The sharp sting hit my mouth just as I heard Vincent speak, his voice laced with cold：
“Gay, you've crossed the line.”
“Today is an important day for Eudora. You shouldn't have done that.”
“Apologize to her.”
“Oh, it's fine, really! Today's Gay's birthday too. Gay, just eat the birthday cake, and we'll put this whole thing behind us.”
“After all, I truly hope you……happy birthday.”
Eudora leaned into Vincent's arms and blinked at me, the malice in her eyes barely contained.
I said nothing.
Vincent lost patience first. He stepped forward, picked up the slice of cake, and crouched down in front of me.
Then he forced it into my mouth.
I heard him say：
“Eudora already swallowed her pride and gave you a way out. You shouldn't throw her kindness back in her face.”
“You've eaten the cake. It's done.”
I tried to open my mouth, tried to speak, but the strawberry cake smeared across my lips and tongue made it impossible to get a word out.
My breathing grew heavier. Heavier. Then I started to wheeze.
Asthma attack.
“My medicine……”
“My inhaler……”
The asthma medication was in a drawer just a few feet away. Vincent had put it there himself.
Back then, after I'd accidentally eaten strawberries and gone into an attack, he'd held me with bloodshot eyes, promising over and over that he would take care of me.
He was the one who stocked that medicine. He'd said：
“I won't let you get hurt again. But keeping these on hand is the only way I'll have peace of mind.”
And now.
I watched Eudora walk over, pull the box of medicine from the drawer, and hurl it into the air. Her voice was bright with excitement as she called out：
“It's been forever since we played hot potato! Who's in?”
Everyone looked at Vincent. I heard him say：
“Sure.”
Vincent caught the medicine midair, then tossed it casually to someone else.
A box of medicine that could save my life.
Thrown back and forth between them like a toy.
On one side, me, collapsed on the floor, face flushed red, unable to breathe. On the other, all of them, laughing.
Eventually the box landed back in Eudora's hands. She shook it lazily and snapped her fingers at Vincent：
“Same rules as always.”
“Pick a woman here and dump that bucket of water on her.”
The only women present were Eudora and me.
Vincent picked up the bucket, walked over, and poured it on me without a second of hesitation.
An entire bucket of ice water.
As the bone-deep cold hit, I heard Vincent lower his head and explain to me, a rare thing for him：
“Eudora's constitution is delicate. She can't handle the cold.”
But I could.
I opened my mouth to say something, but the next second my vision went black.
When I opened my eyes again.
I was met with Vincent's face, filled with a fury I had never seen before.
The slap landed before I could register it, and then his hand closed around my throat, his voice low and vicious：
“Gay, how dare you?”
“How can you be this vile? Just because you couldn't carry a child to term, you tried to kill Eudora's baby?”
“Gay, are you even human?”
Before I could process what was happening.
Eudora pushed open the hospital room door and walked in, her face pale and weak. She rushed forward and pulled Vincent back.
Then she choked out：
“Vincent, don't do anything rash. Yes, Gay was the one who set the dishes on the table, but we don't have proof that she drugged the food to make me miscarry.”
“Gay, she's not that kind of person.”
“Besides, we'll have another baby someday……”
As if suddenly realizing what she'd said, the woman clapped a hand over her own mouth.
When she looked up at Vincent, her voice was already thick with guilt：
“Vincent, I didn't mean to……”
He pulled Eudora into his arms, his face full of tender concern, then turned to me with a cutting glare：
“The child between me and Eudora was an accident.”
“But you? You couldn't even hold on to our baby, and now you're here scheming against someone else's?”
“Gay, what is wrong with you? How can you be this disgusting?”
His words hit like a slap. I stared at the man in front of me, unable to move.
In that moment.
Vincent was so unrecognizable it frightened me.
But he hadn't always been this way.
The first time the pregnancy test came back positive, everyone was congratulating us. He was the only one who couldn't stop crying.
He kept saying how hard pregnancy would be, how there was nothing he could do to bear it for me.
He said that more than the baby's arrival, he just wanted me to be safe and well for the rest of my life.
He said he was selfish. He said he only loved me.
Tears slid down my cheeks.
I tilted my head back, closed my eyes, and heard my own voice come out steady and final：
“Vincent. Let's get a divorce.”
