Kimberly’s POV
1 stopped asking to visit my mother’s grave, but as my hope faded, my spirit withered with it.
Sleep became my refuge–a preview of the permanent darkness awaiting me. My waking hours grew increasingly sparse, like islands in an expanding ocean of unconsciousness.
I knew it was time to properly say goodbye to Olivia. To give her permission to let me go.
Strangely, over the next few days, I experienced what the nurses called “terminal lucidity“-that mysterious final rally before the end. While my body grew increasingly tortured with pain, my mind achieved an unsettling clarity, as if my consciousness was preparing for its final performance.
Word of my apparent improvement must have reached Katie, because she couldn’t resist making an appearance.
She slipped into the hospital during Cedric’s brief absence–calculated timing that confirmed this wasn’t a spontaneous visit.
Olivia’s reaction was instantaneous and volcanic. “This is a restricted area–no sluts or strays allowed,” she snarled, stepping between Katie and my bed. “Turn around and walk out now unless you want your face rearranged so badly your own mother won’t recognize you.”
To my surprise, Katie didn’t fire back with her usual venom. Instead, she circled around Olivia and dropped dramatically to her knees beside my bed. Tears–whether genuine or manufactured–streamed down her perfectly made–up face.
“Kimberley, please,” she sobbed, clutching at my hospital blanket. “I’m three months pregnant with Cedric’s baby. You’re already at death’s door–can’t you just once be the decent person here? Give my child’s father back to me!”
Three months pregnant. Exactly as long as I’d been hospitalized.
The timing wasn’t lost on me. While Cedric had been sitting by my hospital bed, claiming he needed me, he’d been crawling into her bed too.
What use did he have for a dying woman except as another game in his endless power plays?
He’d been playing both sides–probably enjoying the drama, the control. The same old Cedric, unable to decide if he wanted to punish me or possess
- me.
A bitter laugh bubbled up in my throat. Thankfully, I hadn’t believed his deathbed confessions for a second.
Katie’s face hardened when she saw my lack of shock. She lunged forward, grabbing my arm with bruising force, nearly yanking me from the bed. My weakened body couldn’t resist–I felt myself sliding toward the edge.
Olivia moved with surprising speed, shoving herself between us, but not before Katie’s manicured nails left several deep, bloody scratches down her
forearm.
The commotion must have alerted someone, because suddenly the room’s door slammed open.
In one fluid motion, Cedric crossed the room, grabbed Katie by her expensively highlighted hair, and yanked her backward with enough force to make her yelp.
“Didn’t I make myself perfectly fucking clear?” His voice was deadly quiet–the tone that made board members and business rivals physically recoil. “I warned you what would happen if you ever came near my wife again.”
Katie’s expression transformed from tearful victim to calculating predator in an instant. “Your wife?” she spat, one hand protectively covering her stomach. “The woman you’ve been complaining about for years? The frigid bitch who-”
Before she could finish, Olivia grabbed a pillow and hurled it directly into both their faces.
“GET YOUR PATHETIC ASSES OUT OF THIS ROOM!” she screamed, her composure completely shattered. “Take your fucking homewrecker with you and GET OUT! You think this is some goddamn soap opera? She’s DYING, you selfish pieces of shit!”
In the sudden, shocked silence that followed Olivia’s outburst, I felt a strange sense of peace wash over me. The truth was finally out in the open–messy, ugly, and undeniable.
Cedric still held Katie by the arm, but his eyes were fixed on me–searching for some reaction, some sign that I cared about this revelation.
But I didn’t. Not anymore. The woman who would have been devastated by this betrayal had died months ago, perhaps years ago. What remained of me was too tired for jealousy, too close to the end for revenge.
“Congratulations,” I whispered, my voice barely audible above the monitor’s steady beeping. “You’ll finally have what you always wanted–a family.”
I turned my face toward the window, dismissing them all. The spring sunshine filtering through the blinds seemed to be calling me away from this drama, this pain, this exhausted body.
Soon, I thought. Soon.
