Damon. I once thought he was my salvation.
When my parents and my childhood friend, Caleb Bauer, abandoned me for Delia, Damon appeared like an angel descending from the heavens. He saved me from a predatory customer while I was working at a hotel. When my parents threw me out, he found me wandering in a snowstorm and took me in.
Even when he met Delia, he never wavered. He told my parents and Caleb that he didn't believe I deliberately caused my sister's disappearance.
But on our wedding day, Delia pulled out a small wooden flute. Damon's eyes lit up as he gripped her hand and said he'd been searching for her for ten years. From that moment on, no matter what I did, if Delia was there, I was in the wrong. Even the child I carried became a mistake.
Pinned to the cold operating table, I lay there, quiet as a corpse. Damon looked surprised.
“Finally gave up? Could've saved yourself all this trouble if you'd done it sooner.”
I glanced at my limbs, bruised and swollen from the struggle, then said, voice calm, “Give me a divorce, Damon.”
The system kept urging me to cut ties anyway, even when I refused the last mission.
“What did you say?” Damon asked, stunned.
I knew why he was shocked. It was because when he wanted to divorce me for Delia and offered me an astronomical sum as compensation, I never budged.
Even when he completely disregarded me and humiliated me repeatedly in front of others, I never once mentioned divorce.
“Let’s get divorce. I don’t want to have anything to do with you. At least... don't let the baby die by its father's hand.”
His eyes widened, then hardened into a sneer. “Don't try to guilt-trip me. I hired the best doctors. That bastard won't die.”
He shot me cold look, “Not everyone is as heartless as you, using a child as a bargaining chip.” Pain, sharp and unrelenting, sliced through me, but I no longer cared.
“You’ve always wanted your freedom, haven’t you?” I whispered. “Now you can have it. Besides, I don’t want my child to have a cruel father like you!”
He stared at me, eyes narrowing as if trying to determine whether I was bluffing.
“Just sign it!” Caleb, my childhood friend and second mission target, called from across the room.
“What are you waiting for?” Caleb cut in, impatient. “The longer you wait, the longer you delay Delia's treatment. We’re running out of time.”
Damon snatched the pen from his secretary and signed the divorce agreement. He threw the papers onto my chest. “You're the one at fault here. So, don't expect a penny.”
I didn't bother retorting. Money wouldn't matter soon. I'd be dead within the hour.
The process would take an hour. Before the scalpel touch my belly I gave my belly a rub
“I'm sorry, baby” I whispered. “I couldn't protect you.”
A faint flutter responded, like a tiny hand pressing back. Tears blurred my vision.
Caleb scoffed. “Spare us the act. You don't care about that child.”
I stared at him—my once-gentle childhood friend who'd sworn to protect me forever.
“You promised me, Caleb,” I said. “You said you'd always protect me.”
He had. When my parents locked me up and left me to starve after Delia's disappearance, Caleb climbed twenty stories to bring me food.
“When we grow up,” he'd said, “I'll take you away from here.”
But Delia wanted Caleb. And no matter how many friends she had, she fixated on him.
At first, Caleb dismissed her. But after countless water deliveries to the basketball court, his stance softened.
“Maybe we misunderstood her,” Caleb said one day after practice.
I said nothing. He fell into awkward silence. That was when I realized his affection for me had already started to wane. He was still kind to me, but he was even kinder to Delia.
His favorability score, once near-perfect, dropped. He began skipping class for her.
Fought for her. Stabbed a professor when Delia claimed the man gave her creepy looks.
That professor had a spotless reputation, strict but fair. He only reprimanded Delia for violating the dress code. When Caleb's affection for me plummeted to 30%, he turned his madness on me.
One day, after his affection for me plummeted to thirty percent, he showed up after school with a bag of my favorite snacks. I didn't suspect anything when he offered me a ride. He took me to an abandoned warehouse and locked the door.
“It was you, wasn't it? You leaked Delia's nudes,” he hissed. “Did you know that she got that old geezer leering at her because of those photos? You wanted to ruin her, didn't you?”
Before I could explain, he ripped off my jacket and snapped photo after photo of me in my underwear.
“Enjoy the attention,” he spat. “Maybe now you'll know what it feels like to be called a slut.”
He left me half-naked on the concrete.
That night, a vagrant found me. I fought, caved his skull in with a brick and fled.
When my parents came to get me from the police station, Caleb was already there, telling the officers I'd stripped naked to seduce him.
The rumor spread like wildfire across campus.
Everyone called me a whore. Every creep thought they had the right to grope me in passing.
I survived the rest of college, trembling through each day. I finally got into a top graduate program abroad.
But Caleb claimed I'd drugged Delia during the entrance exams to sabotage her performance.
He cornered me, waving those photos in my face, threatening to spread them if I didn't give up my spot.
So, I did.
My only hope shattered. Even retaking the exams became impossible—he made sure of it.
All because he feared I might get into grad school and hurt Delia again. So I scraped by with odd jobs, just trying to survive. But Caleb never stopped. Whenever I found stable work, he'd send thugs to cause trouble until I was fired.
It didn’t stop until I met Damon. Caleb backed off only because Delia wanted to use me to get closer to him. Even though she didn’t love Damon, Caleb still sacrificed everything for her.
Just like now. He was willing to risk losing his medical license to carve out my child—just to save Delia.
Hearing me mention his childhood promise, Caleb’s sneer deepened.
He let out a cold laugh. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. You think you’re worthy of being protected?”
