Mrs. Moretti

I was dying. Poison burned through my veins like fire, each breath tearing at my throat until even inhaling became agony. My fingers dragged across the cold marble, reaching for my phone just a few inches away. Come on... Just a little farther. If I could call Max, he'd come. He always came. My brother never failed me. My vision blurred, turning the ceiling lights into pale streaks. Blood filled my mouth, warm and metallic. My body begged me to stop moving, but I refused. Not like this. Not before I heard my brother's voice one last time. My fingertips brushed the edge of the phone. Relief flooded through me. Then... Crunch. A red stiletto came down on the screen, grinding the glass beneath its heel until it shattered into glittering pieces. The sound echoed through the silent house. So did my hope. I lifted my head. Chloe stood over me in a pair of red stilettos, the heel stained with my blood. She looked immaculate. Not a strand of hair out of place. Not a trace of panic in her eyes. Only satisfaction. The kind that came from finally getting everything she'd ever wanted. "You should've stayed ignorant, Jessy." Her lips curved into a slow smile. "Things would've been so much easier." Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. I looked up at her through blurred vision. "Chloe..." My voice cracked. "Please..." She laughed quietly, almost amused by how pathetic I sounded. "Please?" she repeated. "What exactly do you want me to do?" She glanced at the shattered phone beneath her heel before looking back at me. "Call your brother?" she asked softly. "Tell him I helped murder your brother's little sister?" Her smile widened. "Don't be ridiculous." She leaned closer until I could smell her expensive perfume. "By tomorrow, everyone will believe the same story." I frowned weakly. She brushed an imaginary speck of dust from her dress. "You've been depressed ever since your miscarriages." Another smile. "You couldn't give your husband an heir." She tilted her head. "The guilt finally became too much..." Her voice dropped into an almost sympathetic whisper. "So you threw yourself down the stairs." I forced my body to move. Every muscle screamed as I pushed myself onto shaking legs. I just had to get past her. Just one step... Then another... The room spun violently. Before I could steady myself, Chloe's hand landed lightly on my shoulder. A gentle push. That was all it took. My body pitched backward. The staircase swallowed me. Pain exploded through my shoulder. My ribs slammed against the edge of another step. My head struck the marble with a sickening crack. Everything went white. When my vision returned, I was lying at the bottom of the stairs. Warm blood spread beneath me. I couldn't feel my legs. No... No... This couldn't be happening. Footsteps echoed through the silence. Slow. Calm. Unhurried. Rick appeared at the top of the staircase. He didn't run. He didn't panic. He simply walked down, one step at a time, as though he'd expected to find me there all along. He stopped beside me and crouched. Our eyes met. For a second, I searched his face for the man I married. The man who promised to protect me. The man I gave everything to. I found a stranger. "Rick..." My voice broke. He smiled. Not warmly. Not cruelly. Patiently. The smile of a man whose plan had finally reached its end. "Do you know what amazes me, Jessy?" His voice was calm. "So many people warned you." He chuckled softly. "Your father." "Your brother." "They all told you I wasn't the man you believed I was." His smile deepened. "And yet..." "You chose me anyway." My heart pounded painfully. "No..." "I gave up everything for you," I whispered. "My inheritance..." "My shares..." "My family..." "You did." He nodded almost proudly. "You did." His voice was almost gentle. "And I never asked you to." I stared at him. "No..." "No... you loved me." The words sounded pathetic even to my own ears. For a moment, he simply looked at me. Then he laughed. Not loudly. Not cruelly. Just enough to make my chest tighten. "Love?" he repeated. "You still think this was about love?" He shook his head slowly. "Jessy... I knew exactly who you were the day we met." "You were your father's only daughter." "The future heiress of Hayes Group." "The woman every ambitious man wanted beside him." He paused. "I simply got there first." My heart stopped. "You..." "I courted you because of your name." He didn't even try to deny it. "When your father demanded you give up your inheritance to marry me..." he continued, "I thought you'd finally come to your senses." A small smile touched his lips. "But instead..." "You signed everything away." His eyes held mine. "I've never seen anyone destroy herself so willingly." The tears I'd been holding back finally escaped. "So after I gave up everything..." "You stopped needing me." Rick sighed. "No." "I