How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

Patricia was completely shaken by what had happened.

She just couldn't understand how she'd ended up like this. She came from the

best possible background—her father was a man of power, her mother one of the

country's rare self-made businesswomen—so how on earth had she fallen so far?

All she could do was clutch at the bars between them, fingers tangled in Watts's

sleeve, her eyes red as she stared at him. “You’ve thought of something, haven’t

you? Watts, you know me—I can’t survive in a place like that! It’s torture! And for

three whole years?”

She had never, in all her life, felt this kind of fear.

Never could she have imagined tripping up over something like this. If it hadn’t

been Jarrod who was caught with the banned substances, she would have

walked away untouched. But the night before she left for her art show abroad,

Jarrod had pushed her too far. She’d let her emotions get the best of her, let

herself spiral out of control—and, just her luck, that was the night she got caught

red-handed.

Watts glanced down at Patricia’s grip, noticing how she’d wrinkled his shirt sleeve.

His obsessive nature recoiled at the sight; he hated things like this, and Patricia

knew it—she just never cared. Only her own feelings ever mattered.

“If there was a way out,” he said, indulging her just one last time, “do you really

think you’d still be here? I warned you ages ago: you and Jarrod were never right

for each other. You trying to dominate him was always doomed to fail.”

eyes were bloodshot, but she managed a bitter smile. “I don’t

I just wanted to

voice hardening. “Didn’t you

anything for me—even try to get close to Elodie? I’m not going to

my father into

words seemed to

Liked her?

ago, he’d said those

known since he was seven that he and Patricia weren’t

blood.

turned into

only after she discovered the truth about

she left the country. From that moment on, she’d

out of control.

for college, just to be near

was during

after Jarrod had left her

and volatile she was

diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

had been there

at her lowest. For

of her,

about what

she clung

wasting years of her

Watts clashed

as well, only to

spectacularly. Both failures weighed

he’d never

on.

in front of him, even his feelings

and fade.

expression cooled,

her hand off his

to be done.

Jarrod’s revenge—Patricia, I don’t