I sobbed and begged and explained, but none of it earned me an ounce of mercy.
Even after Mom died, he refused to let me go.
Five years. I was forced to take over a thousand different medications and donate blood more than a hundred times.
I went from a perfectly healthy person to a broken shell who couldn't survive without pills.
And all of it—every last bit of it—because of a few ambiguous words from Agatha's mouth.
How could I not hate them?
I lowered my gaze and looked at Blake's worried face. My smile turned cold.
Well, he got what he wanted in the end.
The debt he claimed I owed—I paid it back with my life.
But what about me?
Everything I suffered. The truth buried for all those years.
What was he going to pay me back with?
Perhaps remembering just how miserable these past few years had been for me, something rare flickered across Blake's eyes—a flash of emotion.
He glanced back toward my hospital room and smiled, calm and composed.
"Elaine's had a rough time. Consider it the daughter paying her mother's debt."
"All these years, for your sake, I never once showed her any affection. But your health is nearly back to normal now."