‘I swear I never loved Jackson, and I never will. Thaddeus Winfield, you're the only one in my heart.’

The moment I heard my own voice,

every drop of blood in me turned to ice.

‘This... this recording, how did you get it...?!’

My voice shook.

Jackson stared at me, smiling like a man who'd lost his mind.

‘Camila, so this is the thing you swore you never did to me?!’

‘On the SATs, I turned in a blank answer sheet for one whole section, just so I'd end up at the same college as you.’

‘After we started working, that sicko boss of yours tried to take advantage of you, and I beat him into the hospital to get even for you. I got locked up a month over it, and lost the best job offer I ever had.’

‘Eight years together, I handed you every paycheck, just so I could earn faster and give you a home.’

‘And it turns out you never loved me?! It was my best friend in your heart the whole time?! Well done. Really.’

Jackson's eyes were bloodshot, his chest heaving with rage.

‘But I'm pathetic. I can't stop loving you!’

‘I couldn't help it! All I could do was marry you! And then do everything I could to grind you down! Only that way could I feel a little better!’

‘Camila, what you owe me, you'll spend your whole life paying back!’

‘For the rest of your life, I want you to taste that heartbreak every single day!’

I stumbled backward, unable to get out a single word.

Three years ago, Jackson's mother had been critically ill and needed a heart transplant right away.

A matching donor heart was found,

but even after we emptied every last dollar of our savings, we were still five hundred thousand dollars short.

At the worst of it, Jackson's best friend, Thaddeus, came to me.

He slapped a bank card down in front of me,

looked at me, one corner of his mouth curling into a strange smile.

‘Camila, I've been in love with you for four years, and you wouldn't so much as give me a second glance.’

‘Today, all you have to do is admit it to my face, that you don't love Jackson and never will, and say you love me, and this five hundred thousand is yours.’

‘Not only that, I'll make sure Jackson's mother gets the best treatment there is.’

‘But one condition. No third person can ever know about this.’

One sentence, one life.

I said it without a moment's thought.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine

that every gift fate hands you comes with a hidden price tag,

and whatever you came up short on before,

you always have to pay back in the end.

‘Camila, explain yourself!’

Faced with Jackson's demand, I couldn't force out a single word.

His mother was still in the hospital, receiving the best treatment plan Thaddeus had paid for...

‘Heh...’

A bitter laugh escaped Jackson as he turned and walked away, despair filling his eyes.

He'd just reached the living room when the front door was pushed open from outside.

My stepsister stood in the doorway, dragging a suitcase, her belly swollen large.

Stepsister, I called her,

but enemy would be the more accurate word.

Ten years ago, Naomi Stewart's mother took up with my father,

and just like today,

she showed up outside our door, leading Naomi by the hand.

On that pouring-rain day, my mother ran out of the house in heartbroken pieces, and a truck bore straight down on her and shattered her to nothing. She died on the spot.

Looking at Naomi's brows and eyes, the very image of that woman's,

I felt as if a huge hand had lifted my heart and clenched it tight.

‘What are you standing there for?’

Jackson's cold voice sounded behind me.

‘Help your sister bring her things inside.’

Jackson shoved me toward the door.

When I still wouldn't step forward, he spoke, soft and low.

‘Camila, take good care of Naomi. Help her raise the child.’

‘Once the baby's grown, I might think about forgiving you.’

Cold sweat crawled down my spine in an instant.

Even with the icy wind pouring desperately into the room, I still felt like I was suffocating.

I forced down the nausea churning in my stomach and turned to look at Jackson.

‘I don't need your forgiveness. Let's just end it here.’

‘Jackson, let's get a divorce.’

The moment the words left my mouth, out of the corner of my eye I caught a flicker of glee in Naomi's.

Her bright eyes fixed on Jackson, brimming with hope.

‘In your dreams!!’

Naomi's expression darkened in an instant.

The hand Jackson pressed against my collarbone snapped me back.

‘Camila, I'm not divorcing you.’

‘I already told you. I'm going to torment you for the rest of your life!’

‘A lifetime means a lifetime. One day short doesn't count!’

As he spoke,

Jackson yanked Naomi into his arms and kissed her, deep and smothering.

The sound of their sweet, sticky kissing swirled around my ears.

Clutching my clenched stomach, I bolted straight for the bathroom.

But the second I turned, Jackson seized my wrist.

He pointed at the kitchen, his voice cold.

‘Go cook.’

