4.
1313 Words
Regina wiped her tears with the back of her shaking hand, smearing mascara across her already ruined face.
The Uber she ordered hissed to a stop in front of her apartment building, and she forced herself inside before she broke down again. Her chest was tight...too tight...like grief was a fist squeezing every damn breath out of her lungs.
She rode the taxi in silence, staring out the window as the city lights smeared through her tears. She hated how pathetic she looked. She hated that she cared. She hated him most of all.
When the taxi stopped in front of the hospital, Regina threw some crumpled bills at the driver and stumbled out.
The hospital smell hit her hard...cold antiseptic mixed with human suffering. She walked the familiar hallway that felt like it was swallowing pieces of her every damn day.
Then she saw her mother sitting upright in the hospital bed, pale, thin, and too fragile for the world.
“Mom?” Regina whispered, almost breaking again. “You’re awake? You should be resting.”
She rushed to her, checking her mother’s forehead, her IV line, her blanket...anything to keep her hands busy so she wouldn’t fall apart. But her mother reached out and pulled her into a warm, soft hug that stabbed Regina right in the heart.
Her mother’s arms trembled as she held her. When she pulled back, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears.
“Regina,” she whispered, voice thin, “I want to go home.”
“No,” Regina said immediately. “Mom, no. You’re still sick. You need to stay here until we get the money for your surgery. I...I’m working on it.”
Her mother smiled sadly. “I would rather die at home than watch you kill yourself trying to save me.”
Regina swallowed hard. “Don't say that. Please. Everything is going smoothly. I swear it is. And Bret...” She choked on her husband’s name. “He… he’s helping.”
Her mother’s eyes sharpened like knives. “Do I look like a fool to you?”
Regina froze.
Her mother’s gaze drifted to the hospital bedside table...specifically to the tablet sitting there. Regina followed her stare and saw the paused video on the screen. Her body went cold.
It was footage from the office security camera.
Footage of Regina collapsing on the carpet of her husband’s office earlier that day.
Footage the hospital must’ve pulled up when treating her.
She forced a smile. “It’s normal for couples to fight. Really, Mom. Don’t look too much into it. I’m fine. We’re fine.”
But her mother wasn’t stupid.
Her mother ripped out the IV with trembling hands. Blood spotted the sheet.
“Mom!” Regina gasped.
“I want to go home,” her mother said with chilling calm. “Something is wrong. I feel it. You think you hide your pain well, but I see you wilting every time you walk through that door.”
Regina fought for breath. Fought not to scream. Fought not to break.
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “No. You’re staying here. You have to. I’m not losing you on top of...” She shut her mouth before she said him. “Please, Mom. I just need more time.”
Her mother didn’t budge. “I said I’m going home, Regina.”
Regina snapped.
“Fine!” she yelled. “Fine...if you leave, I’ll...” She swallowed her own threat before it spilled out. “I’ll hurt myself, Mom. I swear I will!”
Her mother froze. The room froze. Even the air seemed to stop moving.
Regina immediately regretted it...but it was too late.
Her mother’s eyes widened, horrified and broken. “You… you took after your father with that anger,” she whispered.
Regina’s breath hitched.
Her father...the man who destroyed everything before dying and leaving them in debt.
The man whose temper was legend.
The man Regina spent her whole life trying not to become.
The nurse rushed in at that exact moment, startled by Regina’s shout. She hurried to fix the IV line, scolding Regina gently while her mother grabbed Regina’s hand again...weak, cold fingers brushing her palm.
“Don’t hurt yourself,” her mother whispered. “Please. I only want the best for you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Regina clenched her jaw so tightly it hurt.
She nodded. Not because she agreed...but because she knew her mother wouldn’t understand. Not the way things really were. Not the way her husband shattered her heart. Not the way her world was falling apart piece by piece.
After the nurse finished and stepped out, Regina forced herself out of the room before she fell to her knees. She walked down the hallway, slow steps echoing, her vision swimming.
She finally reached the empty vending-machine corner and pressed her palm to the cold wall as she silently sobbed. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably, her breath hitching in painful gasps.
Her mother was getting worse. The medicine was just delaying the inevitable. It wasn’t curing anything. It was only making her look okay for a while.
And she was running out of time.
Just then, Regina’s phone buzzed in her palm...an incoming call.
The name on the screen made her stomach twist.
Bret.
Her cheating husband.
The man who had ripped her heart open and left it to rot.
She stared at the phone for a long second, then let out a sharp, humorless laugh...the kind that tasted like blood and heartbreak.
“Oh,” she muttered to herself bitterly, “is he calling to help me pick baby names for the kids he’s busy knocking someone up with?”
Her voice cracked at the end, but she still swiped to answer.
“Regina,” Bret said, his voice smooth and bored, like she was an employee he didn’t want to deal with. “Good. You picked up.”
She didn’t speak. She didn’t greet him. She didn’t even inhale.
He continued, oblivious to how much she hated him.
“Listen. My beloved...”
Regina almost gagged.
“...has picked a date for the company’s get-together party. Bloggers, investors, French clients, all of that. You need to be there.”
Regina blinked. “I need to be where?”
“At the company retreat. Tomorrow evening.”
“And why the f**k,” she said, voice sharp as glass, “would I foolishly show up for your useless camp?”
He paused. Then chuckled.
It was a cruel sound...dark, amused, knowing.
“Because,” Bret said calmly, “you can speak French. And we have a very important client who refuses to speak English. You’re the only interpreter I trust.”
Regina laughed. A raw, bitter, broken laugh.
“Trust? Bret, you f****d your secretary on our couch. You trusted her p***y more than my loyalty.”
“True,” he said without shame. “But she can’t speak French.”
Her chest tightened. “Find someone else.”
“No.” His voice hardened. “I know you’re no longer foolish, Regina. But I’m not done using you yet.”
Her fingers trembled. She wanted to hang up...God, she wanted to smash the damn phone...but then he added, casually:
“And if you do this… I’ll pay for your mother’s treatment.”
Everything inside her froze.
Her knees nearly buckled.
Her breath vanished.
Her heart plummeted to the floor.
“…What?” she whispered.
“I’ll pay,” Bret repeated, like it was nothing to him. “Full amount. Surgery, medication, everything. So. Are you coming or what?”
Regina hated herself.
She hated how her body went cold with dread and hot with desperation at the same time.
She hated that he knew she couldn’t refuse that offer.
She closed her eyes.
“Where?” she whispered.
- Writer
