The apartment looked different when I came back from the hospital.
I noticed it the moment I stepped off the elevator. The scent first—vanilla and bergamot, expensive and unfamiliar, replacing the subtle lavender I'd always preferred. Then the visual assault: throw pillows in jewel tones scattered across the cream sofa, a garish abstract painting where our wedding photo used to hang, metallic gold accents on every surface like Stormi had gone shopping at a boutique that confused expense with taste.
She'd redecorated the entire living room.
I stood in the entryway, my discharge papers still clutched in one hand, and took inventory of everything that was gone. The small ceramic bowl from our trip to Japan. The books I'd arranged by color on the shelves. The soft gray throw blanket my mother had given us as a housewarming gift.
Erased.
"Do you like it?" Stormi emerged from the kitchen, a mug of tea in her hands. She wore one of my cashmere sweaters—the cream one I'd been saving for a special occasion that never came. It hung differently on her curves. "I thought the place needed some life. It was so... beige before."
I didn't answer. I walked past her toward the master bedroom, then remembered. The door was closed. Not mine anymore.
I turned toward the guest room instead.
"Oh, I had your things moved," Stormi called after me, her voice bright and helpful. "The movers were very careful. I made sure they didn't break anything."
The guest room was small. A queen bed where a king used to be, a single nightstand, a closet that couldn't hold half my wardrobe. My clothes were crammed inside, still on their hangers but crushed together. My shoes were stacked in boxes on the floor.
I set my discharge papers on the nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed.
The mattress was thin. I could feel the springs.
I made myself stand. Made myself unpack one box. Then another. I hung what would fit, folded what wouldn't. My hands moved automatically, smoothing fabric, straightening hangers.
When everything was put away, I lay down on top of the covers and stared at the ceiling.
This room had been my office once. I'd taken calls with my father's executive team from the desk that used to sit by the window. I'd drafted the introduction email that connected Kendrick to the investor who funded his second acquisition. I'd done it all from this room, in secret, while he thought I was reading novels or planning dinner parties.
Now it was just a place to sleep.
I didn't cry. I didn't move. I just lay there as the afternoon light faded to evening, then evening to night, listening to Kendrick's voice in the living room, Stormi's laughter, the sound of their footsteps moving toward the master bedroom.
Toward my bedroom.
I turned on my side and pulled my knees to my chest.
I let myself think about the rattan chair, burning. About the photo albums, curling in the flames. About four years of building a man who had just forced me to prove my fidelity on an examination table while he stood in the hallway with the woman carrying his child.
I let myself feel the full weight of it.
Then I made myself stop.
I made myself breathe.
I made myself sleep.
The scream woke me.
It was Thursday afternoon. I'd been reading in the guest room, trying to ignore the sounds of Stormi moving through the apartment like she owned it. The scream cut through the walls—high, panicked, theatrical.
I was on my feet before I'd fully processed the sound.
Kendrick's footsteps pounded down the hallway. "Stormi? Stormi!"
I reached the bathroom doorway just as he pushed past me. Stormi was on the floor, her hands pressed to her stomach, her face twisted in anguish. The tiles beneath her were smeared with red—too bright, too viscous, wrong somehow.
"The baby," she sobbed. "Oh God, the baby—"
Kendrick dropped to his knees beside her. His hands hovered over her, uncertain. "What happened? What—"
Stormi's eyes found mine. For half a second, I saw it—the calculation, the cold satisfaction beneath the tears. Then her face crumpled again.
"She pushed me," Stormi whispered. "On the stairs. We were arguing and she—she pushed me—"
"What?" The word came out flat, disbelieving.
Kendrick's head snapped toward me. His face was white. "You pushed her?"
"I didn't touch her," I said quietly. "I've been in my room all afternoon."
"Liar!" Stormi's voice rose to a wail. "You said—you said you wished I'd never come here—you said—"
"I didn't say anything to you." I looked at Kendrick. "I haven't spoken to her since this morning."
But I could see it in his face. He'd already decided.
"Call an ambulance," he said, his voice cold and distant. He didn't look at me. He gathered Stormi into his arms, careful of the blood, his hands shaking.
"Kendrick," I said. "Look at me."
He didn't.
I stood in the doorway and watched him cradle her, watched her bury her face in his chest, watched her hand clutch his shirt with just a little too much strength for someone who'd just lost a child.
I watched the man I'd married choose her story over mine without asking a single question.
The paramedics arrived. They loaded Stormi onto a stretcher. Kendrick climbed into the ambulance with her, his hand gripping hers.
He didn't look back.
I stood in the apartment—in the living room Stormi had redecorated, surrounded by her things, her scent, her claim on everything I'd built—and I felt something inside me go very still.
Very quiet.
Very cold.
I walked to the guest room. I picked up my phone. I scrolled to a number I hadn't called in four years.
My mother answered on the first ring.
"Mom," I said. My voice was steady. Calm. Final. "I'm ready to come home."