Page 41 of Beneath Her Skin

"Serena, thank God." Josh’s voice is thick with relief, as he runs towards me, ripping off his shirt and wraps it around us. Then his arms wrap around us, and I cry into his chest as he picks us up. He doesn’t care about the blood. He doesn't care about the weight of what we’ve done. We walk past her.Lily.

His sister.

She smiles.

"Lily," I whisper into my daughter’s soft curls, pressing a kiss to her tiny head. "Lily."

9

BEGINNINGS

It turns out Rey Garcia never existed, everything down to his persona was all fake. Every word, every touch, every whispered 'I love you'—nothing but an illusion. His real name was Fernando Reyes. My husband, or whatever he was, had no real identity, only the ones he created before discarding them like the women he destroyed.

He killed his first wife.

And I would have been next.

Turns out his mother passed away delivering his sister, and the psychiatrist believed that started his compulsion. A man driven by loss, rewriting the past over and over, turning wives into ghosts. But I refused to be another name carved into the graveyard he built. I didn’t become his victim but I did become his slayer. Thanks to him I became the mother my daughter deserved and Lily’s vengeance. Lily’s body was recovered. She would no longer be just another forgotten woman buried beneath his lies.

And me? I got the white picket fence I never thought I wanted… never thought I’d deserved. Despite all the evil hedid, there was something good that came from it. That was my daughter.

Liliana.

Lily for short.

Named after the woman who fought to not be forgotten. Which brings me here. To the place where it all began. And where it all ended. Josh finishes pouring the gasoline over the house, his movements steady and purposeful as he drags a trail down to where I stand in the driveway. No one will ever live in this house again.

This evil will no longer exist.

And I will be the one to burn it all away.

For me.

For my daughter.

For Lily.

For her daughter.

I will burn this house to hell, and I hope it traps his soul inside, burning for all eternity.

I hope it suffocates him the way he tried to suffocate us.

Unfortunately, the remains of Lily’s baby were never recovered. A soul left wandering, a child stolen before ever taking its first breath. And the grave marking ofDavidno longer readsFernando….his lies erased. And for the devil himself…

Nothing.

Just an unmarked plot of dirt. No tombstone. No name. No legacy.

A fitting end.

"Are you ready, baby?" Josh says as he places the gasoline can back in the truck, pulling out the box of matches from his flannel jacket. I stare at the house….the very house that almost became my grave.

"Ready as I’ll ever be," I say, grabbing the matches, opening the box, pulling one out.

I take a deep breath.

The last breath I will ever take as his wife.

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