Looking at the madman's glint in Jackson's eyes, and the kiss marks he'd just left on Naomi's neck,

a helpless despair rose up inside me.

If I refused, who knew what sickening thing might happen.

I slowly pushed Jackson's hand off my wrist and went to the kitchen alone.

The crackle of the stove couldn't drown out the sweet sounds coming from the living room.

Jackson held Naomi in his arms,

shelling sunflower seeds for her one by one,

slipping a straw into her can of soda with practiced ease.

These were all things he'd once done for me.

I knew he was doing it on purpose. Doing it to sicken me.

Over and over I tried to look away, but I couldn't stop myself.

By the time the meal was done, it felt as if my soul had been drained out of me.

Naomi, though, was thrilled.

Looking at the table full of steaming dishes, she pointed at the TV.

‘Jackson, I want to watch something.’

‘Sure. You're the sweetest. Whatever you want.’

Jackson gave Naomi's nose a doting little tap and switched on the TV.

Naomi tapped away at something on her phone.

The next second, a piercing scream ripped out of the television.

My head jerked up toward the screen in front of me.

It was playing the video from three years ago, the one of me being assaulted by that old vagrant……

My body started shaking uncontrollably.

I shot up from my chair and lunged to grab Naomi's phone.

But before my hand could even touch it,

Jackson caught my wrist.

He picked up a piece of fish, set it in Naomi's bowl, and didn't even look up.

‘Don't move. Watch.’

From the speakers Jackson had picked out himself came the sound of my clothes being torn, and my desperate screams.

In that instant, everything I'd lived through three years ago replayed in my mind like a film, over and over,

and I broke down completely,

using every ounce of strength to wrench the phone out of Jackson's hand.

‘Jackson, have you lost your mind?!’

‘Give me the phone! Let go!!’

‘I won't!!’

Jackson's voice suddenly rose.

He grabbed the phone and slammed it hard against the floor with a ‘crack’.

The phone shattered, but the video kept playing on the TV.

‘Camila, I told you. I'm going to grind you into the dirt!’

‘What? Not feeling so good?’

Jackson shot to his feet and seized me by the collar.

‘Camila, say you love me.’

"Say it once, and I'll turn off the video."

A vast bitterness welled up in my chest.

Love?

After everything, how could I ever say I loved you?

"Oh, come on now…"

Naomi rose and hooked her arm through Jackson's, her soft, boneless hand stroking his back again and again.

"What's there to be angry about? Tonight I'll make it up to you properly."

"Didn't you say your marriage bed was custom-made overseas? Tonight I'll try it out with you…"

The fury in Jackson's eyes was swallowed at once by desire.

He yanked Naomi into his lap and sat back down.

"Fine. Whatever you want, you little minx."

He picked up his chopsticks, lifted a rib, and set it in Naomi's bowl.

"Eat up. You'll need your strength to take care of me tonight."

With that, his chopsticks reached again for the dishes on the table.

On the screen, the video kept playing.

Humiliation, shame, resentment, all of it surged up at once.

Something in me broke completely.

I grabbed a corner of the tablecloth and wrenched it upward with all my strength.

Crash!

One deafening smash,

and the whole table of pots and dishes slammed to the floor.

Naomi never saw it coming. A full clay pot of scalding soup poured straight over her swollen belly.

"Ahh…!"

Naomi let out a shriek,

jabbing a finger at me, spitting through her teeth,

"Camila, you're trying to kill my baby…!"

I was about to speak

when Jackson lunged forward, swung his arm up, and slapped me across the face.

"Bitch!"

Jackson glared at me, eyes bloodshot and fixed on mine,

his voice cold as if steeped in poison.

"Camila, if anything happens to the baby in Naomi's belly, I'll make you suffer a thousand times over!"

With that, Jackson scooped Naomi up and left,

and this time he slammed the door hard behind him.

Watching Jackson's back as he walked away without hesitation,

Thaddeus's words from three years ago rose in my mind,

"You are not to tell anyone about this. Unless you die, I will make the truth known."

I looked at the shattered porcelain scattered across the floor, and I smiled.

I picked out the sharpest shard on the ground, brought it slowly to my wrist, and dragged it down hard.

Then I took a photo and sent it to Thaddeus.

"Thaddeus, please. Tell Jackson the truth."

The bright red blood ran down my wrist like a little stream,

and in the last moment before consciousness slipped away,

my phone rang wildly with a call from Jackson…