In His Mistress Body

Chapter 2

Of all the truths in life, death tells the most important at the last moment.

“I've always hated you," Charlotte sneered only an inch away from my palling face.

“I had to fight for everything good in my life and you, it always landed right in front of you." Easing her feet on the oxygen tube, I loudly gasped, taking as much oxygen as I could.

“And now you want to play the victim, when all I did was take what was meant for me”

“Charlotte," I choked out, rubbing on my neck as tears stung my eyes. “Meant for you?." A tear rolled down my cheek. “My home, my marriage? It was meant for you?"

“Play the victim all you want, Hope." She threw her head back, letting out a dry laugh. “You don't know what it feels like to not have anything and you, all you ever did was flaunt everything." Her voice pitched higher and her cherry brown hair shook with the wind.

“I was happy, Charlotte." My breathing finally steadied and I pointed my finger to her face. “And when you're happy, you share it with the people you love."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“That's something you'll never know because you only love yourself."

Looking at me squarely in my face, she brimmed. “You deserve this cancer, you deserve your failing marriage, you deserve everything hellish in your life."

Before I could catch myself, my hand met with her rosy cheek and she stumbled backwards, almost falling to the ground.

Her hands immediately held her face, a soft gasp escaping her lips. “How dare you!" She flipped her hair, revealing the red imprint on her flushed face.

“Hope." Dylan appeared, taking long strides toward me as he rushed to Charlotte's side. “Are you okay, baby?"

I instantly looked away, the sight too much for me to bear.

“Hand the phone over now." Dylan suddenly focused back on me, his voice hard and unremorseful.

“Hand it over." Charlotte repeated, her palm stretched out, still fuming as her hands trembled from impatience.

I let a lasting silence fall between us as my eyes darted between both of them. My heart clenched and I could feel heat rising to my face.

The warmth the thought of Dylan ever offered was gone now, and the love I thought I saw in Charlotte's eyes was just jealousy.

“No." My voice came out barely audible. I shook my head and swallowed the sob threatening to tear through me. “You both deserve to rot in hell."

Dylan's jaw clenched and unclenched as his eyes briefly darted over to Charlotte's, as if waiting for her lead.

The air felt thicker now and I could sense the change in the atmosphere. It no longer reeked of desperation. It was replaced with a cold feel of revenge.

But before I could do anything, Charlotte grabbed my wrist and pulled me back, half my body now resting on the overlook.

My eyes widened and my oxygen tank tipped over, the clanging sound of metal bouncing on the marbled floor ringing in my ears. I gripped the phone tighter, my pulse hammering in my ear.

My breathing was strained now and Charlotte looked mad, hair sticking to her sweaty forehead and her cheek getting redder by the minute.

“Hand it over, Hope, or I swear I'll kill you." She meant it. I could tell by the murderous look in her eyes.

“You'll only get this phone over my dead body." I meant it too. All my life I let everything roll off my back, but not this time. I felt like vengeance.

Charlotte would kill me, I knew that, because I heard death whisper the truth I wish I knew earlier: I loved too deeply and it ruined me. It was a truth Charlotte knew herself.

“Fine then." Her voice was smooth and silky, not a hint of fear in it, and just as quickly her hands lunged at me and pushed me down.

My oxygen tube was the first to snap and then my body tipped over and my breath hitched as my lungs searched for air. But I refused death. If anything, I refused to die alone.

With the last surge of strength, I grabbed her wrist, desperate for the taste of vengeance. I pulled her with me.

I heard her scream, a loud frantic scream that tore through the silent night, then Dylan's, then a long silence.

My eyes snapped shut. My body felt lighter in the air and time ticked slowly. It was peaceful, a peace I had not known in a long time.

When I opened them again, I caught a glimpse of Charlotte's trembling body hanging over the overlook. And then I hit the marbled floor, pain shearing through me.

I tasted blood, warm and metallic, and soon it filled my whole mouth as my body started to convulse. Slowly I started to feel nothing. My eyes still locked on Charlotte's hanging body, I saw Dylan, and the sound of their desperate cries filled my ears. Her hands were slipping from her desperate hold and Dylan was trying to reach for her.

I had been a fool all my life, played the dutiful wife and the foolish sister to my husband’s mistress, and at my last moment I found myself wishing she wouldn't slip from her hold.

So as the darkness closed in, regret consumed me and then I heard a loud thud.