Ethan and I walked into the courtyard, and the sight before me hit like a punch to the gut. The ground was soaked in blood. Rachel lay on the ground, crying out as Jack, wild-eyed and frenzied, kicked her stomach over and over.
“It’s all your fault!” Jack yelled, his face twisted with rage. “If it weren’t for you, Lily would still be mine!”
“You and your bastard child can go to hell!” he spat.
At Ethan’s signal, the bodyguards moved in, pulling Jack away. His eyes were locked on mine, filled with desperation.
“Lily!” he screamed. “Can’t you see what I’m willing to do for you? I can’t lose you! I won’t keep this bitch or her bastard!”
I flinched behind Ethan, my heart racing. This was a side of Jack I didn’t even recognize anymore. He was like a different person, a monster.
Then, an older man, his face lined with years of regret, was dragged into the courtyard by the bodyguards. The moment he saw Rachel lying there, his eyes lit up with fury.
“You little slut!” he shouted, stepping toward her. “I finally found you! You told me to hurt someone before, said it’d be just a few months in jail and that you’d take care of me when I got out!”
He shook his head, bitterly. “But you disappeared after I got out! If you don’t pay up today, you better watch out!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I turned to Ethan, confused, and he quickly filled in the blanks.
“This is Rachel’s father,” he said, his voice cool but steady. “The accident two years ago wasn’t just some random incident. Rachel set it up, manipulating her father to hit you. You were her real target from the beginning. Jack just happened to be there, which is why her father nearly hit the wrong person.”
The shock of it all hit me like a freight train. Rachel had wanted me dead for so long, and I had no idea.
“Why… why would you do this to me?” I whispered, my voice trembling.
Rachel, still writhing on the ground, sneered at me, her eyes full of venom.
“Why? You dare ask why?!” she spat. “What gives you the right to be born a rich girl while I’m stuck in this hellhole, a poor girl from the mountains?”
She laughed bitterly. “When you were supposed to sponsor me, you should’ve given me everything you had! Not just your leftover pocket change every month like some charity case! You were nothing but a hypocrite!”
Her voice dropped to a cold, deadly whisper. “My biggest regret is that my useless father couldn’t finish the job two years ago. I never thought that even after you were paralyzed, Jack would still want to marry you. I was finally going to use my child to climb the social ladder. But then you ruined everything! I hate you! I wish I could kill you right here, right now!”
I stood frozen, my mind reeling. Everything I had done for her, everything I thought was kindness, had been twisted into a weapon to hurt me.
Just then, Jack broke free from the bodyguards and stormed back to Rachel, delivering another brutal kick.
“So it was you all along!” he shouted. “You made Lily suffer, and now this?! Even if she forgives you, I never will!”
Rachel slammed into a stone pillar, blood pouring from her lower body.
“No… my baby!” she screamed, her voice desperate.
At that moment, Mike, Jack’s friend, the one who’d eagerly volunteered to be the child’s godfather, rushed forward. He picked Rachel up, his voice full of fury as he shouted at Jack.
“Jack Thompson!” Mike yelled, his face red with rage. “How could you do this to your own child?! Rachel did everything for you! How can you hurt her like this?”
Everyone around us froze, realizing there was far more to this story than they’d imagined.
“My brother’s own child?” Ethan muttered, sounding skeptical. “Mike, I seriously doubt that.”
He motioned for his assistant to play a video. The screen flickered to life, showing footage of Mike and Rachel kissing passionately at the mansion entrance, followed by intimate moments between them over the next few days, scattered across different parts of the house.
Then came the prenatal paternity test, confirming that the baby Rachel was carrying had no genetic relation to Jack.
Jack’s face drained of color, his anger quickly turning to disbelief. He grabbed Mike by the collar, his voice shaking with fury.
“I considered you my best friend!” Jack shouted. “And this is what you do behind my back?! You cuckold me and then expect me to raise your child?! What do you take me for?!”
Mike didn’t flinch, his jaw clenched tight, but he stayed silent.
Rachel, now laughing maniacally, pulled up a medical report on her phone. It confirmed her diagnosis: she was infertile.
“It’s because you’re a useless man who can’t have kids!” she sneered. “I had to borrow your best friend’s sperm just to have a shot at marrying into your family! But now? Now everything’s ruined. It doesn’t matter, though. I can always get pregnant again. But Jack, you’ll never have your own flesh and blood!”
She laughed again, the sound cold and filled with contempt. “This is your karma!”
The scene erupted into chaos, fists flying, people yelling, and the truth finally coming out. Guests stood frozen in shock, mouths hanging open as the reporters clicked away, eager to capture every moment.
Soon after, the police arrived, breaking up the fight and hauling Rachel, her father, and Mike off for questioning. Rachel and her father were later sentenced to ten years for premeditated attempted murder resulting in serious injury. Jack got three years for intentional assault.
Jack’s mother? She lost all status in the family when the infertility scandal came to light. Not long after, Mr. Thompson divorced her.
As for me, I was done with all these twisted people and their mess.
A little while later, I was walking down the red carpet at my wedding to Ethan, live-streamed to the world. With a smile that felt like a new beginning, I said “I do,” and walked into the bright future that awaited us, full of love, happiness, and freedom from all the drama.
