Anya POV:
The antiseptic smell of the hospital room was starting to feel like a permanent part of me. The dull ache in my head was a constant companion, a reminder of Jonathan' s casual cruelty. I lay there, staring at the ceiling, the sterile white a canvas for the replay of his betrayal. He had left me. Again. For a staged overdose. The audacity. The sheer, sickening audacity.
My phone, miraculously, hadn' t been damaged in the fall. I picked it up, my fingers stiff. My social media feed, usually a curated stream of art and social events, was now a minefield. I found Kesha' s profile. She hadn' t posted since the "incident." I almost chuckled. She was probably basking in Jonathan' s attention, playing the damsel.
Then, a new post popped up. A picture. Her, looking fragile but triumphant, in a hospital bed. Jonathan was by her side, holding her hand, his head bowed, looking devastated. The caption read: "Thank you for saving me, my love. I don't know what I'd do without you. My heart is yours, always @JonathanG."
My breath hitched. A wave of nausea washed over me. He was still with her. Still parading their affair, even after leaving me concussed and alone. My fingers trembled as I scrolled further. There were comments, hundreds of them, from their mutual acquaintances, from Jonathan' s employees, all expressing sympathy for Kesha, praising Jonathan for his devotion.
Then I saw it. Jonathan' s official account. He had replied to Kesha' s post. "Always. You mean everything to me, my darling. Get well soon."
My vision blurred. This wasn' t just a slap in the face; it was a public declaration. A brutal, unambiguous endorsement of his betrayal. My heart didn't just feel broken; it felt pulverized, ground into dust. The pain was so intense, so suffocating, I couldn't breathe. It was a physical weight on my chest, pressing me down.
I lifted my hands, staring at them. They were shaking. What was I doing? Why was I letting this poison into my system?
With a sudden, fierce resolve, I tapped the screen. Unfollow. Block. Block. Block. Jonathan. Kesha. Anyone who commented. Anyone who celebrated their perverse love story. I scrubbed my digital life clean of their toxicity.
Then, I went to the Tesla app. The icon glowed, a silent witness to my agony. I stared at it, memories of their grunts and moans flooding my mind. No. No more. I deleted the app. Erased every trace. I didn't need to hear their sordid affairs anymore. I didn't need to know.
I felt a strange sense of emptiness, but also a flicker of something new. Freedom. A raw, painful freedom. This was it. The end of the emotional ties. My heart had hardened into stone. I was emotionally detoxing, cutting off the source of the poison. It was brutal, but necessary.
Later that afternoon, after signing what felt like a mountain of paperwork for my discharge, I was finally cleared to leave. My lawyer had already been busy. The divorce papers were signed, sealed, and ready to be delivered. The post-nuptial agreement was locked and loaded.
As I walked out of the hospital, the crisp New York air did little to clear my head. My driver was waiting, but before I could reach the car, a sleek black SUV screeched to a halt beside us. Jonathan.
His face was a mask of cold fury, his eyes blazing. He jumped out, slamming the door shut with a force that made me flinch. My driver instinctively stepped in front of me, but Jonathan shoved him aside.
"Where is she, Anya?" he demanded, his voice a low, dangerous growl. He grabbed my arm, his fingers digging into my skin. "Where did you hide Kesha?"
I winced, his grip too tight, too aggressive for my still-aching head. "Let go of me, Jonathan." My voice was barely a whisper, but it held a new, steely edge.
He ignored me, his eyes wild. "Don' t play games, Anya! I know you' re behind this! You always hated her! You always tried to manipulate things!"
"Manipulate?" I scoffed, trying to pull my arm free. "I' m not the one who cheats, Jonathan. I' m not the one who pushes his wife' s head into a coffee table."
His grip tightened, his knuckles white. "That was an accident! You were hysterical! You always become so dramatic! Just like that stupid car accident years ago! You always try to make yourself the victim!"
His words, those familiar, gaslighting words, twisted the knife in the old wound. The car accident. My near-fatal crash, framed by him as a manipulative suicide attempt whenever I dared to challenge him. It was his ultimate weapon, his way of discrediting my pain, my sanity. My stomach churned.
"I' m not a victim, Jonathan," I said, my voice gaining strength. "And I didn' t hide Kesha. I don' t care about Kesha."
He let out a humorless laugh. "Oh, please. You expect me to believe that? After you attacked her? After you finally got rid of her, just like you always wanted?" He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his phone. "She' s in absolute agony, Anya. She' s terrified. You' ve driven her away." He thrust the phone in my face, a blurred video of Kesha, sobbing, her face swollen, her voice choked with fear. "See what you' ve done? She' s scared to come back."
He lowered the phone, his gaze piercing. "Now, where is she? Tell me, Anya. I know you know."
My jaw clenched. "I told you, I don' t know. And even if I did, I wouldn' t tell you. You made your bed, Jonathan. Now lie in it."
His face darkened, a terrifying transformation. His eyes, usually so charming, were now filled with a cold, murderous rage. He shoved me against the car, hard. The impact jarred my still-healing head, a fresh wave of pain blooming behind my eyes. I cried out.
Before I could recover, he pulled something from his pocket. A small, gleaming penknife. My blood ran cold.
"You want to play tough, Anya?" he snarled, his voice dangerously low. He grabbed my left arm, pulling the sleeve of my pajamas up, exposing my forearm. He pressed the blade against my skin, hard enough to make a thin line appear. "Where is she?"
A sharp, searing pain. I gasped, watching in horror as a thin trickle of blood welled up. My body screamed in protest, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of tears.
"I… I don' t know," I forced out, my voice trembling.
He pressed harder, dragging the blade, deliberately carving a shallow cut across my forearm. "Tell me, Anya! Don' t make me do this!"
The pain was excruciating, a hot, burning line that stole my breath. It was a fresh wound on top of all the old ones, a physical manifestation of his cruelty. My arm was burning, throbbing.
"Jonathan, please…" I pleaded, not for myself, but for the sanity that was rapidly slipping away from him.
He ignored me, his eyes fixed on my bleeding arm, a perverse satisfaction gleaming in their depths. He dragged the knife across my skin again, another shallow cut, parallel to the first. "Where is she?" he repeated, his voice laced with manic desperation. "Tell me where my Kesha is!"
My arm felt like it was on fire. Blood welled up, dripping onto my pristine pajamas. My head throbbed, my vision swam. I felt faint, dizzy. My past trauma, the accident, his accusation of a suicide attempt – it all flooded back, making me feel helpless, trapped.
He kept carving, small, deliberate lines, across my arm. My once smooth skin was now a canvas of his rage, an ugly testament to his possessiveness. My forearm was streaked with blood, a grotesque tapestry of his violence.
"Still not talking?" he sneered, his breath hot against my ear. He dropped the knife, letting it clatter to the ground. Without warning, his hands shot up, wrapping around my throat. His fingers squeezed, tightening, cutting off my air supply.
My eyes bulged. My lungs burned. Black spots danced before my eyes. I clawed at his hands, but he was too strong. His grip was an iron vise, stealing my breath, stealing my life. This was it. This was how it ended. Choked to death by the man I married, over the woman he cheated with.
Tears streamed down my face, hot and silent. Not tears of fear, not of pain, but of profound regret. I regretted every second I wasted loving him. I regretted a lifetime of choices that led me to this moment, to this monster.
