Now it was: "Lorraine. Yes, I relied on you. But that doesn't mean you get to let your family look down on me."
I stared at this man I'd loved for seven years. I'd told myself I would handle this calmly, rationally. But hearing him speak, my chest seized so violently I could barely stay on my feet.
Then my coworker's voice cut through the haze, sharp with outrage.
"Un-fucking-believable. So what I'm hearing is you're a textbook gold-digger who climbed your way up using her, and now that you've made it, you've traded her in for a younger model?"
She stepped in front of me, jabbing a finger toward the woman.
"And you have the audacity to make her the villain?"
"You really think you're something special, don't you?"
I watched my coworker advance on the woman, ready to tear her apart.
"And YOU!"
"Homewrecker extraordinaire—acting like you've actually accomplished something!"
My coworker jabbed a finger at the designer necklace glittering around the girl's throat.
"Unless my eyes are deceiving me, that little trinket was bought with MY friend's money!"
She was seething now.
"Take it off and give it back to her!"
She lunged forward. The girl shrieked in terror, but Roger grabbed my coworker's wrist and hurled her aside. She crashed into a table, sending everything scattering across the floor. Then I heard him roar:
"Lorraine!"
"Is THIS how you were raised?!"
The girl cowered in Roger's arms, tears streaming down her face like rain on pear blossoms—the picture of wounded innocence.
"Roger and I are truly in love!" she sobbed.
"He stopped loving you ages ago!"
"Lorraine! He doesn't love you!"
My coworker was still sprawled on the ground, but that didn't stop her from screaming: "I'll beat you both to death—you shameless cheater and your pathetic side piece!"
She scrambled to her feet, ready to tear into them again. But suddenly... I felt nothing. No rage. No desperation. Just a hollow calm.
I walked over and pulled her behind me, positioning myself between her and Roger. His expression shifted to wariness.
"Apologize to my friend."
Roger stared at me like I'd lost my mind.
"Roger." I'd expected this moment to shatter me—to feel my heart being crushed until I couldn't breathe. But watching someone else burn with fury on my behalf, watching someone fight for me... it cleared my head instead. "Apologize to my friend."
"You've gone insane!"
The words barely left his mouth.