My parents' marriage shattered too, torn apart by the other woman. They divorced.
I was devastated. All I wanted was to find my boyfriend, Jackson, and cry on his shoulder.
I pushed open the door to his apartment.
And found him tangled in bed with Millicent, my best friend, both of them naked under the sheets.
I found out later that it had started three months earlier, on the very night I'd had that fight with Arthur. She'd climbed into Jackson's bed of her own accord.
Twenty years of a sheltered, privileged life had left me hopelessly naive. I truly believed that sincerity would always be met with sincerity. That the people closest to me were as honest and open-hearted as I was.
So when I saw them, I broke.
I screamed. I lost control. I demanded answers like a woman possessed.
"How could you do this to me?"
"I treated you both like family! I would've ripped my own heart out and laid it bare for you. How could you betray me like this?"
Jackson scrambled for the sheets, yanking them over his body. The color drained from his face in an instant.
"You... why are you here? I thought you were helping your father with the company today."
Millicent shrank behind him, eyes rimmed with red, looking fragile and pitiful.
"I'm sorry, Lucille. I didn't mean for this to happen. Jackson and I are truly in love. Please don't blame him..."
Truly in love?
I laughed like I'd just heard the most absurd joke in the world. Laughed until tears spilled down my cheeks and blurred my vision so badly I couldn't even make out the faces of the two people in front of me.
"Millicent, how dare you say something like that?"
"Have you no shame? If you wanted a man, any man, I would've set you up. Why did you have to steal mine?"
I lunged at her and slapped her across the face, but Jackson shoved me away.
He pulled Millicent behind him, brow furrowed, his voice dripping with impatience and cold indifference.
"Are you done?"
"What's done is done. You can scream yourself hoarse and it won't change a thing!"
In that moment, I laughed and cried at the same time, sinking to the floor in utter despair.
"Jackson, my family is falling apart. My parents are getting divorced. My father's company is on the verge of collapse. I had nowhere else to turn, so I came to you. I thought you were the one person I could still rely on... and this is what you do to me?"
I turned to look at Millicent. The girl I'd considered my closest friend. My sister.
The one who'd taken a knife and driven it straight into the most tender part of my heart.
"Millicent, what did I ever do to you?"
"When you needed money, I gave it to you. When someone bullied you, I stood up for you. I loved you like my own little sister. And this is how you repay me? The night I was at my lowest, heartbroken after that fight with Arthur, you turned around and crawled into my boyfriend's bed?"
Her face flushed, then went white, then flushed again. Tears pooled in her eyes, and she shook her head at me.
"I didn't want to betray you, Lucille. I just... I couldn't help myself."
Jackson pulled her closer, shielding her more tightly. The look he gave me held nothing but disgust and ice.
"Since it's come to this, I won't hide it anymore."
"Millicent and I have been together for a long time. You and your princess temper, spoiled and high-maintenance, always living in your own little world. You never once understood what I actually needed."
"Being with you exhausted me."
Exhausted.
What a pathetic excuse.
Their double betrayal was the final straw.
I stormed out in a frenzy, but my mind was in pieces. I didn't see the truck that had lost control until it was too late.
The accident destroyed my face.
It nearly took my life.
The hospital even issued a critical condition notice. Everyone believed I was dead.
What no one knew was that, right at that moment, I was lucky enough to cross paths with Arthur Stephens, a man who had just lost his wife.
