Leah

"Do I need to call an ambulance? Where does it hurt?"

I listened to my husband ask all the right questions, but it was all to the wrong woman.

"Not that much," Gia sniffled.

"It was her!" His mother suddenly shrieked. "This crazy woman you chose to bring to this house. I told you she was evil, didn't I? Now you can see for yourself. She tried to kill Gia."

"W-what?" I stammered, too shocked at her ridiculous claims.

"Gia was just watching TV innocently and she suddenly came up, grabbed her by the hair and threw her down the stairs!" Mrs. Burnes pointed an accusing finger at me.

"That's not true!" I protested.

"It's true!" Gia replied, then cuddled further into my husband's embrace, sniffling. "I don't know what I ever did to her. But she loathes me, Victor. I've tried so hard to be her friend." She burst into tears.

"How could you, Leah?" Victor demanded, fury written all over his face.

"How could you even believe this nonsense? Why would I try to kill Gia? She's the one who threw me down the stairs." I cried.

"You've always been jealous of Gia," his mother provided, shaking her head sadly. "Right from the start you've been jealous of Gia and Victor's friendship. You've always wanted my son to be fully under your possessive control. You even tried to get me to move out of this house."

"Is that true?" Victor asked, looking dumbfounded.

"Of course not!" I replied immediately, struggling to rise to my feet despite the pulsing ache in my head. I pressed a hand to my forehead and felt a bump forming there. How could they twist everything like this? "I've done nothing to either of them. I don't know why—"

"Why would both of us just decide to lie against you?" Gia asked innocently. "Mother has always loved you. She complains about how you're determined to keep her at arm's length and destroy the closeness between her and Victor."

My eyes must have been as wide as saucers by then. What the hell was going on? This felt like stepping into some alternate reality where up was down and I was the villain.

My husband rose to his feet, looking fed up. "I'm disappointed in you, Leah. You know how important my mother and Gia are to me, yet you're trying to cause a rift between us."

"Are you really believing them over me?" I asked in disbelief. "Baby—"

"Ouch, Vic, it hurts," Gia whimpered, cutting me off. I watched as my husband immediately went to his knees and began to fret over the tiny bruise on her knee. "I was so afraid that I was going to die."

"I'm so sorry," he assured her. "I'll make sure this never happens again."

"That's impossible," she sighed sadly. "This is neither Leah's first nor her last attempt. The only way to keep myself safe is to stay away from you like she's always wanted. I'm sorry, Vic, but I have no choice. I don't know what lengths she'll go to next."

"Seriously?!" I threw my hands in the air.

"Are you really going to let your wife tear the lifelong friendship you have with Gia apart?" His mother asked. "Don't forget how much Gia was there for you after your father's death. There are a thousand women like Leah out there who would jump at the chance to marry a good-looking, young, successful man like yourself, but trust me, you will never find another woman like Gia who's willing to stick with you through thick and thin."

"Enough!" Victor thundered, rising to his feet. He glanced over at me. "Leah, get on your knees and apologize to Gia this instant."

I staggered back. "What?"

"Now!"

"I didn't do anything. Why do I have to apologize?" I asked. "I won't do that."

"You proud, stubborn, unfortunate thing," his mother hissed.

"And your precious Gia is a pretentious snob with—" The rest of my words were lost as my husband's hand came down on the side of my face with a staggering force that brought me down to my knees. The pain tore through my body, but the tears that rose from my eyes weren't a result of the physical pain.

It was from the pain in my chest.

In our three years of marriage, my husband had never put a hand on me. Having grown up with abusive foster parents, he had sworn to never touch me until the day he died.

And he had just broken that promise.

Because of another woman.

"You h-hit me?" I muttered in disbelief.

"And I'll do it again if you don't apologize right now." The coldness in his voice made me shiver. "I've had enough from you. You've caused me nothing but trouble, chaos and bad luck. Since I married you, all I've ever done is deal with one problem after the other. You good-for-nothing woman."

I flinched. "You don't mean that, Victor."

He rolled his eyes. "Apologize, Leah. Don't waste my time. I have a gala to attend in an hour."

With tears in my eyes, I looked over at Gia and did the only thing I could to preserve what little peace remained. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," she replied. I fought the urge to go over to her and slap her stupid, lying mouth.

"Good," he said. "Now go get ready. And put some makeup over that bruise on your forehead. Today is important to me so you better not embarrass me out there."

Without another glance at me, he marched off. Meanwhile, his mother and Gia both smirked at me triumphantly. Too ashamed to face them for much longer, I scrambled back to my room, trying to hold back my tears.

Had that actually happened? Had Victor actually hit me and said all those cruel words to me? I faced the mirror and stared at the fingerprint marks on my cheeks in horror. Three years of marriage, and I was seeing my husband's true face for the first time.

At that moment, I felt something trickle down my leg followed by a sharp pain in my stomach. Bile rushed up my throat as I raced to the bathroom and yanked down my pants.

I dropped to my knees with an agonizing wail as the evidence of my loss stared at me.

"Oh God. Oh God. My baby." I sobbed.