"You're a shameless tramp who threw herself into another woman's husband's bed. You think you're worth spying on?"
"This is my house. I don't need your permission to put up a camera."
Mamie's body swayed sideways, and she collapsed against the coffee table. Glass exploded across the living room floor with an ear-splitting crash.
She pressed her palms into the shards, blood welling between her fingers, and turned those pitiful, doe-like eyes toward Oliver.
"Oliver, it's not what it looks like. I only did it because I love you so much. I just wanted us to be together openly..."
"Shut your mouth!"
Oliver stood frozen, his gaze locked on my stomach. A long, terrible silence passed before his eyes drifted to the lab report.
Then he seized Mamie by the collar and hauled her up to his face.
"You poisonous bitch. I went out of my way to help you with your so-called treatment, and you repaid me by poisoning my wife and killing my child? Do you even have a soul?"
His hand closed around her throat.
"Why, Mamie? Why would you do this to me?"
"You were the one who abandoned me to go study abroad. I finally found someone who genuinely loved me, and you couldn't stand it. You had to destroy everything."
Oliver's eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging along his forearms. As his grip tightened, Mamie's eyes rolled back. Her tongue jutted out, and her body convulsed with violent, choking coughs.
Seconds later, her face turned a mottled purple. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes as she wheezed out a desperate plea.
"Oliver... I... I love you... truly... please..."
The instant her eyes fluttered shut and her body went limp, Oliver released her. He flung her away like something rotten, and she crumpled to the floor. He collapsed onto the sofa, all the fury draining out of him, replaced by something raw and wretched.
"Bernice, I'm sorry. I swear I didn't know."
