Two days later, I went home. The moment I stepped through the door, Vivien walked out of the bedroom. She looked down at me from across the room,
a vicious smile curling at the corner of her lips, her eyes full of mockery and contempt.
“Kay, your life must be pretty miserable right now, huh? Abandoned by your own husband, betrayed by your best friend, stuck in that dingy hospital room without a single person to take care of you. Watching Bartholomew dote on me hand and foot. You must hate it so much you could scream.”
I stared at her coldly, unwilling to waste a single word on her. She was ugly to me now. Repulsive.
When I didn't respond, her smile only widened. She leaned down slowly, bringing her mouth close to my ear.
“Did you really believe, all those years ago, that I was actually sick? That I needed a kidney transplant?”
She let out a soft laugh, her voice dripping with amusement.
“Kay, you're hopeless. Truly, pathetically hopeless. I was never sick. The kidney transplant was a lie I made up to trick you.”
My eyes went wide. Every drop of blood in my body turned to ice. I stared at her, unable to process what I was hearing.
“What did you just say?”
Vivien straightened up, arms crossed, her expression brazen.
“I just couldn't stand you. Ever since we were kids, you were always the golden girl. The money, the looks, everyone orbiting around you. Even Bartholomew married you in the end. I hated it. That smug, charitable little act of yours, like you were doing the world a favor by existing. So I faked being sick. I tricked you into giving me your kidney. Watching you lie on that operating table, risking your life for me without a second thought? That felt good.”
“You knew. You knew how much damage donating a kidney would do to my body. You knew I was risking my life to save you……”
My voice shook. My whole body shook. Back then, I'd gone against my family's wishes, insisted on donating my kidney to her, and spent the better part of a year recovering from the surgery.
I had treated her like a sister. Given her everything I had. And all of it had been repaid with a carefully orchestrated lie.
“So what?”
Vivien scoffed, her eyes turning vicious. “Why should you get to have everything? Why should Bartholomew love you? I wanted to destroy your life, steal your man, drag you down from your pedestal and grind you into the dirt. I wanted you to feel every ounce of what I felt. That car accident, the miscarriage? I deliberately didn't give blood. I wanted you to die. Too bad you're hard to kill. But it worked out anyway. You can't have children now, and that gave me my opening. Bartholomew only loves me and the baby in my belly. You're nothing.”
“You're insane!” I was shaking with rage. “Vivien, aren't you afraid I'll tell Bartholomew every single thing you just said?”
“Tell Bartholomew?” Vivien threw her head back and laughed like she'd just heard the funniest joke of her life. “Kay, do you honestly think he'd believe you? I'm the only one he sees now. He believes every word out of my mouth. You could scream the truth until your throat bled, and he'd just think you were jealous. That you were making a scene. Have you forgotten? He stopped believing you a long time ago.”
I lost all control. I put everything I had into the palm of my hand and slapped her across the face.
“Vivien, you're nothing but a homewrecker!”
I screamed it with bloodshot eyes, my chest heaving violently. The weakness from the pregnancy sent dark spots flooding across my vision.
The slap snapped Vivien's head to the side. She clutched her cheek, a flash of something cold and dangerous in her eyes. She was about to lunge at me, but then she heard footsteps and switched instantly to a wounded, pitiful expression, tears spilling on command.
Bartholomew had heard the commotion and come running from the study.
He pushed open the door and saw Vivien crumpled on the floor, hand pressed to her face.
“Bartholomew, Kay hit me, she called me a homewrecker, she said she'd hurt our baby……”
He rushed in, panic written across his face, and gathered Vivien into his arms.
The second he saw the handprint on her cheek, his expression turned to stone.
“Kay, you hit her?”
He strode toward me and shoved me hard.
I was already weak, already pregnant. I had no strength to resist. I hit the floor.
The baby seemed to sense my fury. Pain tore through my abdomen without warning, so sharp that cold sweat broke across my skin.
Bartholomew didn't even glance at me on the ground. Every fiber of his attention was on Vivien in his arms, his hands moving gently over her, checking for injuries.
“Vivien, does anything hurt? Is the baby okay?”
Vivien nestled against his chest, crying prettily, and pointed a trembling finger at me.
“Bartholomew, I just wanted to welcome her home and apologize. But she hit me the second she saw me, and she said she'd make sure our baby dies a horrible death.”
Bartholomew turned to look at me. The fury in his eyes was consuming.
“Kay, how can you be this cruel? Vivien is pregnant. She came to see you out of kindness, and you hit her? You cursed my child?”
He crouched down, seized my chin, and forced my face up to meet his. Every word came out glacial.
“Apologize to Vivien. Right now. Or I will make this city unlivable for you.”
I gritted my teeth against the searing pain in my lower abdomen and lifted my head to look at this man I no longer recognized. A hollow laugh escaped me.
Apologize for what? For every humiliation I'd endured? For my dead child? For the trust I'd given that was thrown back in my face?
I looked at him with empty eyes, my voice raw. “I did nothing wrong. I will never apologize.”
Bartholomew's face twisted. The rage in his eyes flared hotter. He opened his mouth to speak, but the agony in my abdomen surged again, my vision went black, and I was gone.
