The Ultimate Betrayal: My Fiancé And Sister Filmed My Rape For A Headline Chapter 08
Nate’s hand closed without him telling it to. The girl in his arms screamed against the sudden grip.
He didn’t notice. His eyes were on the screen.
The footage was blurred, but he knew that face.
“How is this happening. She’s actually hurt.”
Vivian took the child back fast, her expression complicated.
“Nate, maybe it’s not her. You could be wrong.”
He was already pulling free of her hand.
“That’s Claire. What is it you’re actually trying to do, keeping me from her?”
He was in the car before she answered.
The lights over the operating room hadn’t gone dark yet.
He stumbled in, nearly went down at the door.
“Doctor. You have to save her.”
A man who never bent for anyone, close to going down on his knees.
The doctor had heard it before. “We’re doing everything we can.”
Nate slid down the wall until he hit the floor. Something had gone out of him completely.
“How did this happen.”
He called his assistant. The answer came back fast.
“The man who attacked Mrs. Hale was one of the actors you hired.”
“He thought it stayed buried. Then the story broke everywhere, and he came looking for payback.”
Nate’s hand shook around the phone.
“I did this to her.”
He hit himself, hard, again and again, until his hand went numb. Then he cried harder than the hitting.
He thought it was supposed to be one meaningless scene. Vivian got her award, then everyone moved on.
He hadn’t counted on me being caught in it again.
Now I was somewhere behind those doors, and no one could tell him if I’d walk out.
Three hours later the doctor came out, face heavy.
“We don’t have the equipment here for this. She needs a bigger hospital. There’s risk moving her, but we don’t have another option.”
Nate had the ambulance called before the sentence finished. Rode next to me the whole way.
“Claire. Open your eyes. Look at me. Please.”
“You can’t do this. We’re supposed to get married. Have kids. You can’t just leave me here.”
I just lay still. The machine over my head kept up its steady hum.
Each beep landed somewhere in his chest.
At the handoff, the new doctor scanned my chart.
“She had a recent miscarriage. Is that accurate?”
Nate’s mouth opened, closed. “What. Miscarriage?”
The doctor pointed to the page. “It’s right here. You’re her fiancé and you didn’t know?”
Then he was gone, through the doors, already calling for the team.
Nate stood holding the chart. His head had gone empty.
My Cause of loss: blunt trauma during a physical altercation.
He pulled up the home security footage from that day.
There it was. His hand on me, hard. Blood spreading beneath me.
He dragged the footage back further.
Vivian, guiding the girl’s hand into a shove. Then pinching her, quick, so the crying would start on cue.
Something in him finally saw her clearly.
Rage and something worse than rage came up together, and took the rest of him with it.
“No. Claire. I’m sorry.”
He went down onto the floor, hands over his head, and broke.
His phone kept lighting up with Vivian’s name. How’s Claire? The baby’s running a fever, I can’t leave.
It landed on him all at once. She’d never once thought of me as her sister.
Only ever her own future.
Nate turned the screen off without a word.
The doctor came out.
“Mr. Hale. Your fiancée is stable. She still needs to stay for observation.”