### Chapter 4
My mind went blank, wiped clean by a single detonation of understanding. Then the terrible guess surfaced.
“Wendy, what did you do?!”
Ten years ago, I had accompanied Old Mr. Delgado to an important meeting. We were ambushed on the way.
After I lost the baby, Otto bought the ocean-view cemetery plot with the most beautiful view for our child. He held me in the pouring rain, shaking so hard he could barely stand, crying until he was barely recognizable—
“It's my fault. I didn't protect you or our baby. Zara, I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
He hunted down those “enemies” himself, sent every last one of them to hell. I thought he was the boy who slew dragons for me. I never knew he had already become the dragon that was killing me.
On the other end of the line, Wendy's voice dripped with undisguised venom—
“You saw me and him going at it in the car, and you still had the nerve to crawl back and remarry him. God, you're pathetic.”
“I was so close to being the one he married. I'm the one who deserves to be Mrs. Delgado!”
“You destroyed my biggest dream. What made you think I'd ever let you live in peace?”
She hung up before I could answer.
The rage in my chest nearly split me open. I bit down hard, ripped the IV needle from the back of my hand, and threw myself off the hospital bed, almost knocking over a nurse coming through the door.
“Miss Gilbert? You can't leave yet!”
I couldn't hear anything. I ran straight out of the hospital.
I took a cab back to the house. Wendy was lounging on the sofa, sipping the prenatal tea her nutritionist had blended for her.
I stormed up to her, my voice raw—
“Wendy, it was you. That attack had nothing to do with the Delgados' enemies. You arranged the whole thing!”
“You vile bitch. I was nothing but good to you. Why would you do this to me?”
She lifted her gaze, nothing in it but contempt and cruelty.
“Because you were always better than me at everything. Why should the best things in the world just fall into your lap while I had to claw for scraps?”
“So I decided to take it all. And look at you now. A hen that can't lay eggs. What are you going to fight me with?”
Her lips curled. She stood and looked down at me.
“Get on your knees and lick my shoes, and maybe I'll have Otto let you keep a corner to live in. Otherwise, I'll have someone dig up your brat's grave.”
I couldn't listen to another word. My hand flew up—*crack*—
The slap landed full across her pampered face.
“Ahhh!”
Wendy screamed and crumpled to the floor, then clutched her stomach and burst into sobs—“Otto! Otto! Help! Zara's trying to kill our baby!”
A figure swept past like a gust of wind.
Otto rushed in and pulled her into his arms, then turned and glared at me with eyes that could have burned through steel—
“Wendy was young back then. She didn't know any better. She's been eaten alive by guilt since—she tried to kill herself more than once! If I hadn't been there for her, she'd be dead!”
“Why are you so petty? It's been years. Can't you just let it go?”
Every drop of blood in my body froze.
He had always known. Known it was Wendy who killed our child, who destroyed my life.
All those years of agony I suffered day and night, and he looked right through it.
But the “guilt” of the woman who caused all of it—that earned his pity, his tenderness, his protection.
“The only thing I regret in this life is ever meeting the two of you monsters!”
I screamed it with everything I had left. The room went dark at the edges, and I nearly choked on the blood rising in my throat.
Something like pain flickered across Otto's face. His mouth opened. But Wendy let out a piercing wail from his arms—
“My stomach—it hurts so much! The baby……Otto, is our baby gone?!”
Otto panicked instantly, twisting around to shout—
“Doctor! Where the hell is the doctor? Get over here!”
Medical staff rushed in and helped her onto the sofa to examine her.
That brief flicker of hesitation on Otto's face vanished. When he turned back to me, all that was left was disgust—
“You got hurt because you insisted on playing hero, throwing yourself in front of the old man! Who else is there to blame?!”
Listening to accusations this insane, this shameless defense of her, I laughed. Tears spilled down my face as I laughed.
I lunged forward and ripped the cord from Wendy's neck. The cross necklace hit the floor and shattered.
“What's mine—I'd rather destroy it than let you have it!”
Before the tears could break me completely, I turned and ran out the door.
Behind me, Otto's roar of fury chased me out.
