Audrey Wolfe POV:
Weeks later, the air was still thick with the sticky humidity of late summer. Kaliyah and I were at Maya's actual wedding, a lavish affair held in a sprawling botanical garden. The incident at the bachelorette party had been a blip, quickly smoothed over by Maya's frantic apologies and Calvin's absence from the main wedding guest list. Or so I thought.
We were sipping champagne, admiring the floral arrangements, when I saw him. Calvin. He was already there, impeccably dressed, chatting with some mutual acquaintances. He looked… eager. Too eager.
A friend, Jessica, walked over, raising an eyebrow at Calvin' s presence. "Well, look who decided to grace us with his presence. And alone, too. Where's the famous Brea?" she teased, playfully nudging Calvin's arm. "Isn't she usually glued to your side?"
Calvin offered a tight, forced smile. "Brea's not feeling well. Just a bit under the weather." His eyes darted nervously around the crowd. He was lying. I could feel it.
Kaliyah and I exchanged a knowing glance. Jessica, oblivious, shrugged and moved on.
We found a quiet table in the back, away from the main hubbub, and settled in. Kaliyah, still furious about my past, was deep in conversation with another friend, laughing loudly. I felt a rare sense of peace, a fragile bubble of calm.
Then, a shadow fell over our table. Calvin. He pulled up a chair, uninvited, his presence a dark cloud over my brief moment of serenity. "Mind if I join you?" he asked, not waiting for an answer.
Before I could formulate a polite refusal, a guttural shriek ripped through the air. "You bitch!"
My head snapped up. Brea.
She burst into the garden, a whirlwind of disheveled hair, smeared makeup, and a white dress that looked suspiciously like a cheap knockoff wedding gown. Her eyes, bloodshot and wild, locked onto me. She was a hurricane of rage, and I was directly in her path.
"You snake! You home-wrecker!" she screamed, pointing a trembling finger at me. "You think you can steal my husband again? You think I don't see what you're doing?"
Before I could react, she lunged. Her clawed hand shot out, raking across my face, her nails leaving angry red welts on my cheek. The force of her attack sent me stumbling backward, my chair toppling.
"You whre!" she shrieked, her voice echoing through the stunned silence of the wedding guests. "You ruined my life! You made me lose my baby! And now you want to take him too?"
Calvin, to his credit, was instantly on his feet. He grabbed Brea, pulling her back, his face a mask of shock and fury. "Brea! Stop it! What are you doing?"
He turned to me, his eyes filled with concern. "Audrey, are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Before he could reach me, Kaliyah was there, pushing him aside with surprising force. "Get away from her, you piece of trash!" she snarled, then knelt beside me, helping me up. "Audrey, are you bleeding? Oh my God, look at your face!"
Calvin staggered back, his eyes wide with a mix of hurt and confusion at Kaliyah's shove. He looked between Brea, struggling in his grip, and me, bleeding, his eyes filled with a familiar, agonizing conflict.
"She's crazy, Calvin!" Brea wailed, pointing at me again, her voice cracking with desperation. "She's always been crazy! She's trying to hypnotize you! She ruined everything! Everything!"
"She RUINED everything?" Kaliyah spat, standing protectively in front of me. "You're the one who crawled into her husband's bed! You're the one who pushed her down the stairs while she was pregnant! You want to talk about ruining lives, Brea? Look in a mirror!"
Brea' s face contorted, a mask of pure hatred. "She deserved it! She deserved to lose that baby! She was cold and distant! Calvin needed me! He needed comfort!"
A cold, unfamiliar rage bloomed in my chest. The kind that made my blood run cold and my vision sharpen. "I was cold and distant?" I asked, stepping out from behind Kaliyah, my voice dangerously calm. "Or was it that I actually expected fidelity, Brea? Unlike you, who seemed perfectly comfortable with being mistress number one?"
My words hit her like a physical blow. Her eyes narrowed, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps. "You think you're so perfect, don't you? You think you're so much better than me?"
"I think," I said, taking a step closer, my voice dropping to a whisper that cut through the silence, "that you're a pathetic, desperate woman who built her entire life on another woman's pain. And now you're finally paying the price."
My words pierced her carefully constructed facade. Her face crumpled, her eyes filling with tears of rage and wounded pride. "You-" she shrieked, and then, completely unhinged, she broke free from Calvin's grasp, launching herself at me again.
This time, Calvin acted. He didn't just pull her back; he kicked her. A desperate, frustrated kick to her shin to stop her charge. Brea stumbled, cried out in pain, and then, with a sickening crack, she twisted her ankle, falling hard onto the cobblestone path.
A collective gasp swept through the wedding guests. Brea let out a high-pitched, agonizing scream, clutching her ankle. But it wasn't just her ankle. Her hand went to her stomach, her face contorting in a fresh wave of terror.
"My baby!" she shrieked, her voice raw with a sudden, primal fear. "No! Not again! My baby!"
Calvin froze, his face draining of all color. He stared at Brea, then at his foot, then back at her. The anger was replaced by a dawning horror. He knelt beside her, his hands hovering, unsure what to do.
"Brea, what... what are you talking about?" His voice was a strangled whisper.
"The IVF!" she sobbed, clutching her stomach. "The embryo transfer! It was today! You made me lose it, Calvin! You made me lose our baby!"
Calvin's face crumpled, a genuine, anguished cry escaping him. He scooped Brea up into his arms, ignoring the blood on her nose and the tears on her face. He just held her, a broken man holding a broken woman.
As he carried her away, Brea's cries slowly fading into the distance, he looked back at me over her shoulder. His eyes, filled with a tormented, pleading guilt, met mine. "Audrey," he choked out, his voice barely audible, "I'm so sorry. For everything."
I just stared back, unmoved. The image of him, carrying his injured, hysterical wife, was an eerie replay of another scene, five years ago. Him, protecting her. Me, left bleeding on the floor. Some things never changed.
Kaliyah, her face pale, reached out and gently brushed my hair away from my neck. Her fingers traced the faint, jagged line there. "Audrey," she whispered, her voice filled with a fresh horror, "what is this?"
My hand went to the scar. The story, the real story, was still untold. And now, it was threatening to unravel everything.
