The Butcher’s Wife (Sacred Vows #2)

Prologue

ANNETTA

My husband is dead.

My hands stopped shaking an hour ago, but my heartbeat stutters every time I glance in the rearview mirror. I don’t recognize the black sedan that’s been following me for the past hundred miles.

I thought I had more time.

I should have known better.

Tall, formless trees loom over me, and rain beats on my windshield as I navigate over the stretch of dark, slick road barely visible past my headlights. My heart urges me to drive faster, to scream down the highway, but I can’t afford to. If a deer jumps out, I’ll crash.

Another glance in the mirror shows the black sedan pulling off on the exit I just passed.

I’m alone.

I’m free.

Something between a sob and a laugh burst out of me, and I clap my hand over my mouth.

I can’t cry, not yet. I have to get home first. I have to look my parents in the eye, tell them what I did, and crawl into my sister’s bed to sleep, just like when we had nightmares as kids.

My wedding ring glints in the darkness, and I submit to a wild urge as I balance the steering wheel with my knee and tug at the ring, grinding it briefly against my knuckle until I cast it off. I lower the window and fling it into the forest.

My husband is dead, and I’m going home.