Chapter 525: Left alone to die

Anna’s words caught Kathrine off guard.

“What do you mean the person who killed you?” Kathrine asked, her brows drawing together in confusion as unease crept into her chest.

’Hadn’t Anna died by suicide?’

That was what everyone believed. That was what the world had mourned.

Anna watched the storm of thoughts flicker across Kathrine’s face. The confusion. The disbelief. The fragile certainty of a lie that had been carefully constructed and fed to everyone around her.

Apart from Anna herself, no one knew the truth.

No one knew she had not jumped. She had been pushed with her death painted as despair, her silence buried beneath whispers of heartbreak and weakness.

Anna had expected Kathrine to know.

After all, Kathrine had planted the photographs. The ones that showed Daniel in another woman’s arms. The ones that had shattered the last fragile piece of Anna’s hope. The ones that had made her believe her marriage was already dead long before her body followed.

“I thought you would know who that person is,” Anna said quietly, her eyes searching Kathrine’s face.

Kathrine’s confusion only deepened. Her lips parted slightly, her breath uneven.

“I do not know,” Kathrine said, her voice trembling despite her effort to steady it. “What are you talking about?”

Her heart began to pound harder.

Yes, she had sent the photographs. She had wanted Anna to leave Daniel and out of their lives. But she had never wanted Anna dead.

Never.

The thought itself made her stomach twist with horror.

She had believed Anna had taken her own life, unable to bear the betrayal and heartbreak.

’But murder?’

Anna was talking about murder. And worse, Anna believed she might have been involved.

Anna fell silent, her gaze fixed on Kathrine as if trying to peel away layers of truth hidden beneath her skin.

She watched every flicker of emotion carefully.

Shock. Fear. Hurt. And something else.

Ignorance.

That was when Anna realized it. Kathrine had not known. She had been used.

She had been a pawn, but not the player.

Not the one who had orchestrated Anna’s death.

A slow, heavy realization settled inside Anna’s chest.

Someone else had planned it.

Someone else had used Kathrine’s actions as the final push that would isolate Anna completely.

“Anna,” Kathrine said softly, her voice pulling Anna out of her thoughts. “What are you thinking?”

Kathrine’s fingers tightened around the cup, anxiety creeping in.

She could tell Anna had doubted her. And she could not blame her.

She had given her every reason to in their past lives.

“I thought you knew the person who killed me,” Anna said honestly. “You wanted me out of Daniel’s life more than anyone.”

There was no accusation in her tone, only truth.

There was a time when Anna had hated Kathrine. A time when even saying her name filled her with bitterness and pain.

But the woman standing before her now was not the same reckless, selfish girl she had once been.

This Kathrine carried regret in her eyes.

This Kathrine carried understanding.

Kathrine let out a shaky breath.

“I did want you out of Daniel’s life,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “But I did not want you dead.”

Her words hung between them, raw and unfiltered.

Anna studied her face carefully.

There was guilt there. But there was no deceit.

Anna nodded slowly.

Kathrine had hurt her. She had broken her trust. But she had not killed her.

Silence settled between them, heavy but no longer suffocating.

“So now that you remember the reason behind your death,” Kathrine asked carefully, trying to steady herself, “does that mean something happened recently to trigger those memories?”

Even as she spoke, her mind struggled to keep up.

Someone had murdered Anna and painted it as a suicide.

Someone was cruel enough to turn her death into a lie the entire world believed.

Kathrine wanted to erase the memories of her past life. She had prayed for a second chance, prayed to forget the mistakes that haunted her.

But how could she ignore this?

Someone had killed her sister. And they had gotten away with it.

Anna did not answer immediately.

She could see Kathrine drifting into her thoughts, her eyes distant, her breathing uneven.

Fear had begun to settle in her bones.

Anna hesitated. There was another question she needed to ask. One she had been afraid of.

“What about you, Kathrine?” Anna asked softly. “How did you die?”

Kathrine froze.

Her body stiffened as if the question itself had wrapped invisible chains around her.

