Chapter 2

Elwin and my father went pale and lunged to grab hold of my mother.

Father's eyes were red as he roared at me:

"What are you standing there for? Say yes to your mother!"

"Do you have to watch her die in front of you before you're satisfied?"

I looked at them, numb, and all at once I was so tired.

"Do whatever you want."

Everyone froze.

I wiped away my tears, my voice flat and even.

"I won't drop the charges."

I didn't look at them again. I turned and stumbled out of the courtroom.

Back home, I dragged out a suitcase in a daze.

I couldn't stay in this house anymore.

But after packing for a long while, I realized how pitifully few things in that enormous walk-in closet were actually mine.

The cabinet held dresses my mother had bought for Millie Fox. On the vanity sat skincare my brother had picked out for her.

I went through every drawer and turned up only a few old pieces of clothing.

Everything else my mother had thrown out long ago.

She'd complained that my trophies gathered dust and were a pain to clean, then cleared the shelf and set out clay figurines Millie had shaped on a whim.

She'd even thrown away the wedding photos of me and Irvin.

Only because every time Millie saw them, she'd remember she had no parents to give her away, and it hurt her.

Standing there in a room full of Millie's things, I suddenly laughed out loud.

So there had never been a place for me in this house.

It was only today that I finally saw it clearly.

The lock clicked.

Millie pushed the door open and walked in.

When she saw the suitcase on the floor, the color drained from her face. She bit her lip, and tears came fast.

"Do you still blame me?"

I lifted my head and looked at the best friend I'd protected for eighteen years, and asked quietly:

"Shouldn't I blame you?"

"Millie, I'll only ask you one thing."

"You said what you gave Irvin was just something to set the mood. So why was what I drank a drug that paralyzed my limbs and knocked me out cold?"

Millie shuddered all over.

The next second, she dropped to her knees in front of me.

"Lily, hit me. Curse at me, if you want."

"I really didn't know it would turn out like this."

"I only wanted to give the two of you a special anniversary gift."

"I never thought Irvin would leave you and come to me over one word about my cramps, and I never thought you'd have an allergic reaction, that you'd be taken away and assaulted while you were unconscious!"

"If I'd known this would happen, I'd have rather died of the pain that night than call Irvin!"

She cried for a long time, and when she saw I still wouldn't reach out to help her up, a flicker of panic crossed her eyes.

Then she bit down hard on her lip and reached up to yank at her own collar.

"Then I'll take a naked photo right now and post it online, so I'm ruined too!"

"Would that let you calm down and forgive me?"

I stared at her, unable to speak.

Before I could get a word out, Irvin came charging in.

He snatched the phone away, pulled Millie up off the floor, and took off his jacket to wrap around her.

"Lily, will this ever end?"

He glared at me.

"How far do you plan to push Millie?"

I watched him standing there shielding her, and the last bit of warmth in my heart went cold for good.

"That night Millie had cramps so bad she couldn't even walk."

"Her parents are gone. In this city, apart from us, who else does she have to turn to?"

"I only went to bring her a heat pack. I was going to come right back."

"How was I supposed to know you'd go off with a strange man?"

"Are you telling me you did nothing wrong at all?"

My fingers curled sharply, and I looked at him, my face drained of all color.

Irvin's expression stiffened for a moment, then he quickly looked away from me.

"He took you away, so why didn't you fight back, why didn't you refuse?"

"Fine! Even if it's true that you had no strength left, then why didn't you hurry and leave after I did?!"

"You knew you'd taken something and weren't clearheaded, you knew a bar is full of all kinds of people, so why did you insist on staying there to wait for me?"

I stared at him, dazed.

He was the one who'd handed me the drug with his own hands.

He was the one who'd left me alone in that bar, already out of my mind.

And now he stood here demanding to know why I hadn't protected myself.

Millie tugged at his sleeve, her eyes red.

"Irvin, stop. It's all my fault."

"None of this has anything to do with you!"

Irvin's tone softened at once.

"You didn't mean for it to happen."

"Something like this happened to her, and no one hurts more than you do."

Then he turned to me, pleading, working every angle:

"Lily, it's already happened. Can't we just live our lives from here on?"

"I've already said I won't hold it against you, and I won't divorce you."

"As long as you drop the charges, Millie won't be investigated, and our family can go back to how it was."

"But if you insist on dragging this out, I'll have no choice but to…"

I twisted my lips and cut him off, numb.

"No choice but to what? You're going to force me to drop the charges too, just like my mother?"

"If I don't drop it, you'll threaten me with divorce, is that it?"

I took the divorce papers I'd already signed out of the suitcase and threw them down in front of him.

"Fine. Sign."

Irvin's eyes went wide, staring at me like I was out of my mind.

Then he snatched up the papers and flung them hard back at me.

"You really have lost it!"

With that, he wrapped an arm around the sobbing Millie and slammed the door on his way out.

The moment the door shut, all the strength drained out of me.

I braced myself against the couch and sank slowly to the floor.

The next second, a sharp pain tore through my lower abdomen.

The color drained from my face, and I clutched my stomach without thinking.

A terrible thought surged up into my mind.