I dialed my lawyer's number with trembling hands.

"Mr. Peterson, I need you to draft divorce papers immediately," I said, my voice steady despite the storm inside me. "Give them to Leo only after I leave. And make sure the insurance company knows we're divorced before any claims are processed."

Each word felt like signing my own death warrant. I glanced frantically at the door.

If Leo discovered this before I could escape...

"Let him explain to the insurance company how he wants to collect benefits from someone who's no longer his wife," I thought bitterly as I gave Mr. Peterson the details.

The moment I hung up, the door burst open. I looked up, my heart jumping into my throat. Lydia sauntered in, her lips curved into that familiar cruel smile. She was wearing designer clothes, full makeup, and looked healthier than I'd ever seen her.

My entire body tensed. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but I was too weak. Too broken.

She sat down, crossing her legs with the confidence of someone who had already won.

"You were never sick, were you?" I asked directly. I was done playing games.

For a moment, she just stared at me. Then she laughed. Not a polite chuckle. A full, cruel laugh that made her nearly double over.

"Of course I wasn't sick!" She wiped tears from her eyes. "Thanks for the kidney though."

The room spun.

"What?"

Her smile turned vicious. "I threw it in the trash behind the hospital. Left it for the rats and flies to feast on."

No. The word stuck in my throat.

My hands instinctively went to the surgical scar below my ribs. The empty space where my kidney used to be throbbed with phantom pain.

"No, this can't be..." The words came out as a broken whisper.

"You were always just a placeholder, Elena. A walking insurance policy." Her eyes gleamed with malice. "Did you really think Leo married you for love?"

My world tilted.

"I was the one who told him to seduce you five years ago. You were nothing but a meal ticket. A massive life insurance policy waiting to be cashed in."

"But he chose me..." My voice sounded pathetic even to my own ears.

"He chose you as the perfect tool!" She leaned forward. "The kidney was just a bonus. But that insurance policy? Two hundred million dollars? That was always the main prize."

She moved closer, and I saw the white lilies in her hand. My death sentence wrapped in pretty petals.

"Take those away," I gasped, already feeling my throat begin to tighten. "You know I'm allergic..."

"I know exactly what they'll do to you." She thrust them toward my face. "Leo said to get rid of you. So why don't you just die now and save us the trouble?"

My eyes began to swell shut. My throat sealed completely. I couldn't breathe.

I collapsed to the floor, wheezing and clawing at my throat. My vision went black around the edges as I crawled desperately toward my bedside table where my emergency EpiPen waited.

Just as my fingers brushed the nightstand, Lydia's heel came down like a hammer.

Crack!

White hot pain exploded through both my hands. The EpiPen rolled away as glass from a nearby bottle shattered, shards tearing deep into my palms. Blood poured onto the floor.

"Die already, you pathetic fool!" she screamed, grinding her heel deeper into my shattered hands.

I couldn't breathe. Couldn't scream. The glass carved deeper into my flesh with every second. My vision was fading.

Suddenly, heavy footsteps thundered down the hallway.

Leo.

My heart leaped with desperate, foolish hope. He would see Lydia for who she really was. He would save me.

"Leo," I tried to call out, but my voice was barely a wheeze. "Help... me..."

Lydia released my hand instantly and threw herself dramatically among the scattered flowers and gifts, wailing like a wounded animal.

"Leo!" she sobbed the moment he stepped through the doorway. "Elena was throwing a tantrum and attacked me for no reason!"

Leo burst in and went straight to her, stepping over my bleeding body like I was garbage on the floor. He didn't even glance at my swollen face or the blood pooling beneath my shattered hands.

"She brought me flowers that could kill me," I wheezed, gasping for air. "White lilies... allergic..."

"SHUT UP!" Leo's mask finally slipped completely.

The hatred in his voice made my blood freeze.

"Lydia was being kind, bringing you flowers, and you repay her by throwing a tantrum like an untrained child?"

His words cut deeper than any knife.

I had told Leo about my deadly allergy to white lilies countless times. When we were dating. When we got married. Every spring when they bloom. Yet here he was, defending the woman who had just tried to murder me with them.

His voice turned to ice. "Touch Lydia again, and I'll make sure you never see another sunrise." He scooped Lydia up, cradling her like precious china. "Don't you ever try it!"

