Sabina looked at his leg, at a red welt no bigger than a fingernail.
Her expression darkened in an instant:
"Stephen! Are you DONE? Eustace and I are legally married! So tell me, who's the one harassing someone else's spouse?"
I stared at her, stunned. A bitter laugh escaped my throat:
"Sabina. This is what you call a fake marriage? You got a marriage certificate and you're still calling it fake?"
She realized her slip the moment the words left her mouth. Guilt flickered across her face before she deflected:
"All this over a stupid bracelet? You came here to assault people over a bracelet?"
"Stephen, I never knew you were this cold. This selfish. This inhuman!"
My eyes went wide as Sabina stormed back into the apartment.
She came out holding the bracelet I treasured more than anything in this world.
And she hurled it at the ground.
"You want your bracelet so badly? Take your piece of junk and GET OUT!"
"No!" I lunged forward, hands outstretched, but I wasn't fast enough.
I watched the bracelet shatter against the floor.
My head snapped up. I looked at Sabina with something she had never seen in my eyes before.
Not love. Not patience. Not forgiveness.
Hatred.
Even through her rage, it shook her. For one brief moment, panic crossed her face.
But the next second, Eustace whimpered through his tears:
"Professor Delgado, my leg really hurts. Do you think it could be fractured?"
Sabina snapped back to attention immediately. She wrapped her arm around him and swept past me toward the stairs.
"Don't worry. I'm taking you to the hospital."
She moved fast, ruthless in her urgency, and slammed straight into me where I crouched on the floor.
I tumbled down the steep staircase and hit the landing hard.
Gasps erupted from the onlookers. My voice came out weak, calling after her.
Sabina never turned around.
Before my eyes closed, the last thing I saw was—
Only Eustace leaned against Sabina's shoulder, flashing me a smug grin.
In that moment, the sound of my heart shattering was as crisp as porcelain breaking against stone.
...
There was a time when Sabina had protected me the same way she now protected Eustace.
Back when those untouchable socialite princesses had cornered me, trying to force me to accept their confessions.
She hadn't hesitated. She'd charged out and planted herself in front of me, her thin frame squared against all of them, telling them to get lost.