When She Rose From the Ashes (Natalie and Jensen) novel Chapter 29

Chapter 29 Graves and Ghosts

She had clung to his arm, her smile bright and full of hope.

“Jensen, will you marry me on my twenty-third birthday? I want to be your wife.”

But what had he done?

He went and married Sharon on Natalie’s twenty-third birthday.

The more Jensen thought about it, the harder it was to breathe.

That girl, who had once looked at him like he was her whole world… she was gone. Forever.

His eyes were bloodshot, but his voice was ice cold.

“Our marriage stays private. If you make it public, I’ll erase the Summers family from Ocean City.”

“Jensen, have you lost your mind?”

Sharon couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

She’d waited so long for Natalie to be gone, thinking she could finally take her place in the spotlight as Mrs. Luke, walk tall through the social elite. But now Jensen wouldn’t even let her announce their marriage?

“I’m your legal wife! Why should I have to live like some rat hiding in the shadows?”

“If you don’t like it, we can get divorced right now.”

Jensen didn’t even look at her as he turned and walked away.

Sharon stood frozen, stunned by his words.

He had to be bluffing.

There was no way he’d actually divorce her… right?

She scrambled to her feet and ran after him, but by the time she got outside, all she saw was the cloud of dust left by his car.

Jensen drove straight to Natalie’s grave.

The cemetery was small and cramped. Without the bodyguard’s directions, he wouldn’t have found the grave at all.

When he saw it erupted.

11

tucked away in some forgotten corner

—

the fury he’d been holding back finally

“Who told you to bury her here? Did the Luke family run out of money?”

The bodyguard flinched under his rage and quickly answered, “It was madam’s order.”

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“Madam? Who the hell is madam?”

Jensen’s gaze darkened.

“T-The woman who said she married you… Miss Sharon. She said she’s now Mrs. Luke and told us to call her that from now on.”

“She is Ms. Summers. She will always be Ms. Summers. The only madam you have is Natalie. If I hear any of you call Sharon ‘Mrs. Luke’ again, I’ll rip your tongue out.”

His voice was low and venomous, echoing through the cemetery like a curse.

The order was passed down immediately. Jensen was still the head of the Luke family – what he said

went.

He couldn’t stand seeing Natalie treated like this.

“Find a priest,” he ordered. “No matter the cost. I want her to have a proper grave.”

“Yes, sir.”

The bodyguard left.

Jensen sat alone before the gravestone, staring at her photo. His eyes burned with pain.

“Natalie… I loved you. Didn’t you feel it? We had five years together. How could you just leave me like that?”

“When I rushed in to save Sharon, why didn’t you call out to me? You saw me, didn’t you? Why didn’t you say something?”

“If you’d just spoken… if you’d just called my name, I would’ve gone to you. I swear I would’ve.”

His voice caught. He paused.

Would he really have saved her?

Yes.

He would have.

He’d loved her from the very start- from the moment he’d seen her half-dead and broken five years ago, he’d been drawn to her like a moth to flame. Hadn’t he?

So how the hell did they end up like this?

The wind whispered through the tombstones. No one could give him an answer.

Jensen sat there for hours, murmuring to her grave, pouring out everything he wished he’d said when she

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