“Joshua, you can’t do this to me! You can’t! You’re the one who came to me! You said Vivienne was barren, that marrying her was the biggest mistake of your life! You said if I gave you a child, you would marry me! You lied to me! You tricked me! Joshua, I hate you! I HATE YOU!”
Hearing Mila spill the truth, Joshua’s face hardened. “Shut her up!” he barked.
One of the bodyguards clapped a hand over her mouth. The other one scooped up her legs, and they carried her, kicking and muffl- ed–screaming, out of the office.
The silence she left behind was thick and awkward. Joshua’s expression was unreadable. “Viv, don’t believe a word she said. She’s
just trying to tear us apart. She’s gone now. No one will ever come between us again.”
He reached for my hand, his eyes soft and pleading. “Viv, come home with me. Please?”
I believed every word Mila had said. But even if she had been lying, what Joshua had done was unforgivable.
I shook my head. “Joshua, in one month, we will go to the courthouse and finalize our divorce. If you have nothing else to say, plea-
se leave. I have to get back to work.”
His face fell. But he didn’t give up. He forced a smile. “Okay. One month. And in that month, I’m going to win you back.”
He turned and left.
Less than five minutes later, screams erupted from the street below.
The receptionist called Chloe, her voice frantic. Mila had pulled a knife from her bag. As Joshua was getting into his car, while his
bodyguards were distracted, she had plunged it into his side.
“Joshua!” she had shrieked, her voice a mad cackle. “I gave you my heart, and you threw it away for her! If I can’t be happy, neither
can you!”
Joshua, his face a mask of terror, had kicked her hard in the stomach. She stumbled backward, directly into the path of a speeding
car. She was thrown more than thirty feet. She convulsed a few times, then lay still.
The bodyguards rushed Joshua to the hospital. He survived, but he couldn’t escape the murder charge. He was sentenced to ten
years.
On the day of his sentencing, Chloe linked her arm through mine. “Well,” she said with a satisfied smile, “what goes around, comes
around. He got what he deserved.”
I just smiled faintly. It didn’t matter to me anymore. Whatever happened to him now had nothing to do with me.
