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.

her mother asked her to fake an illness and trick Charles into coming over, she

her mother would reward her a new dress, maybe her favorite cinnamon rolls, or

that making Charlie miserable, hurting Evelyn and her daughter, was the

Sandy's sense of right and wrong had become completely

Dahlia who had destroyed

had driven her to

it, the colder his

final line in Sandy's diary: Mom, I love you so much.

Wesley spat, voice trembling with rage. "I wish I could cut your heart open

pressed against Dahlia's

sharp tip sliced through skin

feel, with terrifying clarity, the

cold

drained of

through the silence.

slightest movement would send Wesley's blade plunging

was wrong... I swear,

me this once, please?"

Wesley didn't even blink.

hand was merciless,

knife deliberately,

above

gushed out, soaking her

button-down shirt in crime

the first cut was over, Dahlia's

cold sweat.

gasped for

thought it was over, that the pain had ended-but it