Chapter 3

Cecily McNeil POV:

The venom of Jessica' s words, her casual disdain for my family' s sacred ground, festered in my mind. Buttons. The deceased cat. A grotesque parody of a funeral, a perverse assertion of ownership. The memory of her smug voice, the triumphant laugh, twisted my gut. I had to understand how Harris, a man who once seemed genuinely kind, could be so utterly blind, so completely manipulated.

I started digging, not in the ground, but into Jessica' s past. I knew the basics. Jessica Casey, Harris' s high school sweetheart. The girl he' d been madly in love with, the one his formidable mother, Mrs. Shepherd, had disapproved of. The narrative Harris had fed me for years was that his mother, a notoriously snobbish old-money matriarch, had deemed Jessica "unsuitable" due to her working-class background. She' d paid for Jessica to study abroad, effectively removing her from Harris's life, leaving him heartbroken and adrift.

He' d spent years mourning her, a ghost at every meal, a phantom in our bed. I had, in my youthful naiveté, believed I could heal him, that my love could fill the void Jessica left behind. His melancholy, his occasional distance, I' d attributed to that deep, unrequited first love, a wound I hoped to eventually mend. I had truly believed he was a victim of his mother's snobbery, a man who had loved and lost due to circumstances beyond his control.

How foolish I had been. How utterly, completely blind. Now, looking at Jessica' s carefully curated online presence, her flawless influencer facade, a different picture began to emerge. There was a subtle arrogance in her posts, a predatory gleam in her eyes that I had once dismissed as ambition. My past self, so desperately wanting to believe in Harris' s inherent goodness, had painted Jessica as a tragic figure, a victim of class prejudice. My current self, hardened by years of quiet betrayal, saw a different kind of monster. I had been wrong about everything.

I pulled up the photos again, the ones I' d found on Harris' s phone, and that unsettling image from Jessica' s Instagram. My gaze sharpened, focusing on the details. One picture, in particular, stood out. Jessica, smiling, holding what looked like a framed certificate. It was blurry, but the distinctive crest of the McNeil family cemetery association was unmistakable. A permit. A burial permit.

My heart pounded. This wasn't some spur-of-the-moment, emotional decision Jessica had coerced Harris into. This was planned. Someone had applied for and received permission to use a plot in my family cemetery. And given the context, the only plot that would make any sense, any sense at all, was my father's. The sheer audacity was mind-boggling. It was a deliberate, calculated act of aggression.

The next morning, Harris walked through the front door, looking surprisingly refreshed, despite his supposed "business trip." He spotted me in the living room, a flicker of apprehension in his eyes, quickly masked by a practiced smile. "Cecily, darling. You're up early. You look... well, better than yesterday, at least." His eyes scanned my face, searching for signs of reconciliation, for the familiar cracks where he could insert his apologies and expensive gifts.

I felt a cold distance settle over me. His words, his fake concern, they were just props in his ongoing play. "I am," I replied, my voice bland. "I slept well." Another lie. I hadn't slept a wink.

He stepped closer, reaching out to touch my arm. "I'm so sorry about your mother's memorial, Cecily. Truly. It was completely inexcusable." His fingers brushed my skin, an attempt at intimacy.

I pulled away, a subtle but firm movement. "It's fine, Harris," I said, my voice flat. "I handled it." I wasn't just rejecting his touch; I was rejecting his entire performance.

"You must be hungry," he said, shifting gears, trying to find a point of connection. "Let me get you something. Chef can make your favorite omelet."

He was still trying to fix things with food, with comfort, with anything but genuine remorse for his actions. "That would be... acceptable," I said, giving nothing away.

He smiled, a flicker of relief crossing his face. He thought he was winning me back, one meal at a time. "Good. I'll go tell him." He turned and walked towards the kitchen, leaving his phone on the coffee table.

This was it. The second chance I needed. As soon as he was out of sight, I grabbed his phone. My fingers flew across the screen, reopening the monitoring app. I scrolled through the recent messages, my heart a cold, hard knot in my chest.

And there it was. A string of texts from Jessica, timestamped from late last night, after the audio had cut out.

Jessica: "Darling, I've got the permits. It was surprisingly easy. Just a few calls to the old family friend who works at the association. He owes me a favor. He thinks it's for a distant relative's ashes. So sweet!"

Jessica: "And the plot is perfect! Right next to Cecily's mother. It'll be such a statement. A permanent mark. Buttons will be so happy there."

Harris: "Jess, are you sure about this? It feels... wrong. Arvel will be furious if he ever finds out."

Jessica: "Oh, relax, my love. He won't. And if he does, what can he do? The permit's already issued. Besides, it's just a cat. And Arvel's got one foot in the grave anyway. Honestly, Cecily needs to learn her place."

My breath hitched, a strangled sound caught in my throat. The audacity. The sheer, unadulterated evil. Not just burying her cat in my father's plot, but securing a permit under false pretenses. The casual cruelty of her words about my aging father, the disdain for my family, for me. This wasn't just a mistress trying to stake a claim; this was a calculated, malicious assault on my personal history, on my very identity.

A searing pain shot through my head, so sharp it made my vision swim. It wasn't just betrayal; it was desecration. A desecration of family, of memory, of everything sacred.

What kind of monster did this? What kind of man enabled it?

Harris returned, holding a tray with a perfectly cooked omelet and a steaming cup of tea. He placed it carefully on the table. "I'm going to head into the office now, darling. Got a big meeting. Should be back late."

My gaze was steady, unwavering. "Of course, Harris. Big meeting." I knew where he was going. Not to the office. Not for a meeting. He was going to the cemetery. To oversee the burial of Jessica Casey's cat in my father's reserved plot.

I stood up. My hand went to the antique mahogany cabinet in the corner of the room, pulling out a hidden drawer. From it, I retrieved a thick, leather-bound folder. It was old, yellowed at the edges. A private investigator's report, commissioned years ago by Harris's mother, Mrs. Shepherd. A document I' d inherited after her passing, and one I had never fully understood until now. The pieces of the puzzle were finally clicking into place, forming a picture far more sinister than I had ever imagined.

"I need to take care of something," I said, my voice calm, almost emotionless. I took my car keys from the hook by the door.

My hands gripping the steering wheel, I drove. The silence in the car was broken only by the low hum of the engine. My destination was clear. The McNeil family cemetery. The place where my mother rested. The place where my father would one day join her. The place where Jessica Casey planned to spit on our legacy.