I lay there, bleeding and writhing in agony. Tears burned my cheeks as he stepped over my broken body and walked away with her in his arms.

Something inside me shattered forever.

With the last of my strength, I found my backup inhaler in my pocket and used it with trembling, bloodied hands. The medication worked slowly, opening my airways just enough to keep me alive.

I lay on that cold floor for what felt like hours before I could finally breathe normally again.

++++++

Later that evening, a nurse helped me back into bed and bandaged my hands. She didn't ask questions. She'd probably seen worse in this hospital.

After she left, I stared at the ceiling, my mind working through the fog of pain and medication. My phone buzzed. An email notification.

"Miss Roberta, you've been invited to attend the Celestial Diamond Annual Gala."

My eyes widened as I stared at the elegant invitation that had been forwarded to my personal email. The one only a handful of people knew about.

I called my mother, my hands shaking as I held the phone.

"You should go, darling," her voice came through, warm and encouraging. "You built half of that company. The CEO of Celestial Diamond would be honored to have you at the occasion."

"But... I..." The words died in my throat.

"You dedicated ten years of your life to jewelry design," she said gently. "You helped make some of the most sophisticated pieces in the world. Don't let what happened steal that from you too."

I glanced at my already packed luggage hidden in the closet. I had been planning to escape tomorrow. This gala was tonight.

"Okay, Mom. I'll attend tonight's gathering."

She smiled through the video call. "Everyone is eagerly waiting for your arrival in Litsville tomorrow. Your father has been pacing the garden for days."

Relief flooded through me. The realization that my family still loved me, still wanted me, gave me strength. The invitation reminded me of who I used to be before I met Leo.

Roberta Alfred. Renowned for creating masterpiece jewelry that graced royalty and red carpets. That had been everything I'd ever wanted.

The day I had planned to reveal my face to the world was the day I met Leo.

Love at first sight. Or so I'd thought.

He was everything I had ever dreamed of. Charming, attentive, romantic.

And right beside him had stood Lydia, desperately trying to network her way into meeting Roberta Alfred. Not knowing she was talking to me the entire time.

I had wanted to experience genuine love without the influence of my fortune. So I'd introduce myself as Elena Robert. A simple jewelry enthusiast.

What a fool I'd been.

They'd targeted me for my insurance policy from the very first "hello." Played me like a violin. All because they desperately wanted to climb into the elite circles where Lydia could finally meet the famous Roberta Alfred.

Well, she was about to get her wish. But not the way she'd dreamed. I would make them pay for every lie, every betrayal, every moment of pain.

But first, I needed to reclaim my identity. And what better place to start than at the gala where the entire jewelry world would be watching?

Crystal chandeliers blazed overhead as I stepped into the gala. My black evening dress hung loosely on my weakened frame. I'd lost at least fifteen pounds since the surgery. Every step sent sharp pain through my body, but I kept my head high and my shoulders back.

I was here. At the Celestial Diamond Annual Gala. Where I belonged.

"You're the famous Roberta!" The secretary's face lit up with recognition as she guided me past security. "Mr. Davis is running late, but he reserved a spot for you in the VIP section. Right this way."

Before I could reach it, iron fingers clamped around my arm and yanked me backward.

Lydia stood before me in blood red silk, her perfect skin glowing under the chandeliers. "What are you doing here, you wretched fool?" she snarled, tightening her grip until my arm burned.

"Let go of me." I pulled back, gritting my teeth against the pain. "I was invited."

"Invited?" Lydia's voice sliced through me like a blade. "You diseased little rat. This gathering isn't for desperate nobodies begging for scraps."

Of course Lydia would be here. She must have heard the rumors that Roberta Alfred was finally making an appearance after so many years. Little did she know she was staring right at her.

To Lydia, I was just the broken woman whose life she'd systematically destroyed.

"You came here to ruin my chances of meeting Roberta, didn't you?" She dragged me closer, her breath hot against my ear. "I'll make you regret ever stepping foot in this place, you jealous, worthless creature!"

Lydia's hands slammed into my chest, pushing me hard. I fell backward onto the cold marble floor. Blood exploded from my wounded palm as the barely healed cuts split open against the hard surface.

Her lips curved into that familiar cruel smile as she towered over me. All eyes turned toward us. Conversations stopped. Whispers began.

"Who is that poor woman?" someone murmured.

