Twenty-seven years had passed since Aaron lost his wife, yet he remembered that terrible day as vividly as if it were only twenty-seven minutes ago. He had said such horrible things to drive her away. Lacy—and, more importantly, the unidentified father of her baby—were after his assets and the title of Mrs. Hale to control him. Their methods were despicable.

They had already eliminated Robert Hall to get to Keeley, and Aaron had no concrete proof to convict them. He concealed his suspicions, attempting to get closer to Lacy, hoping she would slip up and reveal something. His efforts met with limited success.

He sent Keeley away, intending to keep her safe from the tangled web of corporate espionage, but instead sent her to her death. He already regretted his words and the look on her face as she ran out crying when the phone call came.

"Hello, this is the NYPD. Am I speaking to a relative of Keeley Hale?"

Aaron's blood ran cold. A call from a police officer was never good news.

"Yes, this is her…husband." (Soon to be ex-husband, but that was irrelevant.)

"Mr. Hale, I'm so sorry to inform you, but we need you to come to the morgue. Identification belonging to Keeley Hale was found on the victim of a car accident earlier today, and we require your assistance in identifying the body."

The phone slipped from his hand, cracking the screen.

"Hello? Mr. Hale?" the voice echoed from the speaker.

A car accident. Just like her father. No. It couldn't be. He would go there and tell them they had the wrong person.

"I'm here," he said weakly, picking up the damaged phone.

The police officer gave him the address, and Aaron numbly left. This wasn't real. It couldn't be.

Keeley would storm back in any minute to berate him for being a jerk. Except she couldn't. Keeley was dead.

The cold, harsh reality stared him in the face from beneath the plain white sheet in the morgue. Keeley, once so beautiful and lively, but worn down by years of social pressure and neglect, lay on a metal slab, covered in contusions. He reached out to her, then vomited onto the floor.

"It's her," he said shakily, wiping his mouth. "How can it be her?"

The mortician mercifully pulled the sheet back over her head and gently placed a hand on Aaron's shoulder. "I'm so sorry for your loss."

His loss? What about her loss? She was only thirty-one and so horribly unhappy. It was selfish of him to ever involve her in his problems.

Keeley would still be alive if she had loved someone else. His love destroyed her.

Aaron sobbed her name repeatedly. Keeley. Keeley. Look what they did to you. Look what I did to you.

Aaron wanted to die, but first, he had to bring Lacy, his father, and their accomplices down. It was a long road to revenge, but eventually, most received their just desserts.

To save herself, Lacy killed Max because he knew too much. She was imprisoned for homicide and died in a prison riot. Alistair Hale was ousted from his company due to incompetence and corruption charges, dying of a heart attack from the stress.

Unfortunately, Aaron never discovered the full extent of the corruption. Any other accomplices, including the father of Lacy's child, vanished once he took over Hale Investments.

He spent the rest of his life trying to forget his losses, focusing on rebuilding the company. The Hale legacy ended with him, a fitting end, considering he couldn't protect his wife or child.

Keeley's head spun from the events. Aaron had shown up at her house with a gift! Her father had invited him to dinner! What was going through his head?!

After he left, she examined the bags more closely. There were enough supplies for a dozen scrapbooks. Had he bought out an entire store's stock of colored paper and stickers?! She would never use it all.

She should have known that shadowy figure in the hood was Aaron eavesdropping at lunchtime. But why go to such lengths? What was his game?

If it were anyone else, she might have been touched. But he was too clever. With her father present, she had to accept and use the gift to avoid suspicion. Besides, she couldn't afford to replace the supplies.

Keeley hoped he wouldn't make a habit of this. She felt guilty about how she treated him. Technically, Aaron hadn't done anything wrong lately, aside from kissing her against her will and forcing her to go places a few times.

He wouldn't understand her hostility, and she couldn't tell him it was because he ruined her life. That wouldn't go well. He was surprisingly nice, but that didn't mean she'd fall for his tricks. Once a scumbag, always a scumbag.

She couldn't forget how her father's and her near-deaths were directly linked to him, nor the eight miserable years she spent as his wife. If she let up, he'd see it as an opening. She had to fend him off until graduation; then she'd be free. The promotional material for NovelFire.net has been removed.