I laughed harder. “Wilbert will never love you, Nivianne. Not now, not ever. He has never once looked at you the way a man looks at a woman. Childhood sweethearts? You’re nothing but his shadow. He’ll never love you.”
“Shut up!” she screamed, her mask cracking. She lunged at me, yanking my hair and slamming my neck against the railing. My back bent painfully, and I felt her grip tighten. My vision darkened, but I still managed to choke out, “I am Wilbert’s wife. You can’t change that. As long as I live, you’ll never take my place.”
That broke her. Her eyes went wild. “Why wouldn’t I dare? Your father, your brother—they’re ruined because of me already. One more won’t matter. Wilbert has always been mine. Always protecting me, always choosing me. How could I lose to you, a stranger who walked into his life?”
Then she shoved me.
I fell hard, my body twisting, the sound swallowed by the party music. The cold sea wrapped around me, and I let it. I pressed the tiny signal in my palm, the one I had kept hidden. My lungs burned, but I didn’t fight it.
This was it. My escape. From him. From her. From all the darkness.
And as the water dragged me down, I thought—finally, I am free.
