Chapter 24: Hidden Truth
The music stopped, filling the entire garden with a chilling silence. The Reign family, who had tried to stop Sabrina Grey earlier, sighed heavily. Avery, who wanted to intervene, was held back by her mother, Penelope Cartwell.
"But—" Avery began, but Penelope shook her head, causing Avery to huff and silently glare at the woman standing between the newlyweds.
"How dare you, Zevian Reign?" Sabrina roared, her voice full of contempt and pain. Evelyn quickly recognized the middle-aged, blonde-haired woman as Zevian’s former mother-in-law, Katherine Grey’s mother, and Natalie’s mother-in-law.
"How shameless of you to move on so quickly and marry another woman?!" When Zevian didn’t reply, his eyes lowered to the ground, Sabrina continued, "Do you think you deserve happiness after what you did? After killing my precious daughter?!"
"It was an accident! He did not kill her!" Avery boldly intervened, ignoring her mother’s plea. She felt someone glaring at her and turned to see Katherine’s elder brother, Dominic Grey, and Natalie’s husband.
"What?" Avery glowered at the man. "It wasn’t his fault that it was pouring heavily and his car brakes didn’t work." She had seen this family blame Zevian just to feel less guilty about their daughter’s death and it was time to put an end to it. But when Natalie pleaded with her eyes to stop, she sighed and shut her mouth like every other time.
Evelyn had heard the news from Avery just a few hours after the deadly accident. Zevian and his wife, Katherine, were traveling somewhere that evening, only to get stuck in a heavy rainstorm and end up getting hit by a truck. While Katherine lost her life on the spot, Zevian had been in a coma for almost a month, only to wake up to the sad news that his beloved wife was no more. And as much as she could understand Sabrina’s pain, Avery was right.
She couldn’t help but glance worriedly at Zevian, who was awfully silent, his expression breaking her heart. Having been blamed for her mother’s death ever since childhood by her father, she could somewhat understand the guilt in his eyes—something that could take years to break free from, or maybe never.
Sabrina glanced at Evelyn, bringing her out of her thoughts. Wiping her tears, the blonde woman turned back to Zevian and declared, "Now that you have broken your promise to never bring another woman and raise Kiana alone, I will break mine too, Mr. Reign."