Mauve’s POV

Amber giggled as Jester pulled her close. Her laughter rang out, cutting through me like a knife. My lips trembled, but I forced myself to stay quiet. I blinked quickly, fighting to keep my expression blank even as my heart shattered.

I had survived the accident, but sitting here now, I wondered if the pain of their deception would kill me instead. Inside, I screamed for them to stop. Please, not in front of me. But they didn’t care.

Jester lifted Amber onto the kitchen counter, knocking over utensils and dishes. Their hands wandered, their kisses deepened, and my chest tightened with a pain so sharp it felt unbearable.

A tear slid down my cheek. I couldn’t stop it, no matter how hard I tried. Despair, anger, and humiliation burned inside me, but I kept my body still. I couldn’t let them see.

They finally stopped when Amber touched her belly. “Jester, what if my baby gets hurt? We shouldn’t be doing this here.”

"Oh, damn. I didn't realize." Jester froze. Then he saw me in his peripheral vision, so he turned toward me briefly and noticed my tear-streaked face. He let out a soft laugh, brushing it off. “Sorry,” he said casually, like my feelings didn’t matter.

Amber tugged on his arm, pulling his attention back to her. “I’m scared. We need to go to the clinic.”

Without hesitation, Jester grabbed his phone and called Dr. Helen. “We need you at the packhouse now. I'm going to accompany Amber to the clinic, and Mauve is alone at home."

By the time Dr. Helen arrived, the two of them were dressed and rushing out the door. I listened as their car sped away.

The second they were gone, the dam inside me broke. I buried my face in my hands and sobbed loudly, the pain too much to hold in. My body shook, and every tear felt like it was draining the life out of me.

Dr. Helen sat beside me and handed me a glass of water. “You’ve held this in for too long. Soon, this will all be behind you.”

I wiped my tears, taking a deep breath to steady myself. My hands were shaking, but I stood up anyway, forcing my legs to hold me. I lifted my chin and stared at the door where Jester and Amber had left.

“How’s my application?” I asked.

Dr. Helen smiled gently. “Good news. You’re scheduled for an interview today.”

My heart jumped. “Today?”

“Yes,” she said. “Get ready. I’ll help you prepare.”

The interview for the pharmacy training at Shadowpine Hospital was nerve-wracking but straightforward. They asked why I wanted to join, what I knew about medicine, and how I’d handle challenges. When it ended, the interviewers smiled and told me I’d done well. Relief washed over me, and for the first time in a long while, I felt a spark of hope.

That evening, Jester and Amber still hadn’t returned. Dr. Helen decided to stay overnight in the guest room. While she rested, I sat at my desk, researching everything I needed to know about the training.

My focus broke when I opened social media. The first thing I saw was a post from Amber. It was a picture of a hotel window overlooking a romantic sunset. She’d tagged Jester.

My stomach twisted with disgust. She wasn’t even trying to hide their affair anymore. Jester’s name appeared beneath the post, showing he’d liked it.

My fingers hovered over the screen. I wanted to react, to leave an angry comment, anything to show my rage. But I stopped myself. They didn’t know I could move now, and I wasn’t ready for them to find out.

Instead, I blocked Amber and deleted my account.

Shaking off the bitterness, I turned back to my computer and focused on the articles and videos about the training program. Every step I took was one step closer to escaping this nightmare.

Mauve’s POV

The next morning, I woke up with my usual blank expression on the bed, but something was different. Jester was sitting on the edge, scrolling through his phone.

“It’s our anniversary,” he said flatly. “My phone calendar reminded me.”

A knife couldn’t have cut deeper. My breath hitched, but I kept my face still, refusing to let him see the storm brewing inside me. He’d forgotten again. Forgotten the years we’d shared, the promises we’d made. Forgotten me. He pulled out his phone and calculated how long we’d been married. He’d forgotten the number until his phone told him. If I hadn’t set the reminder myself months ago, he wouldn’t even remember.

The silence in the room was suffocating. I stared at the ceiling, trying to remember how we got here, how the man who once looked at me like I was his whole world could now barely muster a glance.

“Some college friends called,” he continued, oblivious to my silence. “They’re coming over tonight. They said they want to check on you.”

Check on me. The irony wasn’t lost. I was a ghost in my own home, and now they were coming to see if I was still breathing.

That night, our friends arrived with gifts and food. Despite my blank façade, they cheered me up like I was normal, like I wasn’t silently screaming. For a moment, I felt I belonged. My friends had always been my family since I was an orphan. They knew me better than anyone, or at least they used to.

I remembered one wild college party when Jester had declared, “Among all of us, I will become Mauve's real family. She’s my mate. We’ll be together forever.” His voice had been filled with such conviction, his eyes shining with love. I’d believed him. God, I’d believed him.

A hot tear slipped down my cheek at the memory. One of my friends, Pia, noticed and wiped it away gently. “You’re loved, Mauve. We believe that you will wake up soon, and we will party like those good old days."

I wanted to believe her. I wanted to hold onto that small, fragile hope. But the warmth didn’t last.

From the corner of my eye, I caught Amber’s sour expression as she watched Jester laugh and talk with our friends. She sat off to the side, a dark cloud in the room. For once, he ignored her entirely. I grinned inwardly. At least tonight, she didn’t belong here. Not with my people. Not with my mate.

But the triumph didn't last. Suddenly, Amber clutched her belly and cried out, “My stomach hurts!”

