I knew Felicity had done it on purpose. I turned to her with an indifferent smile on my face and asked, "When did Lillian become your daughter, Felicity?"

Henry grabbed my arm before Felicity could respond, his voice becoming grave as he said, "You don't have to be so harsh, Whitney. Lillian likes Felicity, so it's only natural for her to call her 'Mommy.'"

Mom and Dad echoed Henry's sentiment, saying, "That's right, Whitney. Why are you getting jealous of Felicity? If you hadn't been so unkind to Lillian all this time, she would have called you 'Mommy,' too."

I had been unkind toward Lillian, huh? I stared at their impassive expressions and couldn't help but find the whole situation utterly absurd.

It was then that a plate suddenly came flying through the air. Henry quickly moved to block it with his arm. His elbow took the brunt of the impact, but some of the shards still hit me, cutting my forehead.

My eyes widened in surprise, and before I could even register what had happened, I heard Lillian yelling angrily, "You're a bad person! Get lost! You're not welcome here! Get out!"

I touched the blood on my forehead and smiled wryly. I then looked at the people before me with my bloodshot eyes and murmured, "It's fine if she doesn't think of me as her mother. I mean, I'm not her biological mother anyway, right?"

I stared at Felicity and made sure to put emphasis on the words "biological mother."

Having said that, I ran out of the house crying as everyone watched in stunned silence. I barely made it to the doorway before I collapsed onto my knees, clutching my stomach in agony. It was now riddled with tumors, but it was once home to a life.

Henry cried tears of joy when I told him I was pregnant. He had even picked out the name "Lillian" for the baby before she was even born. Unfortunately, on the way to one of my prenatal checkups, I got into a terrible accident from a faulty brake line. I used what little strength I had left to call Henry, yet he never answered.

That day, I survived against all odds, but the baby didn't make it.

Henry comforted me afterward, telling me that what mattered most was that I was still alive.

He, however, couldn't have known that the crash was the catalyst for my cancer. I had my uterus removed as a result of the accident, which completely threw my endocrine system into chaos. That, along with my subsequent depression, caused my immune system to fail, which led to my cancer.

I couldn't help but think that the years I lived afterward were borrowed time, stolen from what should have been my end.

I was sobbing uncontrollably when I was suddenly pulled into a warm embrace.

Henry tenderly wiped my tears away before taking out a first-aid kit to patch up my forehead. "There, there, Whitney. Please don't be upset. There's no point getting so worked up over what Lillian said."

His voice was so gentle, a perfect echo of the man who once loved me so deeply. His following sentence, however, immediately shattered the illusion. "If you can't get along with Lillian, then maybe we should just let Felicity adopt her."

I immediately slapped his hand away and stormed off, not sparing him a glance.

I could hear Henry's footsteps echoing behind me before he started yelling, "Why are you making such a big fuss over nothing, Whitney? It's no wonder Lillian doesn't like you!"

I stopped in my tracks, my chest heaving in fury, before I whipped around and snapped, "You'd better not call that girl Lillian anymore! You ought to know that our Lillian is already dead!"

Henry stopped dead in his tracks, a look of unease flashing across his face. It could have been because of guilt or heartache, but none of that mattered to me anymore.

I quickly wiped my tears and walked out of the house, a place that had become no less than hell to me. I was in such a rush that I failed to notice the searing glare of hatred directed at me.

Felicity stood by the window, watching as Henry watched me leave, her fingers clenching so tightly that her nails tore into her own skin.

I didn't return home that night. I went to the place where the car crash happened instead—the place where my unborn child died. She was so tragically small that no one was able to collect any remains—not even a handful of ash.

I was just standing there, looking at the road, when a pair of headlights suddenly flashed from a distance. It was then that the car screeched to a stop before me, and Felicity stepped out, leading Lillian by the hand. She then raised her head arrogantly and asked, "You must have already figured it all out, haven't you, Whitney?"

I merely gave her a cold, fleeting glance and then turned away, remaining silent.

Felicity scoffed and said, "I was right, then. You should do yourself a favor and divorce Henry now before he leaves you for good. It's going to be so much uglier if he's the one to do it, Whitney."

