One moment, he'd been all gentle persuasion, coaxing me to be patient.
The next, his eyes turned glacial as he roared at Bonnie, "Are you blind? Watch where you're spraying that thing! If anything happens to Hazel's baby, I'll skin you alive."
Bonnie's face drained of color.
I couldn't move either. My whole body felt flash-frozen, trapped in a sudden arctic wasteland.
The air went silent for a heartbeat.
Val finally seemed to register his own outburst. He released Bonnie and reached for me, flustered. "Renee, it's not what you think—"
I flinched away from his hand on instinct and bolted out the door.
He didn't follow. I didn't go far—just a few steps past the threshold, close enough to hear everything.
Without me there, the laughter and chatter inside drifted out in fragments.
"Hazel's carrying so high—definitely a boy."
"I had a gold luck pendant made for the baby, Hazel. Take it. This is the first grandchild of the Gilbert family."
"Val, you can't keep a tainted woman around. Girls as pure and kind as Hazel are rare these days. You need to treasure her."
"You're both still young. Hurry up and give me a few more grandchildren."
Val's voice carried a smile. "I know, Mom. I'll make it happen."
Hazel's soft voice chimed in, sweet as syrup. "As long as Val wants them, I'll give you as many grandchildren as you'd like, Mrs. Gilbert."
"Mrs. Gilbert? Call me Mom."
"Mom."
Laughter erupted inside, warm and familial.
I leaned against the cold wall outside, my heart carved open while still beating.
Vasectomy?
Another lie. Just another lie.
In that moment, the last flicker of warmth inside me guttered out completely.
I scrubbed a hand over my face, then pulled out my phone and dialed a number.
I went home alone and started packing my things.
But before long, the bedroom door slammed open. A brutal grip seized my arm and wrenched me out.
I barely caught my balance before I met Val's bloodshot eyes.
"Renee Summers." His voice was barely human. "Just because you're filthy, you have to drag Hazel down with you? When did you become this vicious?"
I frowned. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Hazel stood nearby, tears still glistening on her cheeks. She pointed a trembling finger at a phone on the coffee table, voice breaking with sobs. "Renee, why would you post those things online? Saying I was kidnapped, that I was so scared they'd kill me I... I stripped to seduce the kidnappers? That I'm carrying some stranger's bastard?"
Her breath hitched. "This baby is innocent. This baby is a product of love between me and his father. How could you slander me like this?"
She collapsed into Val's arms, weeping so hard she could barely breathe.
I stared at this pathetic performance, and something in me snapped. I laughed—a cold, brittle sound.
"Hazel Qiao, why would I bother smearing you? How long are you going to keep playing these cheap tricks?"
"You have every reason." Val cut me off, his voice like a blade, his eyes heavy with disgust. "Because you're the one who stripped for those kidnappers to save your own skin. You're the tainted one. And you can't stand seeing any innocent girl stay clean when you couldn't."
"I accepted that you were carrying a bastard. Wasn't I good enough to you?" His jaw tightened. "Why can't you just leave Hazel alone?"
"If I'd known you were this depraved and vicious, I never would have married you."
I stood frozen, struck by lightning.
Val's contemptuous sneer. The smirk Hazel was barely hiding at the corner of her lips.
A thousand needles, all piercing my heart at once.
This. This was the man I'd loved for five years.
I laughed until tears spilled down my face.
Something about that—my laugh, my tears—seemed to snap something in Val. He grabbed my arm and dragged me through the house, shoving me into the pitch-black basement.
"Stay here and think about what you've done." The door groaned on its hinges. "When you're ready to admit you were wrong, I'll let you out."
The lock clicked into place.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
