Chapter 4 Sealing The Agreement!!
I crawled out of the restroom, dragging my body along the cold tiles as blood pooled beneath me. My throat was raw from screaming, but still, I cried out.
“Help… someone… please-“}
My vision blurred, the edges of the hallway spinning as a sharp pain twisted through my stomach. It was warm. Wet. Endless.
Footsteps thundered toward me.
“Oh my God–get a stretcher! She’s bleeding out!”
A nurse dropped to her knees beside me, pressing something against my abdomen. My body screamed in pain.
“Stay with me,” she said. “Can you hear me? Aria, stay with me-“}
I couldn’t.
Everything faded.
Voices echoed in the darkness.
“She’s lost too much blood-”
“We don’t have time to wait!”
“If we don’t operate now, she won’t make it-”
“Prepare the OR. We’re going in!”
Someone squeezed my hand.
“Just hang on, sweetheart. Stay with us.”
Then, nothing.
I woke to blinding lights and soft beeping. My limbs felt like they were weighed down with stone. My lips were dry. I tried to sit up, but a hand gently stopped me.
A nurse.
She looked at me like I might break again if she said the wrong word.
“Hey… Aria,” she whispered. “You’re okay now.”
I stared at her, my mouth too dry to speak.}
“You were hemorrhaging badly,” she said softly. “The doctor… had to remove the baby to save your life.”}
My breath caught.”
But no tears came.
I just stared at the ceiling, numb.
I had planned to get rid of the baby.
But not like this.
But once again, Austin and Mira had done their worst again.}
The nurse reached for my hand. “Do you want me to call someone for you?“>
I shook my head slowly. “No one to call.”
***
The following day, I was discharged and advised to be careful as I was still sore from the surgery.
The hospital air clung to me like bad memories as I stepped out into the sun. I took a cab home, hands clutched tightly around the discharge papers.
When I reached the gate, the house loomed ahead like a stranger’s.
I bent to pick up the mail by the front step and there it was–an envelope with my name scrawled in bold cursive.
Inside:
The divorce agreement.
I smiled to myself. One step closer.
I pushed open the door. No one looked up. Not Austin. Not Mira. Just the television humming softly.
“Why are you here?” Austin hissed at me, not even glancing my way, “I thought you’ve run away.”
“I live here,” I replied coolly.
He stood, annoyed. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what happened. You assaulted Mira in the restroom.”
“I remember what happened.”{
“Then you owe her an apology”
laughed under my breath.
Mira stepped in just then, all fake concern and soft eyes.
11:59 PM O
I laughed under my breath.
Mira stepped in just then, all fake concern and soft eyes.
“Austin, don’t pressure her. It wasn’t her fault. I shouldn’t have provoked her… I’m really sorry, Aria.”}
She extended a shopping bag toward me.”
“Please come with us to the company party tonight. I picked out a dress for you. I thought you might want to join us for a bit.”
Austin and my father scoffed at the idea.)
“She’ll be in the way,” my father muttered. “She has no use.”
But Mira’s voice was sweeter than syrup. “Please, papa. Let her come. She deserves to have fun too.“}
Eventually, they agreed. Because Mira said so.
Later that evening, I walked toward my room and froze by the hallway.
Inside Austin’s study, their voices carried through the half–open door.§
“I’m tired of pretending and hiding our relationship before her, baby,” Mira’s sad voice sounded.}]
I scoffed and was about to leave but Austin’s cold voice kept me frozen in place.§
“The bitch wouldn’t just die! Even after we sent the stalker after her she still survived!“}
I gripped the railing so hard my knuckles turned white.
They wanted me dead. They’d planned it.”
The night I almost died. They sent that stalker after me.
“Even after we still left her to bleed out on the floor of the hospital. She’s proving to be like a pesky bug that wouldn’t die!” Mira snapped.
“I have a plan. At tonight’s party, I’ll get her drunk and set her up with some random guy who would sleep with her and record it. Then we’d release the sex tape, I’ll divorce and humiliate her then I’ll make us public,” Austin said.
Mira giggled, “That’s a brilliant pian, darling, so even when she speaks out no one will believe the words of a shamed woman.“§
My stomach turned. I stepped away quietly, heart pounding.
Back in my room, I dug into the drawer and pulled out the envelope.
I removed the divorce forms. Folded them neatly and went downstairs to meet Austin.
“The hospital asked for a signature,” I said, calm.>
He didn’t even read them, he just glared at me, “What am I signing? Why is the hospital asking for my signature?”
“It’s my discharge form. They’re asking because you’re my next of kin,” I lied.”
My father and Austin burst into laughter as he scrawled his signature at the bottom of the paper without reading it.
“What properties do you have to make someone your next of kin?” my father asked mockingly.
“Please remove my name from there I can’t be humiliated like that,” Austin mocked and they all laughed.
I took the papers back. “Thanks.”
Inside my closet, I pulled down three packed boxes. Everything I needed to deliver to them at the party tonight.
I grabbed my phone and opened the single contact that mattered.
I’m ready. it’s happening tonight.
I hit send.
