The healer pulled down his mask under my hopeful gaze and bowed his head. "We did everything we could."

I collapsed to the floor. Lily's sweet face floated through my mind.

"Lily was such a good girl. How could this happen? How?"

They wheeled out her small body. I grabbed her and held her, sobbing like a madwoman.

"Lily, this is Mama's fault. If Mama had been just a little more careful with money, then maybe you wouldn't have — you wouldn't —"

This time, Lily didn't answer me.

I carried Lily through the streets. Rain soaked us both. Through the haze, I thought I heard her call out "Mama" from my arms.

I answered her, wild with joy. But when I looked down, all I saw was her pale, still face.

Something inside me snapped. I dropped to my knees in the rain and howled.

After I laid Lily to rest, I went to the Whitmore Pack House.

Laughter rang out from inside. My hand froze in the air, mid-knock.

My Lily was dead, and they were in there laughing.

I wiped my tears and knocked on the door.

The second it opened, Catherine's voice hit me. "What are you doing back here? This isn't your home. Take that cursed child of yours and get out."

Serena put on a show, dabbing at tears that weren't really there. "Mom, why is she so selfish? She stole twenty years of my life, and now she's trying to steal my parents too."

I ignored her. I walked straight to Zane and slapped him hard across the face.

I stared at him, teeth clenched. "You're a monster. You watched your own daughter die and did nothing. You don't deserve to call yourself a father."

Zane stared back at me, indignant. "Have you lost your mind?"

I stared at him blankly. I checked again and again. He wasn't the Zane I used to know. That Zane never raised his voice at me.

Catherine pulled Serena behind her, shielding her.

"Your father and I have seen how Zane treats you all these years. How can you stand there and say that?"

I let out a bitter laugh and threw her words right back at her.

"Treats me well — so he had a ceremony with Serena behind my back?"

"Treats me well — so he manipulated me into staying home as his unpaid servant?"

"Treats me well — so he set me up to take the fall and let me rot in the dungeon for three years?"

Catherine's eyes blazed. She slapped me and snapped, "You stole Serena's life. Everything you had should have been hers."

"Besides, you've done time. How could you ever be worthy of a mate like Zane? You should be thanking Serena."

Her words cut into me. So they all knew about the ceremony. Every single one of them. I was the only one who didn't.

I looked at them all. I felt nothing.

I had nowhere to put all the pain. I didn't go home. I went to the Pack cemetery instead.

A place that used to terrify me from a distance now felt like the only place that welcomed me.

When I got home, Zane was sitting in the living room waiting for me. That never happened.

It was just like the early days, when we first got together. He'd sit right there, waiting for me to come home.

"What's your problem? You didn't pick up the pup, you didn't cook dinner — are you trying to starve me?"

His words dragged me back to the present. The old Zane, no matter how useless he was in the kitchen, would at least have a bowl of noodles waiting for me when I got home. Then he'd sit there, waiting for me to praise him.

"What are we, Zane? We're nothing. And this is my house. Get out."

He stared at me, his frown deepening. "Just because I cut off your money, you're going to act like this?"

"I was trying to teach you a lesson. Break that spending habit of yours. You think money grows on trees?"

I let out a hollow laugh. Right. Money doesn't grow on trees.

When we were together, I used to transfer him fifty thousand a month for pocket money. I bought him gifts every other week.

Now he knew money didn't grow on trees.

"Get out."

Zane wouldn't let it go. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

I pointed toward the door, my voice flat. "Alpha Sterling is a mated man. Coming to a widow's house doesn't seem appropriate, does it?"

He roared in fury. "I'm not dead yet. Are you cursing me?"

I said nothing and just opened the door.

He backhanded me and stormed out, but not before turning back.

"Remember this. One day, you'll come crawling back to me, begging."

I scoffed. I had enough dirt on him that when the time came, it wasn't clear who'd be begging whom.

I woke up suddenly, and for some reason, my heart ached terribly.

I pulled back the covers and softly called for Lily to get up for school.

Then it hit me — my Lily was already gone.

I lay in bed and cried for a long, long time, until I heard the keypad lock beeping at the front door, and Zane barged into the room and ripped the covers off me.

"How dare you still be sleeping? The preschool teacher called me. Why didn't you take the pup to school?"

Seeing no child on the bed, he yanked the blanket to the floor.

"Where's the pup?"

"Just because I didn't give you money, you're hiding her somewhere? You don't deserve to be a mother."

Thinking of Lily, the tears I'd just choked down came flooding out again. My Lily was lying in the ground.

Seeing me cry, Zane became even more convinced of his theory, and he pulled me up from the bed.

"What are you standing there for? Go bring Lily back."

I was shaking so hard I could barely speak, and my voice trembled. "Lily — she's dead. While you and Serena were laughing together like a happy family. While you were accusing me of scamming you for money."

Zane backhanded me. "Cursing me to die wasn't enough, now you're cursing your own child? What the hell is wrong with you?"

I didn't argue back. After all, I really wasn't a good mother. I took him to the cemetery.

Before we stepped through the gates, he was still cursing me, saying I didn't deserve to live, didn't deserve to be a mother.

Until he saw Lily's grave.