"Obviously some deranged imposter," another woman's voice drifted over. "She doesn't belong at this kind of gathering."

"Good thing they're teaching her a lesson," someone else added loudly. "This isn't the type of event beggars think they can crash."

The whispers seemed to embolden Lydia. She grabbed a champagne flute from a passing tray. Without warning, golden liquid splashed across my face, burning my eyes and soaking through my dress.

Every stare felt like acid eating through my skin. My heart pounded in my throat. My body trembled.

The looks from the crowd were a mix of pity and disgust. Like I was something dirty that had wandered in from the street.

Heavy footsteps thundered across the marble.

Leo.

In that split second, Lydia's face crumpled into fake terror. She grabbed another champagne flute, dumped the entire contents on her own dress, and threw herself to the ground beside me.

"Please don't hurt me, Elena," she pleaded, tears welling in her eyes. "I didn't mean to spill champagne on you. It was an accident!"

"What the hell is going on here?" Leo's voice exploded like a gunshot.

His gaze found me crumpled on the floor, and the disgust that twisted his features made my soul wither.

Without hesitation, he lifted Lydia into his arms as if she were made of glass.

Leo's gentle, affectionate touch toward her was like watching my own funeral.

"You sick, twisted woman." His words hit like physical blows. "Didn't I tell you to stay in the hospital? Attacking Lydia wasn't enough? Now you're stalking us at public events?"

"I... I..." I tried to speak, but the words stuck in my throat.

I bit my lip hard to hold back tears. I stared at the man who had once promised he would treat me better than any woman on earth as he trashed me cruelly in front of everyone.

With every ounce of strength left in me, I pushed myself to my feet.

"I wasn't stalking you," I said, my voice firm even though everything inside me was falling apart. "I was invited to this gala."

"Invited?" Leo's voice was sharp and cold. "By who?"

"What sick fantasy are you living in now?" Lydia interrupted, her voice full of contempt. Her fingers curled around Leo's arm possessively, her eyes gleaming with malice as they met mine.

"Elena is probably too ashamed to admit that she snuck in. She begged me earlier, asking me not to cause a scene but to let her stay." Her voice trembled as tears gathered in her eyes. "I told her to leave quietly, but instead, she attacked me."

"That's a lie!" I shot back. "I can prove I'm here on an invitation."

My fingers shook as I pulled out my phone. Within seconds, I'd called the number. The secretary appeared at my side almost immediately.

"Is everything alright, ma'am?" she asked, concerned in her eyes. Leo's expression shifted, confusion flickering across his face.

"Tell them," I said. "Tell them I was invited."

"Of course you were invited," the secretary confirmed. "Mr. Davis specifically requested your presence tonight for..."

"Stop this charade, Elena." Lydia's voice cracked with fake emotion. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks as she turned to the secretary. "How much did she pay you to lie for her?"

The secretary's face flushed with indignation. "She didn't pay me anything! I'm telling the tr..."

"Enough!" Lydia cut her off with sharp authority. "Please leave. We don't need to hear more lies."

Leo's eyes darkened. The temperature in the ballroom seemed to drop ten degrees.

"How dare you drag innocent people into your web of lies?" he said to me.

"No, wait." I reached desperately for my phone. "I can call Mr. Davis myself. He'll confirm everything."

Leo lunged forward. His hand closed around my phone and hurled it against the marble wall with devastating force.

The device exploded into a thousand glittering pieces.

Behind him, Lydia's smile was pure poison.

Something cold and deadly shifted inside me. The last thread of hope I'd been clinging to snapped.

I turned away from them and limped toward the house phone near the coat check area. Every eye in the ballroom followed me.

I picked up the receiver with shaking hands and dialed the number I knew by heart.

"Tell Mr. Davis," I said quietly into the phone, "that Roberta Alfred is here. And she needs to see him now."

The words hit the air like a nuclear bomb.

Leo's face went white as fresh snow.

The entire ballroom went silent. Everyone sensed the shift without fully understanding it. They didn't know their offense yet. They had just messed with the wrong woman.

A vicious crack echoed through the marble hall. White hot pain exploded across my face. My head snapped to the side. My ears rang with a high pitched whine that drowned out everything else. Warm copper flooded my mouth as blood erupted from my nose.

I turned back slowly, my cheek already swelling. Leo's hand was still raised, trembling in the air like he was deciding whether to strike me again. His eyes were cold and merciless.

