Chapter 0004

Immediately, Winter broke into tears as she buried her face in Gerald's neck. "Desiree tried to kill me again, Gerald. She said I should've never woken up from the coma because I don't deserve to live. What have I done to her to deserve this?"

Desiree finally realized what was going on. Winter had heard Gerald's voice and had quickly come up with a plan to manipulate him.

"She is lying!" Desiree fumed desperately, even though she knew it was fruitless. Judging from the look in Gerald's eyes, he already believed every lie Winter had spilled. "Please don't believe her, Gerald. She–"

"Shut up!" Gerald snapped. "Not a word, Desiree. Not a single word from you."

"Gerald, please–"

"I said shut the fuck up, Desiree!" Gerald roared as he shot to his feet. "What is wrong with you? What the hell are you even doing here? Haven't you done enough? Aren't you satisfied after putting her in a coma for a whole damn year?"

The outrageous accusation hit Desiree like a slap, and she stared at him in shock. "What? What are you talking about, Gerald?"

He scoffed, the disgust in his eyes stabbing at her. "You can drop the act now, Desiree. I know everything now. Winter woke up a month ago, and she told me everything that truly happened on the day of the accident." Disgust filled his eyes as he stared her down from head to toe. "I can't believe I was so blind."

"Gerald, what the hell are you talking about?" Desiree said desperately, hating the disgust in his eyes. "What did Winter tell you? What have I done? What truth are you talking about?"

"I know that it was you who ran Winter over with your car! Thanks to you, she was in a coma for a whole year!"

It took Desiree several seconds of stifling silence for Gerald's words to finally sink in, and her eyes widened. "What? That is not true!"

She stared at Winter incredulously, not believing that she was able to perpetuate such a lie. "Why did you tell Gerald that, Winter? You know that's not true!"

Just like that, Winter flinched and hid behind Gerald, pretending to be scared of Desiree.

"Do not come near her, Desiree! You've hurt her enough," Gerald warned, the disgust in his eyes intensifying. "Were you that desperate? You tried to kill Winter because you thought that would finally make me fall in love with you?"

"She's lying, Gerald. Why can't you see that?" Desiree implored, trying to touch him, to see if her touch would make him believe her.

Gerald slapped her hands away. "Winter didn't lie to me. There's proof."

Desiree froze. "Which proof? There can't be any proof because I didn't do anything!"

"Really? Are you still going to say you weren't the one?" Gerald said, bringing his phone out of his pocket. He began clicking on some buttons.

A moment later, Desiree's phone chimed with a notification. She brought it out and checked the message Gerald had just sent. It was a video that looked like a CCTV footage, and it showed Desiree in the white Corolla she'd been using a year ago speeding toward Winter and running over her with the car. Desiree's disbelief mounted higher the more she watched the video. The video looked so real that nobody who watched it would doubt it.

"This isn't real!" She said sharply. "I don't know where she got this from, but it's not real, I swear."

Gerald stared back at her incredulously. "You're still denying it even though you have evidence staring at you in the face?"

Tears streamed down Desiree's face. "I didn't do anything, Gerald. Please believe me. "If I truly wanted to kill her, why would I call for an ambulance when I found her?"

"Maybe because you had a brief moment of guilt?" Winter suggested, pouring more fuel over the fire. "And when you saw that my life was hanging in the balance, you manipulated the situation and made Doctor Hussley save my life so that Gerald would feel grateful and indebted to you and agree to marry you."

"Shut up, you liar!" Desiree sneered, glaring at her. "Why are you doing this, Winter? Why? What have I done to you?"

It finally made sense. This was why Gerald had turned so cold toward her in the past month and why he wanted a divorce from her. Because Winter had fed him all those lies!

Desiree turned to Gerald, feeling tears burning her eyes at the unforgiving look in his. "Gerald, you've got to believe me. Please. That video is fake."

Gerald let out a short laugh. "I've got to applaud you, Desiree. You played your game so well. You made me believe you like an idiot when all along it was you who planned everything. You tricked me into marrying you. That's why it didn't even matter to you when I told you that I didn't love you."

A tear slipped down Desiree's left cheek. "Yes, I knew you didn't love me. But you agreed to marry me, Gerald. I didn't force you. You could have said no. You could have refused."

Gerald paused for a second, then scoffed disdainfully. "Yes, you're right. I agreed to marry you. But that's because I didn't know that I was going to be marrying such a horrible person!"

"Gerald–"

The sudden opening of the door cut Desires off. A nurse stepped inside looking very pissed. "Sir... ma'am. I'm sorry, but I have to remind you that this is a hospital. You will leave me no choice but to have security escort you out if you keep screaming and disturbing the peace of other patients."

Gerald nodded once at the nurse before turning his gaze to Desiree. "You're lucky I'm letting you off the hook so easily, Desiree. You should be thankful to Winter because she asked me not to do anything to you. I agreed because of the friendship between our families, but I won't sit down lightly if you try to hurt her again. Stay away from her."

"But I didn't do anything to her," Desiree said quietly as tears streamed down her face. "Why won't you believe me, Gerald? You've known me since I was a kid. You know I can't even hurt an ant. You know I would never do something like this."

"That's the problem, isn't it?" Gerald said with a humorless chuckle. "I thought I knew you. You put on this innocent, angelic mask, but you're not a good person, Desiree. You're a horrible person."

His insult cut her, making more tears pour down her face. But Gerald didn't care and said coldly, "Get out of here, Desiree."

With tears still streaming down her face, Desiree walked out of the hospital room, her heart breaking into a million pieces.