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.