The room fell silent. Jester’s head snapped toward her. Without hesitation, he rushed to her side. "Damn, what did you eat to make your tummy feel upset?"

Our friends exchanged confused looks, whispering among themselves as Jester scooped her up. Her lips curled into a smirk as he carried her away.

“I’m taking her to the hospital,” he announced in a panicked voice. Not a glance, not a word for me.

The door slammed shut behind them. My friends stared at him, stunned. One of them finally said, “He left his mate for her?”

My fists clenched, nails digging into my palms so hard it hurt. Even on our anniversary, Amber had ruined everything. She’d taken him away again.

For the first time in a long while, I let my rage consume me. Images of smashing her perfect façade, of tearing down the lie she’d built, filled my mind. But I stayed still. Outside, I was a statue, unmoving and unreadable. Inside, I was a storm.

This was the last time she would humiliate me.

Mauves POV

My days in the guest room became my haven. It wasn’t much, but the privacy gave me something I hadn’t felt in a long time: freedom. With the door closed, I could do things no one knew about. I stretched my legs, practiced walking, and even looked up self-defense moves online. Each step was shaky, unsteady, but it was mine. At night, I felt determined. During the day, I played the part everyone expected—weak, helpless, incapable.

It wasn’t hard to keep up the act. Amber was always hovering, helping me with meals, showers, and whatever she could. I let her. I pretended to be the fragile woman she and everyone else thought I was.

One evening, Amber was helping me shower. Her voice had that smug edge I was starting to hate.

“You know,” she started, adjusting the water, “Jester and I shower together all the time.” She looked at me, clearly fishing for a reaction. I kept my face blank, saying nothing. That didn’t stop her. “He’s so sweet, always making sure I’m comfortable. He even washes my hair and…wait, do you want me to elaborate on that?”

I stared at the tiles, letting her words slide off me. My chest ached, but it wasn’t as sharp as it used to be. Maybe I was moving on. Maybe what Jester and I had didn’t matter as much anymore.

Amber’s voice turned bitter, her smugness slipping into venom. “He’ll never look at you the way he looks at me,” she hissed. I didn’t respond. And that alone felt like a small, quiet victory.

When my birthday came, it was clear no one cared. There was supposed to be a small party that Jester had reluctantly agreed to. But as I sat in my room, I heard Amber’s voice whining from the living room.

“I can’t do all this!” she complained. “I’m pregnant, Jester.”

My hand rested on my stomach as an uninvited thought crept in: If Jester knew I was pregnant too, would he care? Would he treat me differently? Would he stay?

Jester’s voice broke through my thoughts. “Then we’ll cancel the party. I’ll call everyone and tell them it’ll just be Mauve and me tonight.”

My heart sank.

From the living room, Amber laughed. “Thank you, darling,” she purred.

That evening, the door to my room burst open, and Amber stormed in with fury imprinted across her face. My heart raced, but I forced myself to stay calm, grateful I’d hidden the exercise mat earlier.

“You should have just died,” Amber spat. “Do you know how much easier things would be if you weren’t here? If Jester didn’t have to pretend to care about you?”

I stared at her, keeping my face blank, giving her nothing.

Amber stepped closer and whispered cruelly. “I tampered with your brakes,” she admitted. “You were supposed to die that day. But you didn’t! How come Jester still keeps you in that useless state of yours!.”

My stomach churned, my pulse pounding in my ears. But I refused to react. I just stared at her, letting my silence speak louder than any words ever could. But, God! This very bitch was the reason why I almost lost my life? I was close to losing it. I wanted to stand up and confront her, or at least, slap her.

The door opened again, and Jester walked in, his eyes darting between us, confusion written all over his face. “What’s going on here?” he demanded.

Amber’s expression shifted instantly. She turned to him, all sweetness and innocence. “I was just checking on Luna Mauve. But she’s staring at me like I’m a bad person.”

Jester’s eyes hardened as he looked at me. “Stop this, Maive! Amber’s pregnant. She doesn’t need your attitude. Why are you making her life harder? If there’s a bad person here, it’s you. No wonder you got in an accident. That's your karma!”

Jester shook his head. “I can’t deal with this right now,” he muttered, giving me a cold look before turning to Amber. “Let’s go. You don’t need this stress.”

He walked out of the room without another word, leaving the door slightly ajar. My nerves were trembling, but I stayed silent, keeping my expression blank.

Amber lingered, dropping the moment Jester was gone. She stepped closer and said, “You should’ve stayed in that car. Life would’ve been so much easier if you weren’t here.”

Before I could react, she lashed out, hitting me in the stomach. Pain flared, sharp and overwhelming, but I stayed frozen, my body betraying me. She stepped back with a mocking smile on her face.

“Jester doesn’t care about you. He never did,” she sneered. “You’re just a problem he has to deal with, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t have to for long.”

Laughing, she walked out, closing the door behind her. The sound echoed in the silence, but I was already curled over, clutching my stomach. The pain was unbearable, and tears spilled down my face despite my best efforts to hold them back.

I reached for the landline on the nightstand. My hands shook as I dialed Dr. Helen’s number. “Dr. Helen… please… I need help. It’s bad. Please come quickly,” I said, my words breaking as the pain grew worse.

I collapsed back onto the floor, the phone still in my hand, and closed my eyes, praying she would get here in time.