Chapter 56

• GEORGE COLLINS
• Something inside me broke when Claire gave me that news. The DNA test confirmed that the baby was Alexis'. That damned dog had stolen everything from me: Claire, the baby, the life that was rightfully mine. For a brief moment, shock dominated my thoughts, a silent gap where emptiness settled. But the emptiness didn't last. It was quickly filled by something much darker, something I knew had been growing inside me for a long time: a burning and destructive obsession.
• The rage I felt upon hearing her words was so overwhelming that I could barely see straight. Claire spoke with a confidence that deeply irritated me, as if I were just a shadow of the past, something she could simply erase with a nod of her head. She had lost control of who I was. She had underestimated me.