"You pathetic, delusional bitch," his voice dripped with hatred that could melt steel. "Pretending to be Roberta Alfred? Have you completely lost your mind?"

Before I could draw breath, his fingers dug into my face, forcing me to look at him. Fresh pain shot through my already throbbing cheek as he squeezed.

"Are you this desperate? Is this jealous of Lydia?" Spittle hit my face as he snarled. "You'd go this far to humiliate yourself?"

Everyone watched in stunned silence as he shoved me with savage force. I stumbled backward, my weakened legs barely catching me before I hit the ground again.

Without missing a beat, Leo spun toward Lydia and slammed her against the marble pillar. His mouth crashed down on hers desperately.

Right in front of me. Right in front of everyone. My cheeks burned as I watched my husband devour another woman ten feet away.

Lydia melted into him, her legs wrapping around his waist like she was marking territory. Her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer.

The ballroom erupted in whispers, but everything sounded far away, like I was underwater.

Over his shoulder, Lydia's eyes found mine. They glittered with triumph. Her lips were swollen from his kisses, curved into a smirk even as he kissed her neck.

One of Leo's friends cleared his throat loudly. "Leo, don't you think your wife will be furious watching you make out with another woman in her presence?"

Leo tore his mouth away from Lydia, his lips still glistening. He threw a mocking glance at me, his eyes dancing with cruel amusement.

"What better way to teach this pathetic woman a lesson?" His words hit like acid.

"But I didn't..." I started.

"SILENCE!" His voice echoed through the hall, bouncing off the marble walls.

My legs gave out. The world tilted sideways as his hatred washed over me like molten lava.

"The only way I'm taking you back is if you kneel and apologize to Lydia for the scene you caused." He stared at me with pure disgust. "Beg her forgiveness."

He lifted Lydia as if she weighed nothing and walked toward the VIP lounge, whispering something in her ear that made her giggle.

The crowd gradually returned to their interrupted conversations, acting as if the spectacle had never happened. As if I didn't exist.

I stayed curled up in a corner, away from prying eyes. My body shook uncontrollably as I waited for Mr. Davis to arrive.

But something more devastating was happening. Sharp pain shot through my abdomen, right where they'd harvested my kidney. I looked down and saw blood seeping through my dress, staining the fabric dark red.

The doctor's words rang in my ears like a death knell. "Miss Elena, any trauma to that area can lead to severe complications. Internal bleeding. Organ damage. You could lose your ability to have children. Something far worse could happen to your reproductive system."

Panic clawed at my throat as I struggled to stand. My legs wouldn't cooperate. The room spun violently.

I had wanted to stay, to prove to Leo that I was invited, that I was Roberta Alfred. But I couldn't stand anymore. The pain was too intense.

I needed help. Now.

Relief flooded through me as the emergency unit came into view through the glass doors. I could see Dr. McCall inside, the doctor I'd hired personally to oversee my care.

He would save me. He had to.

I stretched my bloodied hand toward the door, salvation just inches away.

Something hard and unforgiving struck me from behind. The base of my skull exploded with pain.

My vision shattered like broken glass.

Then everything went black.

+±+++++

The smell of antiseptic and decay dragged me back to consciousness. My body trembled uncontrollably. Every nerve screamed in agony. I tried to sit up, but pain lanced through my skull.

Where was I?

The room was dark, lit only by a dim overhead light that flickered occasionally. As my eyes adjusted, shapes came into focus.

White sheets. Bodies underneath them.

Oh God.

A scream built in my throat, but came out as a whimper. I crawled toward what looked like a door, my legs barely holding me as I pulled myself upright. Blood dripped from my head, pooling on the floor beneath me.

"Hello! Can someone please help me?" I banged my fist against the metal door. The sound echoed in the small space.

"You stupid wench!" The voice that came from outside made my blood freeze solid.

"Lydia?" My voice shook. "What's happening? Where am I?"

Her laughter was pure evil, echoing through the door. "You're in the morgue, you pathetic fool!"

My heart stopped.

The morgue. Those shapes under white sheets weren't sleeping patients.

They were corpses.

Terror crashed over me in waves. I stumbled backward, away from the bodies, my back hitting the cold wall.

"Lydia, please let me out," I begged, hating the desperation in my voice. "I need a doctor. I'm bleeding badly."

