Taking Back My Life After My Fiancé And Best Friend Destroyed Me Chapter 09
Karma and Dawn
I wake up in a hospital bed. White ceiling. White walls. The smell of hospital cleaner.
Liam is sitting beside me, a container of soup in his hands. He looks like he hasn’t slept.
“Hey,” he says quietly.
I don’t need to ask. I already know from the empty ache in my stomach. From the emptiness that wasn’t there before.
“The baby?” My voice comes out cracked.
Liam sets the soup down. He doesn’t sugarcoat it.
“I’m sorry, Chloe.”
I stare at the ceiling. My hands rest on my stomach. Flat. Still. Nothing there.
The grief comes slowly. Bit by bit. Until I can barely breathe.
Liam speaks again, softer this time. “Babies are smart, you know.”
I look at him.
“Maybe this one took one look at who his dad was and said, ‘Nah. I’ll wait for a better deal.'”
A sound escapes me. Half laugh, half sob. My eyes sting but no tears come. I think I’ve finally run out.
“What happened to them?” I ask.
Liam leans back in his chair, a satisfied grin spreading across his face.
“Where do I start?”
“Maya’s been arrested. Your recording and Ethan’s recording gave the police everything they needed. She’s being charged for causing your mother’s death. Her lawyer tried to get bail. Judge denied it.”
“And Ethan—” Liam actually laughs. “He attacked you with a knife. They’re also looking at attempted murder and helping Maya cover up what she did. The board kicked him out this morning. No one backed him. His money is locked down while the police look into him.”
He counts on his fingers. “So to summarize: no company, no money, no freedom, no future. For either of them.”
“Three meals a day and a roof over their heads, paid for by the state. For a very long time.”
I close my eyes.
Mom. I did it.
It doesn’t bring her back. Nothing will. But the people who destroyed her will pay for every second of what they did.
“Thank you,” I say to Liam. “For everything. The cemetery plot. The lawyers. The hospital. I don’t even know how to—”
“Stop.” He holds up a hand. “I told you. Employee benefits.”
“Besides—” He sets the soup on my bedside table and taps the lid. “Eat first. Work talk later. You’re still my star designer. Can’t have you fainting at your desk on day one.”
I pick up the spoon.
The soup is warm. Simple. The kind my mother used to make on Sunday mornings when I was small.
I take a bite. Then another.
Outside the window, the sun is going down. The sky is orange and gold. For the first time, tomorrow feels possible.
I think about the past eight years. All the times I stayed quiet. All the things I let slide. The girl who kept backing down until she almost forgot who she was.
That girl is gone.
I set the spoon down and look at Liam. He’s scrolling through his phone, pretending not to watch me eat—but I catch him trying not to smile.
“Liam.”
“Hmm?”
“The sunset’s nice.”
He glances out the window. Then back at me.
“Yeah,” he says. “It is.”
For the first time in as long as I can remember, I feel something that isn’t grief or rage or fear.
It’s quiet. It’s small. But it’s there.
Maybe this is the beginning of something.
—
THE END.