Chapter 1
“Vivian, your family is waiting for you at the gate. Please pack up and leave within fifteen minutes.”
The announcement blared across the hospital, robotic and cold.
On paper, it was a prestigious psychiatric facility. In truth, it was a prison for the unwanted.
I sat motionless, expression blank. I hadn’t truly processed that I was being discharged.
“Come on, Vivian! Mr. Curtis is here!” the staff barked, shoving my few belongings into a box. I said nothing. I didn’t fight them. I just waited to be escorted out like a package.
For six months, I longed for a call from Cliff. Every day, I fought to earn privileges—one more phone call, one more letter. I always reached out to him first. He never picked up. Never once.
Eventually, I understood: I meant nothing to him.
So when I heard he was coming for me, I allowed a flicker of hope. Maybe he had come to make amends.
At the gate, the sunlight felt foreign. My body trembled with anticipation as I saw him—tall, groomed, still cold as stone. The same man, untouched by time, by guilt, by grief. He hadn’t changed.
But I had.
I smiled weakly. My eyes welled with tears.
He frowned, as if unsure whether my expression was joy or madness.
“Cliff…” I started.
He interrupted.
“Where’s her doctor? I need to speak to him. Is she really… stable?”
Stable? He didn’t even look at me, only at the staff.
I was never unstable. The tears and laughter he saw now were calculated. A mask. A means to freedom.
As the staff called my attending physician, Dr. Jones, Cliff’s phone buzzed. He read the message, glanced at his watch, and turned to leave.
“Ian, let’s go. She’s waiting at home,” he muttered.
She?
I stood frozen as he climbed into the car without a backward glance.
Ian gently took my box and offered me a seat. I wiped my tears, straightened my spine, and got in.
Cliff kept coughing, eyes averted. He couldn’t even look at me.
The car was silent. My hands shook from exhaustion. I caught a glimpse of the trunk—roses and a beautifully decorated chocolate cake. My favorite.
My heart skipped. Was this his way of saying sorry? Was this for me? For Lindsey?
I turned to ask about my daughter, but the moment I opened my mouth, he scoffed.
I froze.
We arrived. Cliff got out quickly. I followed, nerves frayed. Ian retrieved the flowers and cake.
“Wife,” Cliff called out cheerfully.
I turned to respond, only to hear a familiar voice.
“Ginger?!”
My cousin stepped into view, her hand resting on a pregnant belly. Cliff embraced her, kissed her cheek.
“I woke up and you weren’t there,” she pouted.
“I was picking someone up, as you asked,” he said gently. Then he turned, handed her the bouquet. “These are for you. To celebrate our love. I also got your favorite cake—chocolate. Lindsey’s coming soon. Let’s celebrate together.”
I stood in silence. The air left my lungs. My cousin—the one who knelt in blood before me—was now being embraced as his wife. They were having a child together. The roses and cake weren’t for me at all.
I bit my lip to hold in the scream.
“Mom! I’m back!” a little voice chirped.
Lindsey!
Tears sprang from my eyes. I ran to greet her, arms open, my heart desperate.
But she ran past me. Straight into Ginger’s embrace.
She called her mom.
“No… Lindsey…” I reached out, but she shrank away, burying her face in Ginger’s chest.
“Don’t scare the child,” Cliff snapped, yanking me back. I stumbled, crashing into a vase. Pain shot through my spine. No one reacted.
The three of them—my husband, my cousin, my daughter—climbed the stairs, laughing.
I collapsed. My body refused to move. My tears soaked the cold floor.
That cake… That bouquet… That smile from my daughter… It was supposed to be mine.
I endured half a year of torment just to be reunited with them. But they had erased me, rewritten my place in their lives as if I never existed.
I broke.
My cries were drowned by the sound of celebration upstairs.
The agony overwhelmed me. My body convulsed. My breath hitched. The scent of disinfectant and chemicals filled my lungs as I passed out—poisoned by heartbreak and alkaline fumes.
When I opened my eyes, fluorescent lights glared overhead. I was in the emergency room—Cleveland’s largest.
