Betrayed by Husband and Best Friend, I Destroyed Them

On our fifth anniversary, I closed the project deal and came back to the capital early, wanting nothing more than to surprise Bartholomew. What I walked into instead was his affair.

The bedroom light flickered, dim and unsteady. Through the crack in the door, I watched my best friend Vivien drape herself over Bartholomew's shoulders, gasping softly.

I froze in place. My heart seized.

Vivien's fingers traced a slow line down Bartholomew's chest, her voice thick with triumph.

“Bartholomew, do you think……Kay might suddenly come home?”

“So what if she does.”

Bartholomew scoffed, his voice saturated with contempt.

“She's out on a deal today. Won't be back before midnight. Besides, Kay is hopeless. Gullible beyond saving. She'd believe anything I told her. She'd never suspect a thing.”

Vivien laughed, pleased with herself, her red lips parting and closing.

“True. She still doesn't have a clue. Back when she had that car accident and was hemorrhaging after the miscarriage, her blood type was rare. I was the only match. I disappeared on purpose, never showed up to give the transfusion. Afterward I told her my old condition had flared up and I'd collapsed. She felt so sorry for me she nearly cried herself sick.”

My blood turned to ice. My breath stopped. Every ounce of strength drained from my body, and I could barely stay on my feet.

Back then, when the car accident left me hemorrhaging and close to death, she was the only one with my blood type.

I'd used the last of my strength to call her. She choked back sobs and promised she was on her way.

But by the time I lost consciousness, she still hadn't come.

In the end, the baby didn't survive. I barely did either.

Afterward, she came to me with red-rimmed eyes, told me her old illness had flared up and she'd fainted, so she couldn't make it in time.

I swallowed the grief of losing my child. I felt for her. I comforted her.

And yet I was the one who had donated a kidney to save her life.

After the surgery, she'd held me and wept until she couldn't breathe.

“Kay, you're the only family I have in this world. No matter what happens, no matter how dangerous it gets, I would throw myself in harm's way without a second thought. I would die to save you.”

But it turned out every last one of those promises was a lie.

I'd put my own body on the line to save her, and she wanted me dead.

My nails dug into my palms until blood seeped through, but that pain was nothing compared to the crushing ache in my chest. Not even a thousandth of it.

Vivien's voice, breathless and laced with desire, cut through my thoughts, brazen and gloating.

“The one who drove into her was my brother. I thought you'd be furious, but you didn't blame him at all. Didn't even send him to prison!”

Bartholomew curved his lips and kissed her, intimate and close.

“Prison? That was nothing but a formality. I wasn't going to send your brother to rot behind bars over a baby that's already gone. You're the one I care about most. The one who matters.”

Vivien pressed closer, murmuring softly,

“But knowing her, if she finds out, won't she lose it?”

Bartholomew let out a cold laugh. “Lose it over what? She has no power, no connections. Without me, she can't survive.”

The words detonated inside my skull, and the cold spread through every limb, every bone.

The person behind the accident that killed my baby and nearly destroyed me was Vivien's brother.

The boy I had loved and treated like my own flesh and blood.

What I never could have imagined was that Bartholomew had known the truth all along.

Back then, the accident had been severe. Three broken ribs. Three days unconscious.

He had held me with red-rimmed eyes, tight against his chest, and sworn to me word by word:

“Kay, I promise you. I will avenge you and our child. I will make sure that animal rots in prison for the rest of his life. He will pay the most devastating price.”

But now I knew the truth. He had never intended to avenge our child. He had been shielding the person responsible the entire time. While he held me and whispered comfort, he had been laughing at how stupid and naive I was.

Hatred, despair, betrayal. They crashed over me all at once and dragged me under.

I lost all control. I slammed the door open and charged inside like I'd lost my mind.

The second Bartholomew saw me, his expression changed. He grabbed a blanket, wrapped it around Vivien, and pulled her into his arms. His eyes cut toward me, sharp and warning.

“Get out!”

Vivien burrowed into his chest on instinct. Her eyes reddened, and the tears fell on cue, her face the picture of innocence.

She wouldn't meet my eyes. Her words came out halting and fractured.

“Kay, let me explain. It's not what you think……”

“Not what I think?”

I laughed, hollow and wrecked, and cut her off.

“Then what is it? That you stood by and watched me nearly die on the operating table? That your brother drove his car into me and killed my baby? And meanwhile, you were sleeping with my husband?”

I turned to Bartholomew. My heart felt like it was splitting apart.

“Bartholomew Vance, can you look our child in the eye and say you did right by them?”

Bartholomew's face went completely dark. He lashed out at me, voice like a whip.

“Kay Simmons, are you done?! It's over and done with. Do you have to keep dragging it up? It was one baby that didn't make it. Is that really worth all this?”

“Besides, Neville Pruitt was punished. After it happened, I grounded him for two weeks.”

That one sentence killed the last flicker of anything I had left.

“Is that worth all this? That was your child. A baby I'd carried for three months.”

Tears poured down my face. In that accident, I'd broken three ribs, lost the baby, and the person who did it got grounded for two weeks.

Bartholomew went still for a few seconds. Something shifted behind his eyes.

Vivien met my gaze, and the corner of her mouth curled upward, barely perceptible.

“Kay, that baby just wasn't meant to be. You can't blame Neville for that……”

Every drop of blood in my body rushed to my head, and the last thread of reason snapped clean.

I couldn't hold back any longer. I raised my hand and brought it down with everything I had, slapping Vivien across the face.