Prologue
Love at first sight is truly a dangerous thing.
Who would’ve thought the boy she immensely loved was the first thing she saw once she walked in the lecture room, who immediately caught her eye? Who would’ve thought one day he’d be kneeling before her, begging for her mercy not to kill him?
But the past was a different world. Now, she was sitting in a cold metal chair in the Protection Investigation Division, her shirt stiff with rust-colored stains of blood that hadn’t quite dried. She didn’t look at Detective Jonas Floyd or his silent shadow, Trent Nguyen. She stared instead at her own fingernails, thinking she really should have paid more attention in history class; she was realizing now, far too late, that she didn’t actually know her rights.
“College student... eighteen years old... had a bright future...”
The muffled words drifted in from the observation room, sounding like an epitaph for a girl who no longer existed. The heavy door groaned open, and Floyd walked in. He sat across from her, the silence stretching until he finally cleared his throat.
“So, Ms. Hensley,” he began, his eyes searching hers for a flicker of humanity. “Do you regret killing Christopher Villarreal?”
She didn’t even have to look up to respond.
“No.”
One word. Simple. Easy. The truth.
“Can you explain why, Ms. Hensley?” Floyd leaned forward, his shadow looming over her. “You took a life and nearly ended two others. Everyone wants to know why.”
A jagged, airy cackle broke from her throat, echoing off the cinderblock walls. She finally looked up, her expression shifting into a death stare so cold it felt like a physical weight in the room.
“He was the first boy who ever made me feel loved,” she whispered, her lips curling into a chilling smile. “And he died knowing it.”
She leaned in closer, the chains of her handcuffs rattling against the metal table with a rhythmic clink-clink-clink.
“He was the first boy who ever made me feel loved,” she whispered, her eyes locking onto Floyd’s with a sudden, predatory sharpess. “And he died knowing it. But the real question, Detective...”
She leaned in closer, her voice barely a breath.
“...is why you think he was the only one I was planning to finish tonight.”
