I glared at Geraldine, wanting to rip her lying mouth apart, but my hands and feet were bound. I couldn't move an inch.
She went on, her voice dripping with venom. "You lost Dominic, but then you got Thaddeus. I hated you so much for that. They were both so exceptional. Why did they have to want you?"
"So I took every letter between you and Dominic and planted them in Thaddeus's office under Dominic's name." She tilted her head. "Can you imagine how much he hated you after that?"
My head rang like a bell had been struck inside my skull. I finally understood where Thaddeus's hatred came from.
But Geraldine wasn't finished. "Of course, the letters alone might not have been enough. I needed him to truly despise you. So I made up a little story."
"I told him I'd always been in love with him, and that I'd asked you to deliver my love letters to him on my behalf. But you never did. You kept them from him because you were greedy. You wanted Dominic and Thaddeus, and you resented me for having feelings for him."
"Then I told him that after graduation, you performed a medical examination on me yourself, and that you deliberately damaged my uterus during the procedure. That I had to have it removed because of what you did to me."
Her lips curved into a satisfied smile. "I cried so beautifully that day. Tears streaming down my face like rain on flower petals. Thaddeus was furious at your betrayal, and his heart went out to poor, broken me. Everything that was supposed to happen between us... happened that night."
"Honestly, when I think about the performance I gave?" She pressed a hand to her chest in mock reverence. "I deserve an Oscar."
Then she reached down and loosened my restraints. "I'll give you a chance. Go ahead. Run to Thaddeus and tell him everything I just told you." Her eyes glittered. "Who do you think he'll believe? You, or me?"
Footsteps echoed from outside. Thaddeus was coming.
My mind raced, clawing through everything she'd just confessed, searching for the one thread I could pull to unravel her.
"Ahh—!"
Geraldine screamed. Before I could react, she'd grabbed a fruit knife and dragged it across her own arm.
"Thaddeus, help me! Help!"
She stumbled backward, eyes wide with manufactured terror, staring at me as though I were a monster.
Thaddeus burst through the door. He took one look at the scene and his eyes went red.
"Thaddeus, listen to me—" I looked up at him, desperate to get the truth out.
His palm cracked across my face before I could say another word.
"Geraldine just came to me in tears," he said, his voice shaking with barely contained fury. "She told me you two used to be the closest of friends. She said that even though you destroyed her, even though she has every right to hate you, she begged me not to hurt you anymore."
"She came here to free you. And you repay her by cutting her open?"
He turned to Geraldine, his expression murderous. "This time, I promise you. I won't let her off. She dies today."
"That's not what happened!" The words tore out of me. "Geraldine made it all up! She claims you removed her uterus? Fine—"
I seized the one point I could use. "Take her to the hospital. One examination and the truth comes out."
Crack.
Another slap, harder than the first. My vision blurred.
"She's already been mutilated because of you, and now you want to drag her to a hospital?" His voice was low and dangerous. "What's your plan? Rip open her scars and pour salt in them?"
Geraldine sobbed, clutching her bleeding arm. "Thaddeus, it's okay. Listen to her. Take me to the hospital. Let them examine me. Let them see whether I'm lying." Her voice broke on a hiccup. "I swear I would never deceive you the way Libby did."
Thaddeus pulled her close. "I believe you. I won't let this viper hurt you ever again. Not even a scratch."
He didn't give me another chance to speak. He bound me again, tighter this time, and sealed my mouth shut with tape. Then he draped a white cloth over me.
Within minutes, the temperature around me began to climb.
The incinerator. I was being wheeled toward the incinerator again.
"Libby Fletcher." His voice came from above, flat and final. "I'm going to burn you to ash."
He pulled the cloth away from my face. He wanted me to see it. The gaping mouth of the furnace, the heat shimmering in waves, my body inching closer on the conveyor with every passing second.