Lillian chimed in, exclaiming, "You should just drop dead, Whitney! You're getting in the way of me being with Mommy and Daddy!"

I looked coldly at the furious mother-daughter duo before bursting out in laughter. "You think I'll be dumped, huh? I believe Henry just said that he'd never abandon me, Felicity. You two wouldn't have chased after me if you were so sure of yourselves, right?"

"Why, you!" Felicity's face flushed, her expression betraying the agitation of someone whose weakness had just been exposed.

I didn't want to deal with her anymore, so I got up to leave. It was then that I heard the sound of the car suddenly roaring to life behind me. I instinctively stepped aside just in time to see the vehicle barrel crazily toward me and then swerve, crashing violently into a massive concrete obstruction on the curb.

In a blinding flash of fire and a thunderous explosion, Felicity—her face covered in blood—sobbed into her phone as she called Henry. "P-Please come save me and Lillian, Henry! I-It's Whitney! S-She's trying to kill Lillian!"

Felicity wept as she spoke, her eyes flashing with defiance toward me, utterly disregarding Lillian, who was barely breathing at this point.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had never imagined that she was capable of such a thing just to have Henry for herself.

Felicity let out a shriek before hanging up the phone, her eyes gleaming with malice. "If you refuse to leave of your own accord, then I'll just have to force Henry's hand."

I paid her no mind, rushing to pull Lillian out of the wreckage. "What the hell is wrong with you? You're endangering your daughter's life!"

Felicity burst into laughter instead of rage. "What of it? It's not as if she's the first child I've ever gotten rid of."

I froze for a moment, then lunged forward and grabbed her collar, my voice trembling with a mix of fury and disbelief. "What did you just say?"

Felicity offered no response to my question, merely letting out a laugh that grew into a hysterical cackle.

I barked, "You'd better answer me right now, Felicity! What do you mean by that? What do you mean, Lillian's not the first?"

I nearly lunged to choke the woman before me, my eyes turning bloodshot from rage. I didn't even have the chance to act on it, though, as Henry suddenly rushed forward and shoved me to the ground, exclaiming, "Have you lost your mind, Whitney? Felicity is your sister, for goodness' sake!"

I landed heavily on the ground, and through the flickering lights of the ambulance, I saw Henry tenderly pull Felicity into his embrace, comforting her. "It's alright, sweetheart. I'm here now."

They flaunted their love openly, not bothering to hide it when faced with death. That day, when the accident happened, I had pictured Henry coming to me like a knight in shining armor, rescuing me and our unborn child. Yet, all I got was nothing but a string of calls that went unanswered.

I closed my eyes in despair, and with what little strength I had left, I turned and walked away.

I heard Henry's low, menacing roar coming from behind me. "If anything happens to Felicity and Lillian, we're getting a divorce, Whitney!"

I kept moving forward, merely choking out a single word of acknowledgment to Henry's threat. I felt like our marriage didn't matter to me anymore. I was dying soon, and I was going to reunite with my unborn child, which was truly a relief.

…

Felicity's plan worked out perfectly; both she and Lillian were in stable condition. Henry never once called me as the days went by. He was too busy tending to Felicity and Lillian in the hospital, after all.

I was completely indifferent to it, though. I simply wandered around the city like a ghost, walking through the familiar streets and places where I had once lived. I also met up with my friends and former classmates to bid them farewell, while deliberately leaving out my family and Henry.

It was seven days later when Felicity and Lillian were discharged from the hospital.

It was coincidentally Christmas, and the snow was falling heavily. They were all sitting together by the fire with Mom and Dad, cheerfully talking about their plans for the new year.

I wasn't even mentioned once, as if they had all tacitly agreed to erase me from their lives.

Henry, on the other hand, kept looking out the window, as if he were waiting for someone.

It was then that a police officer suddenly knocked on the door. "Are you perhaps Henry Graham?"

Henry replied, "Yes, I am. What's going on here?"

Then, the police officer held out his hand, revealing a diamond ring with Henry's name engraved on the inside.

Henry stared at the ring, a terrible feeling settling in his chest. "What's the meaning of this?"

It was then that the police officer sighed heavily and replied, "You see, approximately three hours ago, we recovered the body of your wife beneath a bridge."