The two people who once loved me were both interrogating me for the sake of another woman.
I crouched down and looked Sunny in the eyes：“Sunny, Mommy didn't push her.”
“You're lying! Aunt Lillian fell down! Daddy said you pushed her!”
Lillian was crying prettily, tears rolling down her cheeks like rain on petals：“Joe, don't fight with your wife because of me.”
“And Sunny, don't talk to your mommy like that.”
“It's all my fault. If I'd known that bracelet was her mother's keepsake, I never would have bid against her.”
She pulled free from Joe's arms and stood up on unsteady legs.
“I'll give the bracelet back to her right now.”
She walked toward me and, in a voice only I could hear, hissed：“You've been sitting in my seat for seven years. It's my turn to be Mrs. Delgado.”
With her back to Joe, the malice in Lillian's eyes was completely undisguised.
But for my mother's keepsake, I held my tongue and reached out to take it.
The next second, she slammed the jade bracelet against the floor.
Shards burst in every direction.
I dropped to my knees to pick them up. A fragment sliced my fingertip, and a bead of blood seeped into the jade.
Lillian's sobbing drifted down from above me. “Joe, I really meant to give it back to her. I don't know why I couldn't hold on to it.”
Joe patted her back. When he looked at me, all that was left in his eyes was irritation. “It's just a bracelet. It broke. Get over it.”
I stared at him in disbelief and laughed, the sound thin and wretched.
That was when the ground lurched violently beneath us.
“Earthquake! Run——”
Screams erupted everywhere. The crowd stampeded toward the exits.
Joe scooped Lillian up by the waist and bolted.
I choked down the bitterness clawing up my throat and rushed to Sunny, reaching for him so we could escape together.
He wrenched his hand free. His voice was shrill.
“You're so evil you pushed Aunt Lillian down!”
“You're a bad woman! Don't touch me!”
I stumbled back several steps trying to keep my balance and fell to the ground anyway.
Sunny didn't spare me a single glance. He ran straight to Lillian. “Aunt Lillian, it's too dangerous here. Let's go!”
His small voice was full of worry.
A sharp crack overhead.
I looked up. One of the steel cables holding the crystal chandelier had already snapped.
I tried to scramble to my feet and dodge, but I was a second too late.
The heavy fixture slammed into my back.
Blinding pain, then darkness swallowing everything.
In the last second before I blacked out, all I saw were three silhouettes walking away.
And Sunny's voice, brimming with concern.
“Daddy, take Aunt Lillian to the hospital, quick!”
“Her hands are all red. Mommy must've pushed her!”
Lillian had a few scrapes. I was the one barely clinging to life.
But neither father nor son spared me a thought.
Not even a backward glance.
When I woke, I was in a hospital.
A doctor pushed through the door. “Mrs. Henson?”
I nodded. He flipped through my chart, his tone grave.
“You're six weeks pregnant. You need strict bed rest for the next several days.”
“If something like this happens again, there's a high chance you'll lose the baby.”
My hand went to my stomach without thinking.
So the loss of appetite these past weeks wasn't stress. There was a child growing inside me.
“Mrs. Henson? Are you listening?”
“I'm listening.”
I pulled my hand away. My voice was flat, as though I were talking about someone else's life.
“My husband and I are in the middle of a divorce.”
“Schedule me for a termination. As soon as possible.”
The doctor faltered, words caught behind his teeth.
“Why don't you think it over tonight. If you still want to go through with it tomorrow, we can fit you in that same day.”
The door had barely closed when my phone buzzed.
I opened it. A message from Jordan.
【Hal Whitney at Crestpoint Capital is interested in buying the shares. Terms to be discussed in person. 3 PM, The Riverside Club.】
I typed back a single word, "OK," and several more messages popped up one after another.