stopped needing what you no longer had." The words hollowed me out. "You were useful because you came with power." "When the power disappeared..." "So did my reason to keep pretending." My breathing turned ragged. "So every apology..." "Every promise..." "Every 'I love you'..." "They were all lies?" Rick didn't answer immediately. He simply looked at me. Then... "I've told thousands of lies in my life." His expression never changed. "But those three words..." "They were my most profitable." A soft laugh drifted through the room. Chloe. She stepped beside Rick and looked down at me, her expression almost sympathetic. "She still doesn't understand." Rick slipped his hands into his pockets. "I told you she wouldn't." Chloe crouched in front of me, careful not to let her dress touch the blood pooling across the marble. "You know what I admired most about you, Jessy?" I couldn't answer. "You trusted so easily." She smiled. "You trusted me." My fingers curled against the floor. "No..." "You remember your first miscarriage?" The words stole the air from my lungs. "You cried for hours." "You kept asking me why God would take your baby." Her smile softened. "I held your hand." "I told you everything would be okay." "You thanked me." A tear slipped down my cheek. "No..." "You hugged me." "You called me your sister." Each word landed heavier than the last. "You even said..." Chloe paused, pretending to remember. "'I don't know what I'd do without you.'" She laughed quietly. "The irony almost made me feel guilty." Almost. I stared at her. My entire body trembled. "You knew..." "Of course I knew." She didn't even hesitate. "I knew before you did." "What?" "When you were pregnant." "When you lost the babies." "When Rick lied to you." She looked at Rick with a smile that made my stomach twist. "He told me everything." Every. Single. Thing. The late nights. The sudden business trips. The expensive jewelry she somehow always had. The little boy she brought into my home. The child she claimed belonged to a distant cousin. God... I fed him. I tucked him into bed. I celebrated his birthday. I loved him. The room spun. Chloe watched every realization break across my face. Then she delivered the final blow. "He isn't my cousin's son." Silence. "He's Rick's." My heart stopped. "No..." "He's our son." The world collapsed around me. All this time... While I mourned two children... While I blamed my own body... While I begged heaven to let me become a mother... Rick already was a father. Just... Not with me. I closed my eyes. A broken sound escaped my lips. Not a scream. Not a sob. Something far worse. The sound of a heart finally realizing it had been loved by no one. Everything went silent. Not around me. Inside me. The pain was still there. The poison still burned through my veins. Blood still soaked the marble beneath me. But none of it hurt as much as the truth. I laughed. The sound frightened even me. It was hollow. Broken. How had I been so blind? Dad had warned me. Max begged me to reconsider. Everyone who loved me saw through Rick. Everyone... Except me. I chose him. I fought my own family for him. I walked away from my inheritance for him. I threw away my future... For a man who had been laughing behind my back from the very beginning. What a joke. No... What a fool. My chest tightened. Not because I was dying. Because I finally understood. Love wasn't enough. Love couldn't protect me. Love couldn't save my children. Love couldn't stop betrayal. Love... Had destroyed me. My vision blurred again. Faces flashed through my mind. Dad. The disappointment hidden behind his anger. Max. The way he begged me not to marry Rick. Olivia. The only friend who never abandoned me. Then... Another face appeared. Cold. Expressionless. Unreachable. Dante Moretti. The man I had spent years fearing. The man I refused to marry. The man I called a monster... Without ever knowing him. I almost smiled. How ironic. I had spent my whole life running away from the city's most feared man... Only to die in the arms of the one everyone called a gentleman. Maybe monsters weren't the ones people warned you about. Maybe... The kindest smiles hid the sharpest knives. A tear slid down my cheek. If... If there really was another life... I wouldn't make the same mistake. I wouldn't choose sweet words over strength. I wouldn't mistake obsession for love. I wouldn't throw away power for empty promises. This time... I'd choose the man no one dared betray. The man whose name alone could silence a room. I'd become Mrs. Moretti. Not because I loved him. Because I needed his power. Because I'd rather spend my life in a cold marriage built on respect... Than die again in a warm one built on lies. My fingers slowly loosened against the marble. The last thing I heard... Was my own heartbeat fading into silence. Darkness swallowed me whole. Then... I gasped. '''