“What did you inject him with? Answer me!” My fists clenched until my nails dug into my palms. “Wasn’t it enough that you ruined his life and left him like this? What else do you want from him?”
Nivianne jumped at first, then when she saw it was me, her mouth curved into a cold little smile.
“Enough? No. Not enough. As long as he’s still alive, people can drag up my mistake forever. If he dies, it all dies with him. And in a year or two, I’ll be the brilliant doctor everyone admires. No one will remember some surgery that went wrong. And even if you caught me here, what can you do? Wilbert believes me. He always will.”
Her words made my blood boil. I slapped her before I could even think. The sound cracked in the room, and she stumbled to the floor, eyes wide like she couldn’t believe I’d touched her.
“You… you hit me? Anika, are you insane?”
My vision blurred with anger and I lifted my hand again, ready to strike, but a grip like iron closed around my wrist. I turned and saw him. Wilbert. His face was stormy, eyes burning with disappointment, not at her… but at me.
“Anika! Enough!”
Nivianne scrambled up like a wounded kitten and ran into his arms, clinging to him and crying so hard her shoulders shook. “Wilbert, she attacked me. Please, don’t let her hurt me.”
He wrapped a steady arm around her and looked straight at me. His voice was cold, sharp.
“You’ve gone too far, Anika.”
I laughed, bitter and raw. “Too far? Why don’t you ask your precious Nivianne what she was doing just now? She was trying to kill my father. She wants to cover her mistake with my father’s life.”
For the first time, I saw him hesitate. His head turned slowly toward her, and there was doubt in his eyes.
And Nivianne, clever snake that she was, lowered her gaze, lips trembling, and whispered, “I… I would never. How could you believe her lies about me?”
Her voice shook like she was the victim, and I felt my chest tighten until I couldn’t breathe.
They tied me up and sent me to that so-called psychiatrist. I thought maybe it was real, but the second I saw the man’s eyes, I knew. He wasn’t a doctor. He was just some sick man Nivianne paid to break me.