Pain dragged me back. Moving felt impossible; every part of my body protested. I sucked in a breath that scorched my throat and tightened my chest. When my eyelids fluttered open, the world was all white—walls, lights, sheets—a sterile nothingness.
“Don’t try to move,” a nurse murmured, her hand steady on my arm. “You’ve got severe burns and fractured ribs. You must rest, Clara.”
My lips parted, but no sound came out.
“The sutures on your side are fresh,” she went on in a soft voice. “You’ve also got deep contusions on your back and shoulders. You were discovered outside, unconscious and burned. From the pattern of the bruises…” she paused, choosing her words, “…it appears someone inflicted serious violence on you.”
I already knew who had done it. My father.
The memory hit in fragments—the shove, his rage, the blaze roaring behind me. But it hadn’t stopped when I blacked out. He’d dragged me back inside, beaten me, screaming that Cassandra’s hands were too precious to be harmed by someone like me. He struck my ribs repeatedly. All because of Cassandra. Always because of her.
I had come back to that house hoping for family. After my mother died, my stepfather had offered to care for me, but I was forced to live with my biological father instead. They took me in for my mother’s insurance. At first they were kind—overly indulgent even. But once the money arrived and the forged signature was discovered, everything shifted. I became nothing again: just the space beside Cassandra, the other child, the one they favored.
“Do you want to call anyone?” the nurse asked, pulling me back into the present. “A relative? A friend?”
I shook my head. There was no one to call.
Alone, I reached for my phone on the bedside table. Notifications flooded the screen; I scrolled and felt my chest drop. Cassandra had uploaded a photo—her and Nathaniel, laughing beneath a shower of fireworks, glasses raised. The caption swooned over a romantic evening with my love, heart emoji and all.
I shut the screen off and pushed the phone away.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. They’d always been each other’s firsts—high school flames that seemed perfect from the outside. Before I entered the picture, Nathaniel’s history was already tied to Cassandra. When she left the country, he fell apart: nights staring at his phone, waiting for contact that never came. Weeks turned into months, months into years, and eventually she stopped writing. He stopped waiting—until I was there, quietly present, the one who patched the pieces she’d left behind.
He clung to me like someone drowning. He kissed me as if I were his last rescue. One evening, handing him a mug as we sat on the porch, he said, “Marry me, Clara. I need someone who won’t walk away.”
I believed him.
I said yes. We wed.
Then Cassandra returned.
Six months into our marriage she walked through the door as if she’d never left—white dress, curled hair, an apologetic shine in her eyes. Nathaniel froze. My hand in his slipped away.
She moved to him and whispered, “Nathaniel, I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have left. I was afraid and foolish. I’ve never stopped loving you.”
“He’s married now,” I said, sharp and stunned. “To me.”
But she looked at me like I’d stained her dress and turned back to Nathaniel. “You said it yourself. It’s always been me. You even wore my necklace when we were apart—remember? You promised.”
My heart thudded. “Nathaniel?”
He looked at me then, but his eyes held guilt.
“I never wanted this to happen,” he admitted. “Maybe we rushed things. Maybe I wasn’t over her.”
It felt like a slap. From that moment the affair unfurled—slow at first, then brazen. They stopped hiding it altogether.
My phone buzzed again; I picked it up, hollow and exhausted. A message from Cassandra read: “Hope your burns are healing fast! Don’t worry about Nathaniel. We’re enjoying our little business-and-leisure getaway.” Then a video attachment. I shouldn’t have opened it, but I knew what it would be—Nathaniel kissing her, touching her, the sounds she used to humiliate me. This wasn’t the first time she’d sent such clips; I’d lost count of how many times she’d weaponized them against me.
The day drifted by. When the doctor finally signed my discharge papers, I dressed slowly, wrapping myself in the bulky cardigan I’d left in the hospital locker.
Arriving home, I stepped inside to find Cassandra and Nathaniel in the living room surrounded by shopping bags. “We’re back!” Cassandra chirped, sweet as ever. “I brought you something!” She tossed a small gift bag at me.
Inside, a tacky, glittery pink keychain—childish. “No thanks,” I said, placing it aside.
Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed. “Is that how you receive gifts? Where’s your appreciation?”
I met his stare. “Thanks,” I said, voice cool, and moved past him.
Under his breath he muttered, “Ungrateful brat.”
I ignored him and lit a candle at the small hallway altar. It was the anniversary of my mother’s death; the urn sat on the shelf—a reminder that someone once truly loved me.
But as I looked, my heart froze. The urn was gone and in its place—flowers. I bolted into the living room, shouting, “Where are my mother’s ashes? Why are there flowers in the urn?”
Cassandra looked up, sipping juice casually. “Oh, that? I emptied it. It matched the new living room set so I turned it into a vase.”
“You what?!” My voice cracked.
She shrugged, grinning. “I put the ashes in a plastic bag for now. You can find them in the trash, but don’t worry—I’ll buy a new urn. What do you think?”
I screamed, the sound tearing the air.
“You bitch!” I lunged, grabbing at her hair, slapping her until my hands stung. “You will pay for this!”
She screeched, theatrically writhing. “You psycho! Get off me!”
