Diana didn't know how long she lay on the floor. It could have been minutes; it could have been hours. The cold from the hardwood seeped into her bones, but she barely felt it. She was numb, hollowed out from the inside.
The sound of Curtis's phone buzzing shattered the silence of the dark apartment.
She heard his footsteps pause in the hallway. He must have been on his way to the kitchen for water. The buzzing continued, insistent and sharp.
Diana heard him pick it up. "What?"
A pause. Then, a transformation so sudden it made Diana sick to her stomach.
"Carla?" His voice changed completely. The hard, angry edge was gone, replaced by a softness, a warmth that sounded like it belonged to a different man. "Sweetheart, it's two in the morning. Why are you still up?"
Diana squeezed her eyes shut. The endearment-sweetheart-hit her like a physical blow. He had just kissed her with brutal force, and now he was speaking to another woman with the tenderness of a lover.
She listened as his tone shifted to panic.
"What? Bleeding? Where are you?" Curtis was already moving, his footsteps quick and urgent. "Which hospital? NYU Langone? Okay, okay. Don't move. I'm coming right now. Just stay still, baby. I'll be there in ten minutes."
Bleeding.
The word echoed in Diana's mind, a cruel, twisted joke. She was lying on the floor, bleeding out the life they had created together, and he had called her a liar. But Carla says she's bleeding, and the world stops.
Curtis rushed into the living room, grabbing his car keys from the bowl by the door. He was pulling on his coat, his face pale with worry.
He walked right past Diana. He didn't even glance down at her crumpled form. It was as if she were a piece of furniture, invisible and insignificant.
Something inside Diana snapped. It wasn't anger; it was a desperate, final plea for acknowledgment. A drowning woman reaching for a hand one last time.
"Curtis," she called out. Her voice was hoarse, barely a whisper, but it stopped him.
His hand was on the doorknob. He turned his head, his brow furrowed in annoyance. "What now, Diana? I don't have time for your games."
Diana lifted her head. Her eyes were dry now, the tears all cried out. She looked at him with a terrifying clarity.
"I'm bleeding too," she said.
The words hung in the air.
Curtis stared at her. For a fraction of a second, his expression flickered-confusion, maybe. But then, his face hardened into a mask of absolute disgust.
He let out a short, bitter laugh. "You are unbelievable."
"Curtis, I-"
"You just couldn't stand it, could you?" he interrupted, his voice rising. "You heard me say she was bleeding, and like a jealous child, you have to copy her. You have to make it about you."
"I'm not copying anyone," she said, her voice trembling. "I lost the baby. I'm miscarrying. Right now."
"Shut up!" he roared, taking a step toward her. "Do you have no shame? Carla is in the hospital, genuinely suffering, and you sit there trying to steal her sympathy with a pathetic lie? You make me sick, Diana."
"It's not a lie," she whispered, but he wasn't listening.
"You're a monster," he said, his voice dripping with venom. "A cold, calculating monster who would use a fake pregnancy loss to get attention. I despise you."
He yanked the door open.
Diana watched him, a strange, hollow feeling spreading through her chest. It wasn't sadness anymore. It was the absolute, crushing weight of reality. He would never believe her. He would never love her. To him, her pain was just an inconvenience, a bad performance compared to Carla's perfection.
She started to laugh. It was a broken, breathless sound, tears streaming down her face as she laughed at the absurdity of it all.
Curtis paused in the doorway, looking back at her with horror. "You're crazy," he spat. "Completely insane."
He slammed the door shut. The sound vibrated through the apartment, final and absolute.
Diana lay there on the floor, the silence ringing in her ears. The cramps were still there, a dull, relentless ache, but they felt distant now. She stared at the ceiling, the shadows dancing in the corners.
She thought of her father, sitting in a prison cell, sacrificing everything so she could have this life. She thought of the baby she had just lost, a tiny spark of hope extinguished before it could even begin. And she thought of Curtis, running into the night for another woman, leaving her alone in the dark.
This wasn't a marriage. It was a prison. And she was done being a captive.
Slowly, agonizingly, Diana pushed herself up off the floor. Her body screamed in protest, but she ignored it. She walked, step by painful step, toward the home office.
She sat down at the desk and turned on the computer. The screen glowed in the dark room, illuminating her pale, resolute face.
She opened her email. She didn't hesitate. She didn't second-guess. She typed in the address of Curtis's chief legal counsel, Garold Nash.
Subject: Divorce Proceedings Initiation - Diana Wilcox.
She typed the brief message, her fingers steady. She hit send.
The whoosh of the email leaving the outbox was the loudest sound in the quiet apartment. It was done.
