The next two days passed like I was walking through fog. I moved through the house without really feeling present, only counting the hours until Madame Verena’s extraction team was supposed to arrive. I stayed out of Dominic’s way. I avoided Liliana completely. I didn’t pack a single meaningful thing—just what I was told to bring, as if I was already meant to disappear from my own life without leaving a trace.
But Dominic still wasn’t finished with me.
On the afternoon of the third day, I was passing by his study when I caught voices coming from inside. The door wasn’t fully closed.
“I don’t understand why she has to go,” Liliana’s voice complained, soft but sharp with entitlement. I could almost see her expression—lips pressed into a spoiled little pout. “It’s your grandfather’s eightieth birthday, Dominic. I’m the one carrying your child. I should be the one beside you.”
Dominic let out a tired sigh. “We can’t take that risk, Liliana. You know how Grandfather is. Tradition matters to him. And he’s always been fond of Sofia.”
“He’s old,” she scoffed. “He won’t even realize if I wear her dress and act properly.”
“That’s exactly the problem,” Dominic snapped back immediately. “He knows Sofia too well. Four years of marriage, he’s studied her without even trying—how she moves, how she speaks, even how she stays silent. If you walk in there pretending to be her, he’ll expose you in minutes. And if he learns about the divorce or the pregnancy before I secure his support for the CEO vote, I lose everything.”
I leaned against the hallway wall, a faint, bitter smile forming despite myself.
So that was what I had become. The only person in this entire twisted family who could still “represent” me properly was an eighty-year-old man I wouldn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to.
“So what, I just stay here?” Liliana asked, annoyed.
“No,” Dominic replied. “You can come. Just stay out of sight. Sofia will play the wife. You’ll be introduced as her sister. That’s all—for tonight.”
I didn’t argue. I didn’t fight it. There was nothing left in me for another battle. It felt like one last performance before the curtain finally dropped.
I changed into the navy silk dress Grandfather had once complimented during last year’s Christmas dinner. Before leaving, I picked up the gift I had already prepared for him—a vintage wristwatch he had admired for months but never bought for himself. It felt heavier than usual as I held it, like even the gesture was dragging me down.
I got into the SUV first, sliding into the front passenger seat. Dominic took the wheel, his grip tight, controlled. Liliana settled into the back seat right behind me, humming softly under her breath in a way that scraped against my nerves.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Dominic muttered as he started the engine.
The weather had turned ugly without warning. A storm rolled in from the coast, painting the sky in deep shades of bruised purple and grey. Rain hammered against the windshield, swallowing the winding cliffside road ahead and turning it into something blurred and unstable.
“Can’t you go faster?” Liliana complained from behind me, kicking the back of my seat. “This is so dull.”
“The road’s slippery, Liliana,” I said quietly, staring out at the edge of the cliff where the ocean churned violently far below. It looked endless, unforgiving.
“Nobody asked you,” she snapped back instantly.
A moment later, she added under her breath, “I’m the wife anyway. Even if you’re playing one for the night—”
Before she could finish, headlights suddenly exploded into view.
Blinding. Close. Impossible to avoid.
“Dominic!” I shouted.
He slammed on the brakes.
The tires locked instantly. The SUV lost control, skidding across the wet road like it had no weight at all. Everything turned into chaos—white light, rain streaks, the sound of metal struggling against physics. We spun once, then again.
Then came the impact.
A violent crash tore through the vehicle as another car slammed into us from behind. The force sent us hurtling toward the guardrail.
Metal shrieked as we broke through it.
The world tilted violently.
And then everything stopped.
Silence followed.
I gasped, trying to breathe through the shock. The airbag had deployed, filling the front seat with dust and pressure. My head throbbed painfully.
“Dominic?” I called out weakly.
The car groaned, shifting.
That’s when I looked down—and froze.
My entire side of the vehicle was suspended over nothing. The front wheel hung in open air. Beneath me, the ocean crashed violently against jagged rocks far below.
We were hanging off a cliff.
“Don’t move,” Dominic said, his voice tight and unsteady.
He was safe—his side still on the road. But the balance had shifted dangerously toward me.
“Dominic, help me!” Liliana screamed from the back seat. “I’m scared! The baby!”
Dominic unbuckled his seatbelt.
For a brief moment, I thought he was coming to me.
“Please,” I said quickly, reaching toward him. “My door’s stuck. I can’t get out.”
The vehicle creaked again, dipping slightly lower.
Dominic looked at my outstretched hand… then toward Liliana.
“If I move to pull you out,” he said, voice strained with fear, “the weight shift could send us over the edge.”
“Then pull me over to your side!” I cried out. “Dominic, please!”
“Dominic! The baby!” Liliana screamed again.
Something changed in his expression then. The panic disappeared, replaced by something cold, deliberate, final.
He didn’t reach for me.
He let go of me instead.
“No—” I breathed, the realization hitting harder than the crash itself. “Dominic, don’t—”
He shoved the door open. Wind and rain rushed into the car. Without hesitation, he pulled Liliana out and dragged her onto the wet asphalt.
“I’ve got you,” he said urgently, holding her close as he steadied her on the roadside.
The car shifted again, lighter now, the imbalance becoming worse.
I looked through the cracked windshield. I could see them clearly—Dominic holding Liliana, both of them safe on solid ground. I was still inside, suspended over the abyss.
And he was looking at me.
Watching.
Not moving.
“Dominic!” I screamed, my voice breaking into something raw and desperate.
He turned his face away.
The metal groaned violently. Another tire slipped past the edge.
For a second, everything held.
Then gravity took over.
The SUV tipped forward and plunged.
The world dropped away beneath me.
As the car fell, the last thing I saw was the taillights fading into the storm and my husband standing on the road with another woman in his arms—watching me disappear without stepping forward once.
He had once pulled me out of darkness.
Now he had decided I should go back into it.