"Oh, you won't be needing treatment." Her voice was light, almost cheerful. "You're going to die anyway."

The casual way she spoke about my death made everything inside me freeze.

"I locked you in there so you can get used to being with dead people," she giggled. "You should have died in that fire. But someone had to play hero and save you. Still pisses me off."

My entire world crumbled to dust.

Leo had lied about saving me in the fire. Every tear he'd cried. Every worried look. Every moment of fake concern. All of it had been lies.

"You can have him, Lydia," my voice broke completely. "I don't want him anymore. Just please, open the door."

Tears streamed down my face, mixing with the blood from my head wound.

"I hope you rot in there and die," Lydia said sweetly. "Goodbye, Elena."

Her footsteps faded away, leaving me trapped with corpses in the dark.

I screamed until my voice gave out. Pounded on the door until my fists were bloody. But no one came.

My strength drained away as darkness swallowed me again. The cold from the refrigerated room seeped into my bones.

This was it. This was how I would die. Alone in a morgue, surrounded by the dead..

++++++

All through the night, Leo never bothered to look for me. Instead, security footage would later show him intensifying his romance with Lydia right there in the hospital corridor, not caring if anyone saw them.

"You keep tempting me, you little tease," Leo growled as he tore at Lydia's dress.

"Leo!" Lydia gasped as she unbuckled his belt.

"You've been begging for this all night," he smirked, pressing her against the wall.

The sounds of their passion filled the corridor. Moans. Gasps. The rhythmic thud of bodies against the wall.

"You feel so good," Leo groaned.

"Yes, harder," Lydia cried out. "Don't stop."

Their voices carried through the empty hallway, a soundtrack to my suffering just floors below.

++++++

The next morning, a morgue attendant found me. I was unconscious on the cold floor, lying in a pool of my own blood.

"Oh my God," he breathed, immediately calling for help. "We need a gurney! Someone's been locked in here!"

++++

The doctor stood beside my bed, his expression carved from stone.

"Miss Elena," he paused, choosing his words carefully. "I'm so sorry, but due to the severity of the internal bleeding and the trauma to your abdominal cavity, we had no choice. We had to perform an emergency hysterectomy."

The words didn't make sense at first. They bounced around in my head like rocks in a tumbler.

Hysterectomy.

"What does that mean?" I whispered, even though I knew. I just needed him to say it differently. To tell me I'd misunderstood.

"We had to remove your uterus," he said gently. "The damage was too extensive. If we hadn't operated immediately, you would have died from internal bleeding."

My heart stopped beating.

"You arrived too late. The injuries were severe." He sighed heavily. "I'm so sorry, but you'll never be able to conceive. You can't carry a child."

My entire world shattered into a million pieces that could never be put back together.

Not only had they stolen my kidney. Now they'd taken my future. My dreams of being a mother. The family I'd always wanted.

Everything.

+++++

Two days later, I was finally discharged. Leo never visited once. At the house, I moved like a ghost through rooms that no longer felt like home. I gathered my things methodically. Clothes. Documents. The few pieces of jewelry I'd designed for myself.

I spread the divorce papers across the kitchen counter. Next to them, I laid out copies of the insurance documents and a flash drive containing the recording of Lydia confessing she'd never been sick.

Five years. I'd given this man five years of my life. Tears blurred my vision as I signed the papers with a shaking hand.

My phone buzzed. A text from Leo.

"Get ready. You're getting discharged today. I'll pick you up at 3."

Terror gripped me. He didn't know I'd already left the hospital. He was planning something.

I wiped my tears and pulled up the airline app. The next flight to Litsville left in four hours.

I booked it immediately.

When I arrived at the airport, I pulled out my phone one last time. I blocked Leo's number, watching his contact disappear from my screen.

As I was about to destroy my SIM card, another message came through.

From Lydia.

"Since you stubbornly refuse to die, we're coming to put an end to your life tonight. See you soon."

I crushed the SIM card under my heel, grinding it into the airport floor the same way she'd crushed my hand with her heel.

As the plane lifted into the sky, something cold and dangerous settled deep within my chest.

The broken, naive Elena was dead. She'd died in that morgue, surrounded by corpses.

But I would be back.

And when I returned, they would beg for mercy, the same mercy they'd never shown me.

Mercy was a luxury now.

And I could no longer afford to give it to anyone..