Slowly, she looked up at Anna and she saw it.

Fear. Not confusion. Not guilt.

But Fear.

It lived in her eyes, deep and suffocating.

Kathrine’s lips parted, but no words came out.

Her throat felt dry. Her fingers trembled slightly at her sides.

Memories clawed their way back into her mind. Memories she had tried to bury. Memories that still smelled of smoke and pain.

She wished she could lie.

She wished she could pretend she did not remember.

But Anna deserved the truth.

“I…” Kathrine began, her voice breaking.

She swallowed hard.

“I was set on fire and left alone to die”

The words fell into the silence like a death sentence.

Anna felt the air leave her lungs.

Her heart stopped.

For a moment, she thought she had heard wrong.

Set on fire. Not an accident. Not illness.

But violence.

Cruel, merciless violence.

Anna stared at her, unable to move, unable to breathe.

She had imagined many things. But never this. Never something so horrifying.

Kathrine’s eyes glistened, but no tears fell.

Now that she thought about it, she had not regretted dying back then. Death had felt like a punishment she deserved, a way to atone for every mistake she had made. In her final moments, she had accepted it as her repentance, believing that losing her life was the only way to balance the harm she had caused.

However she didn’t realized Anna wasn’t okay with it. Because her mind raced with worse scenerio’s about Daniel’s deadth.

***

Anna walked out of the cafe, her steps slow and heavy, as if the ground beneath her had turned unstable.

The evening air felt colder than before.

She reached her car and slipped inside, closing the door behind her. The silence wrapped around her instantly, thick and suffocating.

Her hands rested on the steering wheel, but she did not start the engine.

She could not.

Kathrine’s words echoed in her mind, over and over again, refusing to fade.

“Daniel shot himself because he could not handle his downfall.”

Anna’s fingers tightened around the wheel.

Shot himself.

The words felt unreal.

Daniel Emerson.

The man who had once stood untouchable. The man who had carried himself with pride and unshakable confidence. The man who had never allowed weakness to show.

Had taken his own life.

“Something does not make sense,” Anna murmured to herself, the unease growing stronger with every passing second, even though parts of it aligned with what Daniel had once told her.

She leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes, pressing her head lightly against the headrest. Her thoughts felt tangled, each memory pulling her in a different direction. The truth was no longer clear. What she had believed, what she had been told, and what she was now remembering refused to fit together into a single, solid answer.

It was too much.

Too much pain.

Too many questions.

Too many lies.

For a moment, she allowed herself to simply breathe.

In.

Out.

She focused on the rhythm, forcing her racing heart to slow down. Panic would not help her. Fear would only cloud her judgment. She had already died once because she had been blind to the truth. She would not make the same mistake again.

This time, she would move carefully.

This time, she would see everything.

Anna opened her eyes, the hesitation in them slowly giving way to quiet resolve. She straightened in her seat and placed her hands on the steering wheel. Her fingers no longer trembled as she turned the key in the ignition, the engine coming to life with a low hum that grounded her.

She could not solve everything at once.

She needed to take it one step at a time.

And the first step was right in front of her.

Her mother. And Collin.

Roseline had gotten involved with Collin again. And they were planning something.

The thought itself made Anna jaw tighten

In her past life, she had trusted her mother without question. She had believed every word, every warning, every piece of advice given to her. She had never stopped to question her intentions.

But now she knew better.

Now she knew that trust, when given blindly, could become the very weapon used to destroy you.

Collin was not someone who acted without purpose. He was patient. Calculating. He did not make moves unless there was something to gain.

If he had approached her mother while being under Norma’s shield, it meant something strategic.

And Roseline…

Anna’s chest tightened faintly.

She was dangerous too. And she could no longer afford denial.

Not when her life had already been taken once.

Anna shifted the gear and slowly pulled out of the parking space, her eyes focused on the road ahead, but her mind remained sharp and alert.

“What are you planning, Mom?” she told herself while her eyes remained foucsed on the road.

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