The Day Our Promise Breaks

Chapter 537

Wesley thought back to the diary Charles had shown him-the one Sandy had written.

She'd hidden it herself, wedged deep between the mattress and box spring.

Aiden had found it when he'd hired someone to clean out the lake house.

He gave it to Charles.

Charles read it, and then passed it on to Wesley.

Wesley could never forget how much his heart ached as he read Sandy's words.

Sandy had grown crooked.

But it was Dahlia who had twisted her.

She was just a child.

A little girl desperate for her mother's love.

From the moment she could remember, her biggest wish was for her mom to love her the way other moms loved their children.

She'd thought, if she just did everything her mother asked, if she was good and obedient, maybe one day her mom would love her.

If her mom didn't love her enough, it had to be because she wasn't good enough, because she hadn't done enough to make her mother proud.

So, when Dahlia told her to set up Charlie, she listened.

When Dahlia told her to frame Evelyn, she did it without question.

fake an illness and trick Charles into

instructions, each time she did it well, her mother would reward her a new dress, maybe her favorite cinnamon rolls,

only reinforced Sandy's belief that making Charlie miserable, hurting Evelyn and her daughter, was the right thing

influence, Sandy's sense of right and wrong had

who had destroyed

driven her

Wesley thought about it, the colder his

remembered the final line in Sandy's diary: Mom, I love you so

with rage. "I wish I could

against Dahlia's

tip sliced through

could feel, with terrifying clarity, the knife splitting her

her, cold

drained

scream tore through the silence.

dare struggle, terrified that the slightest movement

I know I was wrong... I swear, I know I was

me this once, please?"

Wesley didn't even blink.

hand was

knife deliberately, leaving a

gash above

gushed out, soaking her

button-down shirt in crime

Dahlia's hair and shirt clung to her,

cold sweat.

for

over, that the pain had ended-but it had only