until they wheeled the body away. I stayed until the sun came up and turned the city gray. Something inside me had died in that ambulance, too. The girl who loved Clyde Burke was gone. Only the ghost was left.

***

Two days later, the sky over Green-Wood Cemetery was the color of lead.

It wasn't a funeral. Clyde had made sure of that. No service. No flowers. Just a quick burial in a corner of the lot where the grass was thin and the mud was deep. I stood by the open grave, clutching the small wooden urn. It was heavy. It felt like it held the weight of the whole world.

I was alone until I heard the crunch of gravel.

Clyde appeared through the mist. He wasn't wearing a coat, despite the rain. He looked annoyed. He checked his watch and then looked at me.

“That’s enough, Callie,” he said. “You’ve been standing here for an hour. It’s time to go.”

I didn't look at him. I looked at the mud. “He didn't do it, Clyde. He didn't kill Julien out of malice. He was protecting me.”

“The courts decided otherwise,” Clyde snapped. He stepped closer, his presence suffocating. “I’m tired of this mourning. I’ve given you everything. A home, a name, protection. And all you do is weep for a man who brought this on himself.”

“You took my witness,” I whispered. “You broke my father’s spirit. You blocked the door.”

“I did what was necessary to keep the peace,” he said. He reached out and grabbed my wrist. His grip was like iron. “Now, give me the urn. We’re leaving. You have a dinner to host tonight. You will put on a dress, you will smile, and you will be my wife.”

“No,” I said.

He yanked my arm. “Give it to me!”

We struggled for a second. He was so much stronger than me. He didn't mean to be careful; he meant to be obeyed. He swung his arm to pull me away from the grave, and his hand slammed into the urn.

It flew out of my grip.

Time slowed down. I watched the wood hit the edge of a headstone. The lid popped off. A cloud of gray ash spilled out, dancing in the wind for a heartbeat before it slammed into the wet, dark mud.

My father was gone. He wasn't even a memory anymore. He was just dirt.

Clyde looked down at the mess. He didn't look sorry. He looked disgusted, like I’d spilled a drink on a rug.

“Look what you made me do,” he said, shaking his head. “Now look at you. You’re covered in filth. Get in the car, Callie. Now.”

I looked at the gray streaks in the mud. I looked at the man I had once called my world.

I didn't cry. The tears had dried up hours ago. I just felt a cold, hollow clarity. I would give him what he wanted. I would go home. I would be the perfect, obedient wife.

Until I found a way to destroy him.

“Give it to me, Callie.” Clyde’s voice was a low, dangerous rumble over the rain.

I hugged the wooden urn tighter to my chest. It was small. It was all I had left of my father. “No.”

He didn’t like that word. He stepped closer. His expensive shoes sank into the wet earth. “You are embarrassing me. You are embarrassing yourself. Give me the box.”

“He’s my father,” I whispered. My throat felt like it was lined with glass. “You took his life. Let me have this.”

His jaw tightened. A vein pulsed at his temple. The reformed billionaire vanished, and the underground syndicate boss took his place. He reached out and grabbed my wrist. His fingers dug into my skin like steel clamps.

“Let go!” I cried out. I pulled back.

He yanked my arm hard. “I said, enough!”

His other hand swung out to pry the urn from my grip. He struck the polished wood. Hard.

The impact jarred my bones. The urn slipped from my wet, freezing fingers. Time seemed to slow down. I watched the box tumble through the gray air. It hit the corner of a granite headstone with a sharp crack. The lid snapped off.

A pale cloud burst into the rain.

My father’s ashes scattered in the wind for a fraction of a second. Then they hit the ground. They mixed with the dark, heavy mud of Green-Wood Cemetery.

I dropped to my knees. The cold mud soaked right through my black tights. I stared at the gray paste. I tried to scoop it up. My hands came away covered in wet dirt and ash.

“Look what you made me do,” Clyde sighed above me. He sounded exhausted. Not sorry. Just inconvenienced. “Get up, Callie. You’re covered in filth.”

I looked at my hands. Then I looked up at him. He stood tall in his perfectly tailored suit, holding a large black umbrella to keep the rain off his shoulders. He didn’t care. He truly didn’t care.

In that exact moment, something inside my chest snapped. The warmth, the grief, the desperate love I once held for this man—it all just evaporated. My heart turned as cold and gray as the mud on my hands.

I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I just stood up.

“Okay,” I said quietly.

He blinked, surprised by my suddenly flat tone. “Okay?”

“I’m ready to go home,” I said. I wiped my hands on my coat. I kept my face completely blank. I made my eyes dull. A perfect, empty shell.

Clyde’s shoulders relaxed. A smug, satisfied smile touched his lips. He thought he had broken me. He thought he had finally won. “Good girl. Let’s go.”

The ride back to Manhattan was totally silent. I sat in the back of the SUV and watched the city blur past the rain-streaked window. Clyde made a phone call about a corporate merger. He didn’t look at me once.

When we walked into our penthouse, the silence felt heavy. The air was thick and oppressive. It didn’t feel like a home anymore. It felt like a cage of glass and steel.

“Go take a shower,” Clyde ordered. He tossed his keys on the marble counter. “Wash that mud off. We have a dinner with the board tonight. Wear the blue silk dress.”

“Yes, Clyde,” I said softly. I kept my eyes on the floor. I made my shoulders slump. I gave him the exact picture of a defeated, submissive wife.

He walked over and kissed the top of my head. My skin crawled, but I didn’t flinch. “I’m glad you’re finally being reasonable, Callie. This is for the best.”

He turned and walked into his study. The heavy oak door clicked shut behind him.

I stood alone in the grand foyer. My heart beat in a slow, steady rhythm. The weeping girl was dead. I was completely awake now.

I walked down the long hallway toward our master bedroom. My wet shoes left faint, muddy prints on the white rug. I didn’t care.

Halfway down the hall hung our wedding portrait. It was massive, encased in a custom silver frame. Clyde had commissioned it from a famous photographer. In the picture, Clyde looked powerful and handsome in his tuxedo. I stood next to him in my lace gown, looking up at him with absolute adoration. A foolish, blind girl.

I stopped and stared at the photo. The girl in the picture made me sick.

I reached up and unlatched the back of the heavy frame. I pulled the large, glossy photograph out. The paper was thick and expensive.

I placed my thumb right at the top, right between our smiling faces.

I pulled down.

The thick paper tore with a loud, satisfying rip. The sound echoed in the quiet hallway. I tore it slowly, carefully, right down the middle. I separated the foolish girl from the monster.

I held my half of the photo. I looked at my smiling face, then crumpled it into a tight ball. I threw it into the trash can.

I took Clyde’s half of the photo and placed it back into the silver frame. I smoothed out the torn edge. Now, he stood completely alone in the frame. Just a man and empty, white space beside him.

It was a promise. A trigger for him to find later. When he looked at this wall, he would know exactly what he had done. He hadn’t just killed my father. He had erased me.

I turned away from the portrait and walked into the bathroom. I turned on the shower. I let the scalding water wash my father’s ashes off my hands. I watched the gray water swirl down the drain.

I was going to destroy him. And I was going to take everything he had.