Eddie was moved to tears. "They've got such an amazing relationship."
I smiled. "Uh-huh. I'd agree with you if that man weren't my husband."
His brain short-circuited, even forgetting to cry.
"S-Sorry," he said in a small voice, seemingly scrambling to figure out how to comfort me.
"It's fine. I accepted this long ago."
Anthony's coldness, cruelty, and torment of me over the years couldn't be summed up in a few words. I'd already stopped caring.
But for some reason, something in me still shifted. It felt like there was a nameless fire lodged in my chest, and it was burning hotter and hotter.
Bang!
The ceiling light suddenly exploded. Maisie shrieked and threw herself straight into Anthony's arms. I was left stunned.
Next to me, Eddie gave me a thumbs-up. "Nice one. Scare the living daylights out of them."
I had no idea what had just happened, so I tried it again. But this time, nothing in the room changed.
"I'll go get someone to fix this," Anthony said as he stood up, gently nudging Maisie away.
She immediately wrapped her arms around him again. "Tony, don't go anywhere. I'm scared of the dark."
Anthony froze, his whole body going rigid for a good 30 seconds before he finally seemed to snap out of it. He ruffled her hair with obvious affection. "Okay. I won't go anywhere. I'll just get someone to clean up this broken glass first."
Only then did he leave the room.
A dull ache spread through my heart. I was scared of the dark, too.
When a burglar broke into the villa one night, I curled up under the bed in the darkness, too afraid to turn on the lights. I kept calling and texting Anthony, begging him to come home, but his response had been ice-cold.
"Can you stop being so dramatic, Willow?" he'd snarled.
I had no idea how I even got through that night. All I knew was that after that, I never once mentioned that I was scared in front of Anthony again.
Once Anthony was gone, Maisie was left alone in the hospital room. She sat up, watching his back as he walked away. The corners of her lips curled into a smug smile. There wasn't a trace of weakness left on her face.
"It's okay, Tony. I'm not in a rush. You'll be mine sooner or later," she whispered.
Eddie's eyes went wide, clearly scared by her two-faced act.
I was used to it, though. I knew Maisie wasn't actually sick. She just wanted an excuse for Anthony to torment me. Seeing me in agony and as good as dead made her happy.
I'd told Anthony about her secret after figuring it out, but he hadn't believed me. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that he wanted to torture me, too.
Anthony's parents knew that he couldn't let go of Maisie. To force him to marry me, they'd had her shipped off overseas. Because of that, to Anthony, I was the one who'd ruined Maisie's life. So whenever she felt the slightest bit "unwell", he would take it out on me and make sure I was miserable.
After his parents died, I tried to get a divorce, but he refused. He'd shoved the marriage contract in my face and demanded I pay a 20-million-dollar penalty for breaching it.
Thankfully, I'd died. I had nothing to worry about anymore. The one who needed to worry… was Maisie.
I looked at the smug, gloating look on her face, a chill flashing through my eyes.
…
The Flint family owned a share of the hospital. All it took was a single phone call from Anthony to have Maisie moved into a much more luxurious VIP suite.
The Flints had money and influence. It didn't take long for them to find someone whose blood matched Maisie's and get her transfusion sorted.
The two of them sat together, the atmosphere warm and cozy. But Anthony still hadn't found me.
Logically speaking, with the kind of power he had, tracking down a dead woman should've been effortless. Yet up until now, he hadn't found me.
Clearly, he didn't want to waste any real effort on me. He just wanted to force me to show up on my own so he could prove he still had complete control over me.
