I stepped in front of him on instinct, wanting an explanation, but he shoved me hard.
"Nora!"
His eyes were full of revulsion. His voice, ice.
"No matter how big a scene you make, this is between the two of us!"
"Ever since you threatened her six years ago, Victoria has suffered from severe depression. The slightest emotional trigger and she does something drastic."
"I spent years nursing her back to health. And now you want to destroy her out of pure spite?"
"If anything happens to her, I will never forgive you."
The shove threw me off balance. My body pitched backward, out of control, and the back of my neck dragged across a shard of broken glass. Warm blood seeped out, wet and spreading.
Right before everything went black, I heard John talking to Anthony.
"Anthony, Nora's bleeding badly!"
"Call an ambulance and dump her at the hospital. Clean this up. Victoria can't handle the sight of blood."
I drifted awake to the sound of nurses whispering in the room.
"Miss Mason only had a little scare with the baby, and her husband moved her straight into a VIP suite. He's been by her side the whole time, terrified something might happen to her."
"And then there's this one. The glass nearly hit her carotid artery. Do you know how close that was? She's been awake for a while now, and not a single person has come to see her. It's just sad."
"How can two people's lives be so different?"
After the door clicked shut, I slowly opened my eyes and let out a bitter laugh.
My hand drifted to the gauze on my neck. Tears slid down my cheeks. I wiped them away and swung my legs off the bed to go find the billing desk.
I had barely sat up when Anthony shoved the door open and stormed in. He seized my wrist, his voice ice-cold.
"Nora, what the hell are you trying to do?"
"Lying to you was my decision. Victoria had nothing to do with it!"
"If you have a problem, take it up with me. Why did you have the media drag her name through the mud online, calling her a homewrecker?"
"She just woke up, saw those posts, and got so worked up she nearly jumped off the balcony. Did you know that?!"
His grip was brutal. The color drained from my already pale face.
I wrenched my wrist free with every ounce of strength I had and fired back.
"Anthony, I never did anything like that!"
He let out a contemptuous scoff and shoved his phone in my face.
The screen was flooded with posts calling Victoria Mason the other woman.