Julienne’s piercing scream sliced through the room like a siren.}
She thrashed against me, her nails raking across my skin as she fought to break free. We struggled in the dim light, her frantic gasps filling the air, wild with desperation. The scalpel gleamed between us, dangerous and accusing.}
“Evelyne, don’t!” she cried, shoving at me with trembling hands.
I staggered back a step, but I refused to release the weapon. My pulse thundered in my ears, my entire body pulsing with adrenaline and grief. She had taken everything–my future, my body, my child.”
ཚ ༢ ༤
And now, she wanted mercy?
With a surge of strength, she lunged, knocking the scalpel from my grasp. It hit the floor with a metallic clang. We both dove for it, desperation making our movements frenzied. My fingers closed around the handle at the same moment her hand clamped around my wrist, twisting it sharply.
Pain shot up my arm like lightning.
I jerked back and shoved her, sending her crashing into the nightstand. She gasped, barely catching herself as the furniture rattled behind her.
The door slammed open.
“What the hell is going on in here?!”
Dominic’s voice thundered through the room.
I turned, panting, just as he rushed inside, his eyes wide, trying to make sense of the chaos. His gaze flicked between the scalpel, Julienne’s panicked expression, and my own tear–streaked face.
Then I saw it–the shift. The way his body moved.
He didn’t come to me.
He went straight to her.”
Dominic stepped in front of Julienne like a shield, his voice hard as stone. “Evelyne, what the hell are you doing?! Have you lost your mind?”
A hollow, bitter laugh spilled from my lips. “Now you ask?”
His eyes fell to the scalpel still clutched in my hand. His face turned grim. “Were you going to hurt her?“}
I tightened my grip on the blade, the cold metal pressing against my palm. “I just wanted back what you both stole.”>
He frowned, clearly not understanding. “What are you talking about?”
I drew in a shaky breath. “That kidney you gave her?” I said, my voice cracking with fury. “It was mine.“”
Shock flickered across his face–faint, but there.”
“I know everything now,” I continued, my hands trembling. “You didn’t just take something from me–you ripped it from me. You let me go on with a lie while she lived with a piece of me inside her.”
Dominic opened his mouth, but I wasn’t finished.”
“Did you think I’d never learn the truth? That I’d never find the proof? That I’d go on believing I was whole when you carved a part of me out for her?” I let out a strangled laugh, bordering on a sob. “I bled for both of you. And when my child needed saving, you chose her again.“”
I stepped toward them, my grief morphing into fury. I raised the scalpel-
And Dominic shoved me back with both hands.”
I stumbled, hitting the wall behind me. His face twisted with rage.
“You’re sick,” he spat. “You’re out of control. It was for your sister’s life! You’re twins, Evelyne! You shared a womb. You should’ve understood.”
My chest heaved as I stared at him, my vision a blur of tears.
“It should’ve been for Amara,” I whispered, voice cracking under the weight of everything I had lost. “My baby was dying… and you let her go.”
The world spun.
Tears spilled freely down my cheeks as I fell to my knees, the scalpel slipping from my fingers with a dull thud. My shoulders shook with sobs I couldn’t hold back anymore. “You promised you’d never leave me,” I whispered. “But you did. You chose her. You always did.“@
Dominic didn’t kneel beside me.”
He didn’t take my hand.”
He didn’t offer me comfort.”
Instead, he walked past me without a word and knelt beside Julienne. He wrapped his arms around her trembling frame, checking her face, murmuring softly as if I didn’t exist.”
The same way he used to soothe me.”
The same way he once held Amara.”
And just like that, something inside me shattered beyond repair.”
I stayed there for what felt like hours, broken and silent. I don’t know how long I wept. The minutes bled into each other, my body aching with exhaustion, my heart hollow.
I didn’t move.}
I couldn’t move.
How does someone rise from ruins when there’s nothing left to rebuild from?”
I had nothing.
My daughter–gone.}
My husband–lost.”
My family–destroyed.}
Outside, rain pelted the windows, thunder rumbling low and deep in the distance. The house sat in silence, thick with betrayal and grief.”
Then–0
A sound.
A muffled noise.
» ༣ F ༢ ༢ – འ = ༤
I stiffened, my breath catching. I sat up slowly, listening.
Another moan. Soft. Rhythmic.
I turned my head toward the hallway.”
It was coming from Julienne’s room.”
No. It couldn’t be.
Another breathy sound followed–a whimper. The creak of bedsprings. The whisper of skin against sheets.>>
I stumbled to my feet, numb and shaking. My body begged me not to go, to turn away.
But I needed to see it with my own eyes.
I crept toward the doorway, every step weighted with dread.”
The sounds grew louder. More urgent. More intimate.”
My stomach churned.
I reached the door. My hand trembled as I wrapped it around the knob.”
Don’t open it.”
But I did.
And in a single instant–everything broke again.”
There they were.
Julienne.
Dominic.
Entwined in each other. Breathless. Bodies tangled in the sheets. His hands on her. His lips on her shoulder.
The same way he used to hold me. The same way he kissed me.”
A shattered sob ripped from my throat.
They didn’t even look up.
I turned and ran.
Back to the room that used to be mine. That used to be ours. That used to mean something.
My suitcase was still half–packed. I lunged for it, throwing in anything my hands could grab. I didn’t care anymore.”
I tore open the drawer and grabbed the divorce papers, tossing them onto the bed like a final slap.}}
Let him find them.
Let him sign.
I was done.”
I zipped the suitcase shut, wiped my face, and gave the room one last glance.”
There was nothing left here.
There
Nothing left of me.
And so I walked out. Out of the house. Out of the marriage. Out of the wreckage they left me in.
Into the night. Into the storm.”
And for the first time… I didn’t look back.”
S
>
”
*
- 14.
