PART 1

I didn’t discover what my husband had said about me until much later, after everyone already believed I was dead.

While mourners surrounded my coffin, Michael Carter stood among them without shedding a tear, staring coldly at the casket before speaking under his breath.

“They froze to death.

That worthless woman finally got what she deserved.”

Those words revealed more about the man I had married than almost anything he had shown me during our life together.

Only a few hours earlier, I had still been begging him to end our argument and take me home, never imagining that he had already decided exactly how our trip would end.

We were standing dangerously close to a frozen cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park, with nothing around us except snow, wind, and miles of empty wilderness.

Without warning, Michael stepped toward me and shoved me backward with both hands.

I fell over the edge before I had time to react.

My screams vanished into the roaring wind as I desperately clawed at the icy mountainside, trying to grab a branch, a rock, or anything strong enough to stop me.

Nothing was there.

When I looked toward the top of the cliff, Michael was still standing exactly where I had left him.

Instead of showing panic or reaching down to help me, he watched with an unsettling smile.

“Relax.

You and the brat won’t suffer for long.”

My fall finally stopped when I crashed onto a narrow rocky ledge partway down the mountain.

Pain tore through my ribs and wrist, and I could feel warmth spreading beneath me against the freezing snow.