Chapter 3

"Oh dear!"

"Elaine really should be more careful. Fancy mistaking a window for a door."

"Jack, no need to call 911. Let's just ring the crematorium directly."

Marjorie smiled faintly and ended the video call.

Staring at the screen gone black, my mind emptied out, and I dropped to the floor.

"Jack, it's time to feed the little one!"

"Let's hurry."

Marjorie pouted, indifferent.

But Jack froze for a few seconds.

His eyes fixed on me.

Emotion churned and fought behind them.

Then, after those few seconds, it all settled back into calm and hatred.

"Let's go."

He pulled open the greenhouse door and tossed a divorce agreement inside.

"Since the baby in your belly is already gone, sign this and let's get the divorce over with."

The signature line of the divorce agreement was stained with blood.

All at once I thought of Jack, the one who had thrown himself off the seventh floor without hesitation to save me when I was depressed.

Senior year of high school, my father had an affair with Marjorie's mother.

My mother lost her mind and caused a scene at his school.

She stripped Marjorie's mother's clothes off and doused her whole body in paint.

At the school gate she hung a long banner, exposing the record of their affair.

Pushed past my limit, my depression broke loose, and I stood on the seventh floor of the school to jump.

It was Jack who tied a rope around himself and jumped after me without hesitation, holding me tight.

The moments when we once loved each other rose up in my mind.

Lying on the floor, I felt my breath growing weaker and weaker.

I don't know how long it was before a basin of ice water, reeking of alcohol, was suddenly dumped over my head.

"Sophie James, what did you do to the condoms?!"

The violent sting jolted me awake.

I opened my eyes to Jack's face, full of hatred and disgust.

"Marjorie broke out in a full-body allergic reaction and nearly went into shock. Did you do this!"

He roared it at me.

Jack's shirt hung open, covered in kiss marks.

Behind him, Marjorie was covered in red, swollen welts.

"Jack, it hurts so much."

"Am I going to be scarred for life?"

"I love wearing dresses more than anything. Sophie did this on purpose!"

"She did it on purpose!"

"She's jealous that you love me!"

Shrieking it out, Marjorie clawed hard at her own face.

Several vivid red streaks appeared in an instant.

"Sophie James, how can you be so disgusting?"

Jack said it word by word, then picked up his phone and made a call.

"Bring me seafood, as much as you can."

At the word seafood, my body flinched on instinct.

The next second my mouth was pried open and stuffed with fishy seafood, more than I could count.

My throat kept swallowing until I couldn't swallow anymore.

Red welts broke out all over me.

My throat began to close, my face began to swell.

"Sophie James, an eye for an eye."

"Whatever you did to Marjorie, you should suffer the same."

Jack's words faded further and further from my ears.

My consciousness began to peel away from my body, bit by bit.

But someone dragged me and put me into a car.

"Jack, I want the best cosmetic hospital!"

"You know I love being beautiful. I can't be left scarred!"

Marjorie's coaxing voice drifted over.

The welts on her body had already faded, most of them gone.

This wasn't an allergic reaction at all.

Lying in the back seat, I felt the pain in my body slowly disappearing.

My body grew lighter and lighter.

The doctor's warning came back to my ears again.

"Miss James, if you miscarry one more time, you will die!"

Die?

Good.

I closed my eyes, and blurring in front of me, in the confusion of fading consciousness, was Jack.

He spoke, furious and helpless.

"Sophie James, you really don't take care of your own body!"

"You don't even know your own allergies!"

"Once you leave me, who else would carry allergy pills around for you."

The car jolted, and a large box of allergy pills tumbled out.

It landed right in Jack's lap as he drove.

On the box, written in big red marker, were a few words.

【Sophie's Own. Three pills each time.】

【The pills are bitter. Remember to buy a regular sugar milk tea to take them with.】