I endured the pain and asked with steady calm, "Tell me, Luca York, what exactly do I still owe you? I’ll repay every last bit."
He opened his mouth to respond, but his phone rang. The moment he glanced at the caller ID, his expression shifted. I did not need to look to know who it was. Who else but Lilian?
"Lilian, I’m at the hospital."
"It’s nothing serious. Zara had a miscarriage."
"You don’t need to come. If the reporters catch wind of it, it’ll damage your image to be linked with someone like her."
In the end, Lilian had won. I watched as Luca’s tone softened into a familiar smile. "All right, all right. I’ll listen to you. You’re always overthinking, silly girl."
When the call ended, he turned to me as he spoke with a cold voice, "Lilian will be here soon. Watch your mouth. Say the right things, keep the rest to yourself."
I nodded with mock obedience. "Don’t worry. Even if she hurts me just like you did, I’ll forgive her."
"After all, you’re protecting her. And I know better than to fight a losing battle."
Half an hour later, Lilian walked into the ward, her face hidden behind a tight-fitting mask. She did not even bother to take it off before she started. "Miss Yvonne, are you all right?"
I looked at her calmly and replied, "Do you think a person is ever all right after a miscarriage?"
“Zara!”
“No need to shout. I’m not deaf.”
I turned to Lilian with a smile. “Miss Yates, you’re here to gloat, aren’t you? How pitiful I must look to you. I, a woman mired in scandal, freshly out of the hospital after a miscarriage. The father of her child in love with someone else, the man she loved serving her up to others just to please that very woman.”
I saw my own hollow reflection in her sharp, venomous gaze.
“In your mind, what should I be like? Collapsing into sobs, begging Luca not to abandon me? Mourning the child I lost? Watching you win, consumed by jealousy, then lashing out like a lunatic? And you, standing behind him, protected and perfect, watching a pathetic clown like me flailing in vain?”
“Did I get it right?”
Lilian’s face twisted in fury and she forced the words through clenched teeth. “Miss Yvonne, why do you always think everything revolves around me?”
She was standing close, her back to Luca. So when she suddenly screamed and fell, he rushed over in a rage and struck me without hesitation.