I came out of the miscarriage room alone. The baby, more than four months along, was gone.
The doctor finished her instructions and left, and I buried myself under the blanket.
Only then did I dare to fall apart and sob.
I stroked my stomach, already flat again, and the ache would not stop.
The child I had longed for day and night, the one both our families had planned to celebrate next week and take pictures with.
Now it had become nothing but a shocking wound and pain.
I closed my eyes and forced the rest of the tears back.
Marvin loved that Nora so much, and now the two of them had their own child, their own proof of that love.
Even if my poor baby had been born, it would only have relived my tragedy.
Marvin, you deceived me with love, but now that this whole con has been exposed, I won't go on playing the fool caught in your trap.
Every bit of pain you piled onto me, I will make you taste all of it.
The ward door opened, and a figure with a swollen belly swayed her way in.
"Well, if it isn't Charlene. I heard from my Marv that he found out about how you got used by those thugs back then. I came to comfort you a little."
"Get out." My voice came out cold. "I don't need your fake kindness."
"Charlene, I'm a professional therapist. You should trust me."
Nora leaned closer, her face turning more venomous by the second. "I heard you just went and got the baby aborted. So brave of you."
I stared at her with hatred, my fingers digging a bloody scratch into the blanket. "So it really was you, Nora. Why won't you let me go? You just wanted to marry Peter, didn't you? I'm willing to let go and give you exactly what you want, so why won't you leave me alone!"
"Oh, so you know." She arched a brow and let out a scornful little laugh. "Why won't I let you go? You took my man, you even carried his child. I can't stand the sight of you, looking at you makes me sick with hate, so what if I want to get a little revenge?"
My chest heaved. "You're insane! You'll go to hell."
"Then let me tell you one more thing." She leaned in close to my ear. "You think your father was really upset to death because of you? No. Marvin knew your father loved you most of all. If he hadn't died, you'd never have given Marvin the chance to slip into your heart while you were weak. Back then, to marry you fast and win your heart, Marvin didn't hesitate for a second. With his own hands, he pulled out his benefactor's oxygen tube."
I stared at Nora, so pleased with herself, my whole body shaking, everything inside me churning.
My head filled with the moment I woke up and saw my father's face, already gone.
I had thought his final look was resentment for how I'd been careless, hadn't watched over him well enough. It turned out that was my father's last tenderness toward me.
"Go to hell!" I ripped the IV out of my arm, threw myself at Nora, and grabbed her by the throat.
But the next second, someone kicked me off the bed.
Nora crumpled into Marvin's arms, crying and sniveling. "Marv, I only came to give her some counseling. I never thought she'd suddenly try to hit me."
"Charlene, are you out of your mind! Nora's been so good to you, and you repay her like this?" He kicked me down again, just as I was pulling myself up against the bed.
I knocked over the IV stand, the glass bottle shattering across the floor, shards spattering blood over me.
"I repay her cruelly?" I pointed at Marvin, his arm around Nora. "The ones who repay cruelty are the two of you! You killed my father, lied to me all these years, and got me pregnant. It's you two bastards."
"Charlene!" Marvin roared at me in fury. "Have I been too good to you? Is that why you keep pushing your luck!"
"What does your father's death have to do with me or Nora? You brought it on yourself and upset him to death. Out of everyone getting treated at this hospital, why is it only you who raised a hand against Nora? You've got no one to blame but your own vile temper and your own loose ways!"
Marvin hated me to the core, looking at me as if he wanted to kill me. "No wonder even the media said back then, to get away you were willing to spend three months carrying on with the kidnappers. A woman as filthy and cursed as you drags down everyone around her, wherever she goes."
He wiped the bloody scratch on Nora's neck with aching tenderness, and turned his face away from me.
"You scratched Nora until she bled. Apologize."
I lifted my hand, still bleeding from where I'd torn out the IV. "Marvin, you remember this well. Back then I must have been blind to ever fall for you!"
