In the blink of an eye, I became the woman who'd killed two people.
It all happened so fast.
I'd gone there to demand answers, but never once did I want Hudson and Leah dead.
The guilt swallowed me whole, and the first thing I did was take on the burden of caring for both families' elderly parents.
But Hudson's mother and father never had any intention of letting me off the hook.
Day after day, they wept online about my "crimes."
The smear campaign spiraled out of control. My sweet, sensible daughter worried about me so much that her recovery kept faltering.
And finally, in the third year after Hudson's death,
I died of illness that winter.
What I never imagined was that Hudson and Leah would show up at my funeral.
Hudson's face was flushed with color.
Leah's belly was swollen with child.
They pointed at my body and laughed without shame.
"Hildegarde, that pathetic fool! Three years she spent caring for our parents, and she actually wore herself into the grave!"
"Then again, it works out. Now we never have to hide again. We can finally enjoy the rest of our lives!"
Hudson took over my company.
He threw my parents out of their home.
He didn't even bother with our daughter, still lying in the hospital.
Within three days, my little girl died in agony in that hospital bed.
The shock broke my parents, and by the end of that year they too were gone.
Hudson and Leah lived in the big house I'd bought, ran the company I'd built from nothing,
and spent their happy days with their own parents.
"Hildegarde?!"
Hudson's familiar voice yanked me back to the present.
Panic he couldn't hide flickered across his face as he jogged over to me,
and grabbed my wrist.
"Why are you here?! Isn't Gwen's surgery today?! Why aren't you at the hospital?!"
So he still remembered Gwen had surgery today.
"It's, uh, I…"
He shot a glance back at the wedding reception still in full swing behind him, his eyes darting, his voice stumbling.
"Leah's family was pressuring her hard, you know how it is. I'm just putting on a show with her. Don't make a scene…"
"Good for you."
I looked at Leah rushing over in a flustered panic, pulled a faint smile across my lips, and cut Hudson off.
He clearly froze.
"Good for me? Hildegarde, what's that supposed to mean?"
In my last life, two simple questions from me had sent Hudson into a frenzy that ended with him dead under a truck. That false, staged scene circled through my mind.
I swallowed the nausea rising in my throat, shook my wrist free of his grip, and spoke softly.
"The wedding's lovely."
"I won't bother with a gift. Congratulations on the marriage."
With that, I turned to leave.
Hudson was still standing there stunned, but behind me came Leah's voice, thick with tears.
"Hildegarde, are you angry with me?"
Those three bitter years from my last life surfaced again in my mind.
Here and now, I refused to give these two snakes one more chance to stage a fake death.
So I turned around at once and pulled a smile onto my face.
"Not at all. Hudson already said he was just putting on a show with you. What is there to be angry about…"
"It's not a show."
Leah cut me off, stepped forward, and took my hand.
"I love Hudson. This wedding is real. We mean every bit of it."
Hudson clearly hadn't expected Leah to say that.
A flash of alarm crossed his eyes, and he stepped forward to explain,
but Leah spun around instantly, staring at him through misty, tear-filled eyes, her voice breaking.
"Hudson, don't you love me?"
One sentence, and the guilt in Hudson's eyes melted into tenderness.
Leah turned back to look at me. She was still sobbing, but the arrogance underneath had only grown sharper,
wearing the look of a woman who meant to take my husband today and dared me to do anything about it.
