Benjamin looked at her leg—at a red, swollen mark no bigger than a fingernail.
His expression changed instantly.
"Maud! When will you stop? Elise and I already have our marriage certificate! So tell me—who's the other woman here?"
I stared at him, stunned, and let out a hollow laugh. "Benjamin. This is what you call a fake marriage? You got the certificate and it's still fake?"
He realized his slip the moment the words left his mouth. Guilt flickered across his face before he deflected.
"All this over some worthless bracelet—you come here and assault people!"
"Maud, I never knew you could be this heartless. This selfish. This cold-blooded!"
My eyes went wide as Benjamin stormed back into the apartment. When he came out, he was holding the bracelet I treasured more than anything in the world.
He hurled it at the ground.
"You want your bracelet so bad? Take your piece of junk and get out!"
"No!" I screamed and lunged for it, hands outstretched, but I wasn't fast enough.
I watched it shatter against the floor, pieces scattering like broken teeth.
My head snapped up. I fixed him with a stare full of something he had never seen from me before.
Not love. Not devotion. Not patience.
Hatred.
Even through his rage, it shook him. For one brief second, panic crossed his face.
But the next second, Elise whimpered through her tears. "Professor Delgado, my leg hurts so much. Do you think it's broken?"
Benjamin snapped back to attention. He scooped her up and strode past me toward the stairs.
"Don't be scared. I'm taking you to the hospital."
He moved fast and hard, and as he passed, he knocked straight into me where I crouched on the floor.
I tumbled down the steep staircase and hit the landing below with a sickening thud.
People gasped. I called out, my voice thin and weak.
Benjamin never looked back.
Before my eyes closed, the last thing I saw was Elise resting her head against his shoulder, looking right at me.
Smiling.
In that moment, something inside my chest cracked open—clean and sharp, like porcelain breaking.
There was a time when Benjamin had protected me the way he now protected Elise.
When those trust-fund boys followed me, catcalling and closing in, and I was shaking with fear—he had charged out and planted himself between us. He told them to back off without flinching.
Then he grabbed my wrist and pulled me through their circle, and we ran.