My heart plummeted.
The cramps came fast, wave after wave tearing through my lower belly, sweat rolling down my forehead in heavy drops.
I stumbled into the bathroom, my body giving out beneath me. I collapsed on the floor.
My head struck the toilet with a dull thud.
Ernest never came to check. From the living room, I could hear the sounds of him playing a game.
I couldn't even cry anymore.
That was when my phone buzzed.
A text: Aggie, your dad and I booked a banquet hall at Phoenix Terrace. Bring your boyfriend along.
I wiped my eyes and typed back: "Mom, I'll come alone. We broke up."
I'd been lost since I was five. Three days ago, I finally found my birth parents.
They'd spent twenty years searching. The moment we met, none of us could stop crying.
And that was when I learned what they were—people whose power could shake this entire city.
Today was supposed to be the day—Ernest proposes, I bring him home to meet my parents. Now… forget it.
The bathroom door slammed open.
Ernest rushed in, face tight with urgency. "Is it out yet?"
I didn't answer.
He started tearing at my clothes.
I fought him with everything I had, but it wasn't enough.
I lay in a pool of my own blood, hands still clutching at myself, covering nothing.
Ernest held up his phone, the camera aimed at the mess of blood and tissue. "Don't worry, it's done. It came out. I can see it."
Maggie's voice came through the speaker. "Ernest, send me the video. I'll show my friends so she can't fake anything."
She was going to circulate it.
Panic hit me. I struggled upright and lunged for his phone.
Ernest backed away grinning, holding it just out of reach, filming my wrecked, flailing body like he was teasing a monkey for fun.
I looked at him, bitter and desperate to the bone. "Ernest, we loved each other for years. How can you bear to do this?"
His expression didn't change. "Do you have any idea what I sacrificed for you?"
"I begged Maggie for months before she finally agreed to let me keep you as my hidden mistress."
"The fact that I didn't dump you—that's already more than you deserved. How can you still be this ungrateful?"
A cry tore out of me. The room tilted and I collapsed back into the blood.
Maggie let out a soft laugh. "You know what, Ernest? I've come around."
"Agatha is just a little dog you once took in. I'm not going to get jealous over a dog."