That tenth time, I'd still walked away clutching my heartbreak, too afraid to interrupt their "treatment."
It wasn't until after I died, when my spirit refused to leave, that I finally saw the messages between Mamie and her doctor:
"I've been taking allergy medication this whole time. Oliver doesn't suspect a thing. Once I've seduced him completely and he can't live without me, that idiot Bernice Barnes will have no choice but to step aside."
Now, all I wanted was to slap her across the face and kick Oliver down a flight of stairs so he could feel what it was like to have every bone in his body shatter.
And what I wanted, I did.
I walked straight up to Mamie and cracked my palm across her face so hard that five finger-shaped welts bloomed on her cheek.
"Going to put on a show again? Trust me, you were a much better actress in my dreams."
They both froze on the bed. In every past life, I'd been the one who turned scarlet and fled in a blind panic.
Three seconds passed. Then Oliver's roar hit me like a shockwave.
"Bernice Barnes, have you lost your mind? Mamie is a patient! How could you hit her?"
"What dreams? Are you having another one of your episodes? What kind of delusional nonsense is this?"
I smiled, rolling my wrist. Collecting a little interest on what I was owed felt surprisingly good.
"Hit her? She's openly seducing my husband and plotting to kill me and my child. You're telling me she doesn't deserve it?"
Oliver's expression darkened, as though he'd just heard the most absurd joke of his life.
"Are you throwing another jealous tantrum? I'm just helping Mamie with a medical procedure. 'Seducing'? Do you hear how ugly that sounds?"
Mamie chimed in with a pitiful, tear-choked whimper.
"Bernice, I know you've never liked me, but you can't just make up horrible accusations. Is Oliver wrong for being kind enough to treat my condition?"
I turned my cold smile on Mamie and seized her arm.
"Mamie Winfield, aren't you supposed to be allergic to men? One touch from a man and you break out in hives, can't breathe, go into anaphylactic shock?"
"Funny how you were moaning and laughing like that just now. Sounded pretty thrilling for someone with an allergy. Or was the whole thing fake?"
Mamie's face drained of color. Her eyes rimmed red in an instant, and she threw herself into Oliver's arms, sobbing with theatrical anguish.