The antiseptic smell of the hospital room was suffocating. Amara lay perfectly still, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow. To the machines hooked up to her, she was drifting in a heavy, medicated sleep.
To the two people standing at the foot of her bed, she was an obstacle they finally thought they had broken.
"I should have kept a closer eye on Seren," Elara's voice whimpered, thick with the oily sweetness of fake tears. "It's my fault, Mr. Creed. Please... you should punish me for this."
Amara's skin crawled. Even through the throb of the bandage wrapped around her head, she could hear the flirtatious undertone in Elara's "confession."
"Do you really think I'd do that?" Sebastian's voice was a low, soothing rumble, but it didn't hold a fraction of the worry he had used on Amara for ten years. "Especially not when you're carrying our child right now."
"I know... but I'd still rather it was me who got hurt," Elara sighed. "So you wouldn't have to be so worried."
"Silly girl," Sebastian murmured. Amara could hear the rustle of fabric he was touching her. "Do you really think I wouldn't worry about you? Go and rest. You've had a shock."
"But what if she what if Amara wakes up and resents me?" Elara's voice sharpened, the fake tears replaced by a calculated edge. "What if she tries to get revenge?"
A short, cold laugh escaped Sebastian's throat. It was the sound of a man who thought he owned every piece on the board. "She won't. Amara isn't that kind of person. She's soft, Elara. She's spent ten years been pampered. She doesn't have the teeth for revenge."
"I'm just being paranoid, I guess," Elara whispered. "But I'm scared. I'm really scared she will try to take it out on our baby. I deserve the blame for the accident, but I can't lose this child."
"Don't worry," Sebastian said, and his voice took on a terrifying, protective steel. "I won't let anyone hurt you. Not even her."
"My love," Elara purred. "You're the best."
The silence that followed was broken only by the steady beep-beep-beep of the heart monitor. Sebastian and Elara eventually slipped out of the room, their footsteps fading down the sterilized hallway.
In the dark, Amara's eyes snapped open.
She's soft. Sebastian's words echoed in her mind, more painful than the gash on her forehead. He thought he knew her. He thought he had spent a decade molding her into a woman who couldn't fight back. He thought she was a "lucky" wife who would forgive him because she had nowhere else to go.
Amara reached up and slowly ripped the IV tape from the back of her hand. She stared at the small drop of blood welling on her skin.
"You're right, Sebastian," she whispered into the empty room, her voice a cold, sharp blade. "Amara isn't the kind of person to seek revenge. But the woman you've turned her into? She's going to burn your world to the ground."
The door creaked open, and Sebastian stepped back in, his face instantly shifting from the cold lover he was with Elara to the doting husband he played for Amara. He rushed to the bedside, reaching for her hand with a look of practiced agony.
"You're awake," he breathed, his voice trembling with a faux-relief that made Amara's stomach turn. "Dear, does it hurt anywhere? I was so worried."
Amara didn't pull her hand away. She let it lie there, cold and limp, like a dead thing. "Yes," she whispered, her voice rasping. "It feels awful. Everywhere. My head, my heart... everything."
Sebastian leaned in, about to kiss her forehead, but her next words stopped him cold.
"I'm suing Elara," Amara said, her eyes locking onto his with a terrifying stillness. "I'm suing her for intentional harm. She pushed that frame, Sebastian. She tried to kill me."
The mask of the concerned husband didn't just slip, it shattered. Sebastian's grip on her hand tightened, his fingers digging into her skin. "What are you saying?" he snapped, his voice sharp and dangerous. "Elara didn't hurt you. It was an accident. Seren tripped."
"Do you realize I nearly died?" Amara's voice rose, a sob finally breaking through the wall of her anger. Tears tracked through the dried blood on her cheeks. "You keep saying you love me. You've told me for ten years that I'm your world. But why didn't you protect me? When that frame fell, you looked right at me... and you let go. You chose them."
Sebastian flinched as if she had slapped him. For a second, guilt flickered in his eyes, but it was quickly swallowed by his need for control.
"I was protecting a child, Amara! Don't be hysterical," he hissed, leaning over her, his shadow looming large against the hospital walls. "You're confused because of the head injury. You're not suing anyone. You're going to rest, and we are going to forget this ever happened."
Amara looked at him, really looked at him and saw the monster behind the "first love." He wasn't even apologizing for leaving her to bleed. He was protecting his secret family right in front of her face.
"I won't forget," Amara whispered, her tears stopping as a cold, hard clarity took over. "I will never forget the way you looked at me while I was falling."