Page 178 of Rose
Her chest went still. “What?”
William pulled a file from beside him and handed it over.
She opened it—just enough to see the crime scene photos—and her stomach lurched. The images from that night slammed into her, hot and suffocating. The fire. The screams. The smell of smoke and blood. She slammed the file shut.
“I’m not looking at this. Just tell me. I’m so tired of all these secrets.”
“Beautiful, Savior and his family are responsible for that night. The two men who came into our home… they were his men. His blood.”
Her heart plummeted as she shook her head.No. Not him. Not the man who had pulled her from the ashes. Not the man who had loved her back to life.
“No… no. It can’t be. Not him.”
William’s jaw tightened. He slid a photo from the file and held it up. “This is one of the men who was in the house that night. He killed himself not long after the incident.”
That was a lie. Wild hadn’t killed himself—William had found him and put a bullet in his skull—but she didn’t need to know that. The man’s face was bare in the photo. No mask. Just lifeless eyes and a gunshot wound to the head.
Her breath caught. “Oh my God…”
“And this,” William continued, pulling out another photo, “is him with Savior. They knew each other.”
Her heart dropped again, but still… she couldn’t just accept it. “That doesn’t mean anything, Will. Savior didn’t—”
“It was him!” William’s voice rose before a harsh cough ripped through his chest.
When he caught his breath, his gaze burned into hers. “He caused all of this, Ahzii. The fire that burned our home to the ground. The scars we carry. The fact that our baby girl is gone. Savior did this. And when he found you, it wasn’t fate. It wasn’t love. He came back to finish the job. Looks like he just got distracted.”
Her pulse thundered in her ears. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. The man she’d given her heart to—the man who’d been her lifeline—was being painted as the reason for all her pain.
No. She didn’t want to believe it. But the photos… the pieces… they fit.
And just like that, her heart splintered all over again, jagged edges cutting her from the inside out.
“I know it’s hard, baby. I know everything feels like it’s spinning right now. But all the answers you need… they’re in that file.”
William’s voice was steady as he pushed it toward her again.
Ahzii stared at it, her stomach twisting, bile rising. Still, her fingers reached for it. The second she opened it, the air was ripped from her lungs.
Images. Dozens of them. Burned walls. Charred remains. Shattered glass and broken lives. Her life. Their life. And in the middle of it—Savior.
He wasn’t a shadow in the background. He was there, plain as day, talking to the men who had broken into their home that night.
A sob tore through her before she could stop it. Tears blurred the photos until they smeared into nothing but black and red.
“I refuse to lose you again, Beautiful,” William said, his hand gripping hers with a force that almost hurt. “I refuse to let him take everything away from us again. I’ve been in hiding, planning for this moment, digging for answers. And when I saw you smiling with the man who caused all of this… I knew I had to put an end to it.”
Her mind was spinning, replaying it all on an endless loop—the grief she’d drowned in after losing William and Willow, the way Savior had walked into her life and touched parts of her heart she thought were dead, the quiet moments, the love she swore was real… and now this.
Her voice cracked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know, William. I swear to God, I didn’t know.”
“I know, baby.” His tone softened, but the grip on her hand never eased. “But I’m here now. And we’re going to leave all of this behind. I’ve already booked us a flight. We leave the day after tomorrow.”
She blinked at him. “Where are we going?”
“Bali.” His lips curved into a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Just for a week or so.”
But the truth was in the way he held her hand too tight, in the way his eyes didn’t leave hers. William had no intention of ever bringing her back.
