Note - The book needs major readability and complexity editing, bare with the complex framing and any other mistakes till I can edit.

Silent tears streaked down her cheeks as the broken-eyed blonde clutched the railing by the Coprocus bridge with her non-fractured right arm. Ashley Kruger - or simply Ash, as her friends had come to call her, stood at the edge the bridge, and her sanity. It took her all of her willpower to not jump down and give up on life to be with her now-deceased fiancé.

*FLASHBACK, 3 WEEKS AGO*

"Hey, Ash", spoke the soft voice of Sam Kruger as he placed a hand on his sister's shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.

"Sammy!", the younger sibling launched herself at her brother, cocooning herself around her only living family for comfort as her body rocked with her sobs, the pent-up tears finally finding an escape after what seemed like an eternity.

"God, Ashley, what happened? I just got a call from the N.Y.P.D. about an accident..." He trailed off as he noticed his sister's plastered left arm.

He continued in the same soothing voice, "I heard about Jordan, sweetheart. I'm so sorry."

Ashley occupied one of the six beds in the City Hospital's Accident and Emergency ward, her fractured arm plastered and her eyes and lips slightly blue on account of the swelling. Her left thigh was bandaged but didn't seem to cause much pain. She, along with her fiancé - Jordan Sanders - had met with an accident when a truck had suddenly slammed into Jordan's minivan, with Jordan - who was driving - having taken the maximum impact.

"How did I end up here, Sammy? All I remember is Jordan taking a turn, a truck suddenly appearing in front of us and then...then I screamed before it all went black..."

"Look, honey, the doctors said you need rest. So just take it easy, we'll talk about all of that later, alright?", Sam cooed. In response, Ashley just hugged him tighter than before as she soaked his shirt with her tears.

Ashley had regained consciousness sometime before Sam had arrived, to the reeking of antibiotics and drugs all around her. Around five minutes after regaining consciousness, she had been staring wide-eyed and numb, at a nurse who'd said 'I'm sorry, honey, we tried our best - he's in a better place now,' when Ashley had enquired about Jordan.

'Why me, Sammy? First our mom and dad, then Lily, then Jordan, why...why is it me? Why is it always me?", whisper-yelled the distraught girl; Lily was her best friend and roommate but was missing for the past three months.

Sam cringed at the sadness, frustration, and anger that seemed to roll off his sister in waves. But before he could say anything, the screech of a corroded hinge diverted his attention to the door. He had some trouble detaching his sister from him as he said, "Ash, dear, it's the cops. I'm guessing they have some questions for you".

When Ash refused to move, Sam looked at the cops who seemed to understand and the taller of the two started speaking: "My name is Detective Wren and this here is my partner, Detective Henry," he said as he frisked out a notepad and pen from his pocket to jot down the conversation.

Henry then took over the talking and began, "Ms. Ashley, since you already know why we're here, we'll come straight to the point, starting with the basics. Who was the deceased to you? Your brother? Boyfriend? Or...?"

The officer, after waiting patiently for a couple of moments. heard a whisper, "Fiancé. He was my fiancé..."

Henry's eyes widened, then flashed with more sympathy before he continued,

"Can you tell us about any enemies your fiancé may have had that you're aware of?"

The sniffling girl now separated herself from her brother and gave the short detective an agitated look. "He had no enemies; he was friendly with everyone and never so much as raised his voice in any argument. But how is this relevant in an accident? Just arrest the goddamn driver and let him rot behind bars forever," she exclaimed with disdain and hatred.

"We are looking for the driver, ma'am. He abandoned the truck and fled the spot while the crowd was busy looking at the accident scene and caring for you both. But we have footage from a nearby CCTV camera that captured his face. The guy has a past record of killing for money. You see, he's been on our Wanted list for quite a while now."

Sam and Ashley both looked at the detective with stunned silence before Sam found his voice, "Wait, you mean...you are saying that this wasn't an accident?"

"No, I'm not saying that, but we have our suspicions. You see, there is a possibility that the brakes failed or there was some mechanical error or he was just drunk driving and that it really was an accident, and that a contract killer just happened to be the driver. But you hear how fishy and too-complex-to-be-true that theory sounds? With career criminals, we can never be too sure. The truck in question was reported missing about a week ago."

Ashley finally managed to mouth the words eating at her, "So... you mean to say that Jordan was...murdered...?" She softly whispered, the sentence seeming alien to her tongue.

"Yes, Ma'am, and that also means Mr. Sanders and you were both his targets, meaning you're not safe until he's out there..."

*END OF FLASHBACK*

To the world, it seemed like the accident had injured only her arm, but the pain in the petite, 24-year-old girl's onyx eyes spoke volumes of how Jordan's death had shredded her from the inside.

Spotting a pebble beside her left foot, she kicked it powerfully, adding all her anger, frustration and sadness in that one kick. The pebble, instead of drowning harmlessly in the water, hit an unfortunate duck who yelped in pain and surprise, eliciting a sick, sweet smile of satisfaction from the girl as she shivered in the cold without a jacket in a sleeveless tank top and long denim jeans that covered most of her platform heels.

'Baby you light up my world like nobody else, the way that you flip your hair gets me...' Ashley's phone screamed, playing the song that happened to be a phone recorded cover of the original, sung by Jordan when he had proposed to her.

She noticed the caller id was an unknown number and swiped her finger to accept it.

"Hello?", she said, her voice still a bit shaky.

"Hello, this is Detective Wren from the N.Y.P.D. Am I talking to Ashley Kruger?"

"Yes, detective. What news?"

"Do you have a chair around you, ma'am? You might want to sit down for this."

Ashley inhaled a deep breath. Her life had spiralled into a complete mess, what could possibly be worse?

"It's alright, just say it, whatever it is."

"Well, the good news is that we caught our guy. The bad news is, he confessed to taking a contract for the murder of Jordan and you."

Although they had suspected foul play, a confirmation felt like a punch in the gut to Ashley as she staggered a few steps in shock. She couldn't believe someone would pay to kill her, when she didn't even mingle with a half-bad person or did anything wrong in her life.

When the detective got no response, he grew concerned, "Hello...hello, Ashley, can you hear me?"

"Yes, yes I can. Did he say who wanted us dead and why?"

"Yes, and you won't like this. He says he has solid proof that the person who hired him was Sam Kruger - your brother..."

(A/N: CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS WELCOME. HAPPY READING!)