Rowena shrieked. "Clint, she's trying to turn you against me again! She's jealous because we're together!"
The blood running from my back had soaked half my clothes crimson.
My body was growing lighter. Colder.
I lay facedown on the floor and forced out the weakest thread of a voice. "Clint James, don't you even want to know why Rowena refused the surgery?
"She wanted to use it as leverage so we'd hand her a healthy baby she could pass off as yours."
Clint slammed his foot into the operating suite door hard enough to buckle the frame.
The impact shuddered through the metal, slamming into me on the other side. I was already sprawled on the floor, barely holding on.
He threw the words down cold. "That mouth of yours disgusts me, Muriel. I've changed my mind. Even if they bring my son back, I won't let anyone in there to save you."
He didn't want her dead—not really. But if he didn't shut her up now, that mouth would keep working, keep twisting things between him and Rowena. He just wanted his son back.
My breathing turned ragged. I clung to the last scrap of consciousness, because the truth was the only thing that could save me. "Clint James, you have azoospermia. You will never have children. Even if Rowena had delivered a healthy baby today, it wouldn't be yours."
Rowena broke in, voice pitching high. "You couldn't make the cheating lie stick, so now you're dragging Clint into it too? You just don't want to die and you don't want to give back our son—you'll say anything, Muriel!"
Then, from the crowd, the colleague who had helped me write the falsified lab report stepped forward.
It was a risk to everything she'd built professionally, but she spoke up to save my life. "I can testify. There is nothing wrong with Muriel—she could have ten babies and be fine. Clint James does have azoospermia. If Muriel hadn't knelt on the floor in tears begging me to forge that report, if I hadn't been too soft-hearted to refuse, none of this would have gotten this far.
"Clint James, you don't deserve what Muriel felt for you."
Cold sank through me like I was dropping into an ice pit, and the world went gray at the edges.
I tried to speak, but when I opened my mouth only a faint murmur came out, too quiet for anyone outside to hear.
Clint's voice shook—half talking to himself, half directing it at Rowena. "Ro, everything they're saying is a lie, right? Right. It has to be. You would never cheat on me.
"There's nothing wrong with me. They want to save Muriel, so they're making all this up to fool me!"
But Rowena wasn't listening to a word Clint said. She was staring straight ahead, terror written across her face.
