He Killed My Grandmother for His First Love

Chapter 7

Tears streamed down my face. It was clear, Phillip never intended to let me live.

"Alright," he said casually, brushing ash off his sleeve, "didn't you say you wanted to try that new steakhouse? Let's go."

Through the crack in the door, I watched as he lifted Elaina into the passenger seat like she was made of porcelain. He didn't spare me so much as a glance. A cigarette butt hit the ground near my face, then the flames roared to life outside.

I watched, helpless, as the fire started eating its way toward me. Through tear-blurred eyes, I thought I saw my grandmother's silhouette reaching for me, holding me in her arms, carrying me out of the flames.

But it wasn't her.

Later, I found out the truth: the person who pulled me out wasn't my grandmother, it was someone who gave me a second chance at life.

While I was unconscious, I had a long, haunting dream. So long that I relived my entire life.

I was born with congenital heart disease. My biological parents couldn't afford the treatments, so they left me at an orphanage like I was some broken thing. I was sick, abandoned, and easy to pick on. The older kids there made sure I knew I wasn't wanted. They threw mud and dead rats at me, pinned me down in the fields, kicking and punching me like it meant nothing.

Then one day, a frail old woman with warm, wrinkled hands lifted me out of that pit. She gently wiped the dirt from my cheeks and said, "Sweetheart, if anyone bullies you again, just tell me. I'll protect you."

That was the first time I ever felt safe. That was the day I learned what it meant to have someone in your corner.

When Grandma found out I was sick, she sold her family's jade bracelet to help pay for my surgery. That's how I ended up in the hospital, and it's where I met Phillip.

He had a congenital brain aneurysm. If he didn't get surgery, one rupture could leave him in a vegetative state. His whole family came to beg and plead with him, but he just cried and refused.

I was sitting across the room, popped a cherry in my mouth, spat the pit into the trash, and rolled my eyes at him.

"Coward."

It was a word I'd picked up from the bullies at the orphanage. But it worked. Phillip exploded. We got into a full-blown fight, one that made us both infamous on the pediatric floor.

His mom laughed through her tears, her eyes full of gratitude. "Charlee," she said, "you're the only person he actually listens to."

They had spoiled him rotten, anything he wanted, he got. But with me, he couldn't get away with anything. So his mother asked me to tutor him. In exchange, she promised to cover all my school expenses until I finished my studies.

I agreed, not for Phillip, but for Grandma. I didn't want her to work herself into an early grave. And with the first payment, the very first thing I did was buy back Grandma's jade bracelet.

When we were filling out college applications, Phillip ran up to me, out of breath, asking which school I was applying to.

"New York University," I answered offhandedly.

To my surprise, Phillip actually followed through. But when I received my Stanford acceptance letter, he came pounding on my front door like a madman.

"Charlee, why did you lie to me?!" he shouted. "We agreed on NYU! What the hell are you doing at Stanford?!"

I avoided him for a whole day. Then, quietly, I told him, "Your grades were better suited for NYU."

It was a lie. A kind one. But Phillip didn't take it that way. His eyes were bloodshot as he grabbed me by the collar.

"Who the hell asked you to care about me?!"

Later, thanks to some backdoor maneuvering, the Murray family got him transferred to Stanford. The first time I saw him in the cafeteria, he flashed that cocky smirk of his.

"Charlee," he said, "you can run to the ends of the earth, "

"Still gonna catch me?" I asked, setting down my tray and giving him a calm, sidelong glance.

He stuffed an apple into my mouth like a bratty kid.

"I'm not that dumb," he chuckled. "Catching your grandma's enough."

Even back then, I knew Phillip was bossy, possessive, and selfish. But there was something about him I couldn't fight.

At graduation, he hired a full band and proposed in front of the whole crowd.

"Charlee, let me take care of you, and your grandma, for the rest of our lives."

And honestly? After more than a decade of growing up together, how could I not have feelings for him? His mother always called me her daughter-in-law as a joke, but deep down, I'd already fallen for him without realizing it.

I never imagined that the man who swore to love me and protect my grandma would change completely the moment Elaina came back from abroad.

It was the second year of our marriage when everything began to unravel. For Elaina, Phillip became someone I didn't even recognize.

He mocked my grandmother. Burned her house down. Tried to burn me alive.

And all for Elaina.