"Whatever she says, you believe it.
"Even if I laid the diagnosis right in front of you, you'd still say I was faking, playing sick!"
"Naomi, I…"
"Enough, Zachary."
I cut him off.
"You make me sick.
"I never should have married you."
Zachary's breath caught.
He grabbed hold of me just as I turned to leave.
His eyes went red.
"If I've turned into this, it's because you were the one in the wrong first!"
I froze.
I stared at him in disbelief.
"Naomi, if you hadn't betrayed me first, why would I ever treat you this way?"
"What did you say?"
Zachary sneered.
"However disgusting I may be, at least I've never crawled into bed with my own boss."
"Crack!"
My palm landed hard across Zachary's face.
Sabina cried out and threw herself in front of him.
"Naomi, that's going too far!
"Is Mr. Harding wrong, though? Back then you were caught in bed with your boss. Sure, you sent him to prison afterward, but who's to say the price just wasn't right, so you turned on him and bit back!
"Mr. Harding is a man too. Isn't it perfectly natural for him to doubt you?
"If you'd only kept yourself decent, why would Mr. Harding ever distrust you!"
"You—!"
My hand flew up again.
Zachary caught my wrist.
He tucked Sabina safely behind him.
And looked at me with a cold sneer.
"What, hit a nerve? Ashamed enough to lash out?"
My fist clenched tight.
I glared at him through gritted teeth.
"Zachary, you've been doubting me this whole time…"
The day my boss dragged me into that bed.
It was the day before I was to marry Zachary.
That day Zachary hit him a dozen times.
He held me tight against his chest.
"Don't be afraid. I'll get you justice.
"I'll make whoever hurt you pay!"
In the courtroom, he argued the case point by point with the judge.
He stood beside me and helped put that boss behind bars.
He took me and moved us to another city.
The whole thing was sealed away, and no one ever brought it up again.
I looked at Zachary, my eyes rimmed red.
"You even told your secretary something that private."
Zachary frowned.
"Sabina isn't an outsider. She was on your and my support, after all."
I laughed.
"So that's why you believe everything she says?"
Zachary frowned and said nothing.
"And what if I really do have stomach cancer?"
"If you really do.
"If you die, I'll die with you."
The hand gripping my wrist trembled faintly.
I pushed him away.
"Zachary, you'd better mean what you say!"
Then I turned.
And slammed the door hard behind me.
On reflex, Zachary covered the ears of the woman in his arms.
I let out a cold sneer.
I didn't look back.
I stood on the empty street.
A dull ache pulsed through my chest, wave after wave.
I touched the front of my chest.
The protective charm my mother gave me.
It was gone.
I turned back at once.
I opened the door with that same old key.
I'd been gone only a few hours.
Everything in the house had already been redone, good as new.
Every piece of furniture that had been smashed had, in the span of a few short hours, been replaced with brand-new pink ones.
Compared to before.
The whole house looked, if anything, more full of life.
Even the floors had been wiped spotless.
As if no third person had ever set foot here.
I stepped across the floor.
Frantically searching for the protective charm my mother left me.
It was from the day I was diagnosed with cancer.
