The crowd stirred uneasily, murmurs rippling through them like a rising tide. "Look at the kind of woman he married!" Evelyn's voice cut through the growing unease. "She's just standing there, waiting for him to die!"
Several people turned their cameras toward me, their lenses gleaming with the eagerness to capture my reaction. I could feel their eyes bore into me—cold, accusing, relentless. I stood still, my face an unreadable mask, refusing to shrink under their stares.
"Come on, everyone, take a good look at this heartless woman!" a man shouted.
"She wouldn't even unlock the door!" another voice added, laced with disgust.
"This is horrifying. She probably hoped her husband would burn to death in there."
"She's probably got another man," someone muttered darkly. "Why else would she act like this?"
The whispers swelled, a torrent of cruel accusations, each one more ridiculous and cutting than the last. Harvey, still leaning heavily on Lucia, lifted his head slightly. His face was pale, his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths. He stared at me, his expression a mixture of confusion and pain.