I frowned. "I'll say it one more time. I'm already married."
He thought I was still angry.
"You say you're married, then tell me, who did you marry?!"
"Don't tell me it's that monster Joseph Gilbert?"
"Yes."
"Don't make me laugh. Why would a man like him want a woman like you, someone who's been humiliated?"
"Apologize to Letitia right now, or I'll make your secret public!"
"I'll post it to every group we both belong to."
As he spoke, he'd already drafted the caption.
The headline read: "When Hilary Fox was fifteen, her stepfather subjected her to five years of physical abuse. By the time she was rescued, she was barely lucid."
His thumb hovered over the send button, a smug grin on his face.
Those five years were the darkest shadow of my life. I'd told only him.
Yet now it had become his weapon against me.
I was about to speak when Letitia suddenly bumped into his arm.
The next instant, the post shot out.
A flicker of panic crossed his face.
He tried to recall it, but someone had already taken a screenshot.
And they were tagging me over and over in the group chat.
"Hilary, is it true? Come on out and say something."
"No wonder you were always so cold to the boys in our class. We thought you were just stuck-up, but turns out you were being abused. Pretty thrilling, huh?"
A barely visible look of triumph crossed Letitia's face, but she apologized at once.
"Tyler, I didn't mean to. I just suddenly felt a little dizzy."
Rage flared in my chest.
I grabbed her by the collar.
"You deserve to die!"
She broke into sobs instantly.
"Hilary, please don't hit me. These past three years I've worried about you so much it left me with these dizzy spells. I just had an attack, that's all."
"I'm sorry, it's all my fault!"
She kept begging.
Tyler's eyes flashed with pity, and he shoved me back hard.
"Hilary, what are you doing, scaring Letitia like that? It was an accident."
"So what if people know your secret? You spent three years waiting on Joseph Gilbert hand and foot, so you're already low enough. A little more won't hurt!"
Letitia was still playing "guilty."
"Tyler, don't say that. After all, it was my carelessness."
Tyler comforted her.
"You didn't mean to. There's no need to feel bad."
He glared at me.
"Hilary, I haven't even settled the score with you for last time, and now you're scaring Letitia again."
I looked at him coldly.
"Tyler, you're going to regret this!"
With that, I walked straight past him and left.
Tyler watched me go, and finally realized I meant it.
I'd taken only a few steps when he suddenly called my name.
"Hilary, for the sake of the three years you took the blame for Letitia, I'll go register the marriage with you tomorrow."
"But you're not allowed to single Letitia out again."
I didn't stop.
I didn't answer him either.
There was no point.
The moment I got back, I was flooded with messages mocking me.
"Abused by your stepfather for five years, that must have felt great, huh?"
"No wonder Tyler wouldn't be with you. Did he think you were dirty? Can you even still have kids?"
"Heard you were giving Tyler grief again today. You can't even have children, so why don't you hurry up and step aside?"
I didn't respond. I left every group we shared.
A short while later, a message came in from Letitia.
"Did you see those messages, you worthless thing?"
"Do you even know, during those three years you took my punishment, I was once carrying Tyler's child."
"But he said he'd promised to marry you, so he actually made me get rid of it."
"You can't even have kids anymore, yet you cling to him so desperately. Don't you find it pathetic?"
I glanced at it, then blocked her outright.
