A Journey from Bitterness to Truth

Chapter 2

The past few days had been a dreary parade of rain, and Rachel’s funeral was no exception. A light drizzle hung in the air as a procession of mourners followed her to her final resting place,

Yvan was adamant, driven by some deep–seated conviction that Matilda should kneet in the soggy earth before Rachel’s grave–as if he wanted her to kneel there until she joined the dead herself.

Matilda struggled against the weight of expectation and grief, but the sharp crack of a slap from a man’s hand echoed. “Don’t play the innocent with me; you’re the last person who has the right to!”

She winced in pain, but then, almost inexplicably, she began to laugh.

The sound of her laughter, thin and despairing, cut through the rain.

Yvan, heedless of anything else, lunged forward and kicked her squarely in the mouth.

Matilda tumbled backward, coughing up blood. Yvan’s polished shoe stepped into her line of sight. Looking up at him, an odd sense of detachment settled within her.

How cruel, she thought, to have ever loved such a man…

mistake was loving

teeth, Matilda spat, “Don’t think for a second I’ll

could do,” Yvan bellowed as he yanked her up, only to throw

her voice laced with bitterness, “I turned a blind eye to your affairs, to the scandals plastered across the newspapers as if I didn’t know. I’ve been as loyal as a dog, and what do I get? Do you even have a shred of decency? You think I wanted Rachel dead? What was she compared to me–Matilda Thompson of the Thompson family? In terms of family, education, social standing, she

face with the tip of his shoe. “I’ve prepared a little surprise

a line of

they swarmed her, pinned her down, and snapped handcuffs around her wrists with practiced

wrists, Matilda began to struggle wildly, “Let me go; by what

“Murderer! Murderer!”

think she’s from the Thompson

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Chapter

depths of human

Mr. Boyd, to be saddled with such

Matilda’s face was