My heart sank.
Gwendolen's laughter came through the phone. She lowered her voice.
“Rebecca, you've clung to Dean for three years with no title, no status. If I were you, I'd have had the sense to leave a long time ago. So? How do you like your little surprise?”
The line went dead.
I struggled toward the door. The men blocked my way.
Miles ran his hand across my face, stroking it back and forth.
Bile surged up my throat. “Don't touch me!”
He reached for my clothes. I gathered every last shred of strength I had and drove my foot between his legs.
Miles doubled over in pain.
The next second, he looked up. His eyes had gone vicious. He swung his leg and kicked me square in the stomach.
My body had never recovered from the miscarriage. That kick tore through my lower abdomen like something ripping me open from the inside, and cold sweat broke out instantly.
Every trace of color drained from my face. I collapsed to the floor.
Miles clamped his hand around my throat and pinned me down. “Ungrateful bitch. I tried to be nice.”
I stared at the ceiling, my vision swimming red.
No one was coming.
Hours later, the men strolled out like nothing had happened.
I lay on the floor. Inch by inch, I pressed my palms against the ground and dragged myself up.
Both arms were broken. I couldn't use them. It took me a long, long time just to pull my clothes back on.
I stood up and stared at the empty living room.
“Dean Henson, I hate you.”
I stumbled out the door.
The world was so big. Where was I supposed to go?
I walked. One step at a time, until I reached the sea.
The wind off the water cut through my clothes and burned against every wound.
I stood on the rocks, looking out at the ocean. Everything that had happened over the past few years flashed through my mind.
Dean holding my hand for the first time. His smile when he said he'd marry me after graduation. The surgical light above the operating table during my miscarriage. My parents' headstones. Miles's hand around my throat.
A voice kept echoing in my ears.
“Why don't you just die?”
“You and your parents all deserved to die.”
“Jump. Jump and it'll all be over.”
I looked down at the water beneath me. Black. I couldn't see a thing.
Everything I'd given these past years, every last piece of myself, had been wasted on the wrong person.
I closed my eyes.
……
Professor Joe had arrived early that morning with a world-class medical team and set up at the Henson family's private hospital.
“Mr. Henson, we've applied the new procedure. I called you here so you could witness the results firsthand.”
Dean stood at the bedside, eyes locked on the figure in the bed.
Juliana's fingers twitched.
Her eyelids trembled, then slowly opened.
Dean rushed to the bed. His voice shook. “Julie, you're awake!”
Juliana looked at him. Her lips moved, her voice faint and raw. “Brother……where's Rebecca?”
Dean frowned. “You just woke up after all these years. Why would you bring up that jinx?”
Juliana grabbed his sleeve. “Where is she?”
Dean's voice turned cold. “If those thugs hadn't mistaken you for her, you wouldn't have suffered all these years.”
“I already took care of her parents. And Rebecca herself? I've been making her life a living hell for three years.”
Juliana froze.
Her eyes went wide, and her voice rose sharply.
“You got it wrong! Those men didn't mistake me for her! I did it myself! I told them my name was Rebecca Pruitt!”
The expression on Dean's face turned to stone.
He stared at Juliana's mouth as if he couldn't comprehend what she was saying.
Juliana sobbed. “She's my best friend. Her mother did a good thing and saved someone's life. I couldn't let them get hurt. I told those men I was Rebecca. I said it myself!”
Dean shot to his feet. The chair crashed to the floor behind him.
Juliana seized his hand and held on. “I told them to take me! It was my idea! Dean, none of this was her fault. Not one single thing was her fault! What did you do to her? What did you do to her?!”
At that moment, the television mounted on the hospital wall cut to a breaking news bulletin.
“A young woman has been spotted near the Coastal Highway, preparing to jump into the ocean. Police are on the scene and a rescue operation is underway.”
Juliana's gaze snapped to the screen.
“Dean, that person……doesn't she look like Rebecca?”
Dean turned. His eyes locked on the screen.
The camera zoomed in.
The pale face turned toward the lens. It was Rebecca.
In the next instant, with every witness watching, the figure stepped off the rocks.
The ocean swallowed her whole.
