3.

Callista

I stared at the lawyer like he’d just started speaking a language I’d never heard before. My chest heaved violently, each inhale scraping my throat like broken glass. It felt like someone had shoved a fist into my lungs and was squeezing. “So…” My voice trembled, each word fragile. “I’m the only idiot who didn’t realize my husband already divorced me?”

He froze. I could see something twist in his gut…panic maybe. I didn’t care. My breathing was all wrong too fast, too shallow, like my body had forgotten how to work.

“Mrs. Madden… please calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm the hell down!” My voice cracked, sharp and wet with fury. “You walk into my hospital room and casually tell me my husband divorced me like you’re commenting on the weather!”

He flinched. I tried to sit up, but the room spun and dizziness slammed into my skull. I grabbed the bed railing, gasping. “What kind of sick joke is this…?” I muttered.

He stared at my chest heaving, and I knew he’d never seen a reaction like this. “I… I need to get a doctor,” he stammered, fumbling for his briefcase.

“Wait.” My glare could have burned him alive. “You don’t get to run away after dropping that bullshit on me.”

He paused at the door. “I actually… came to inform you formally”

“Mrs. Madden… your breathing…”

“You evil jerk!” I shouted.

His face went pale. “Oh shit.” He bolted to the door.

“I’m calling the doctor,” he said, clearing his throat. “I won’t be working for your family anymore.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I resigned from the Madden family law firm this morning.”

I laughed, bitter and hollow. “You spineless asshole!”

He adjusted his tie nervously. “It wouldn’t look professional if I left without informing you formally…”

“Professional?” I barked. “You come here, tell me my husband dumped me, married my best friend, and now you quit your job… and professionalism is the issue?!”

He looked mortified. “Goodbye, Callista.” Then he practically ran out.

I sank back into the pillow, chest hammering, eyes burning. “Unbelievable…This can’t happen to me. I’m untouchable” The pounding in my ears didn’t stop. My vision flickered. My lungs screamed for air. “God… damn it…”

The door burst open. Doctors and nurses poured in. “What happened?” one nurse shouted.

“She’s hyperventilating!”

“Blood pressure spike!”

The world tilted, then someone grabbed my wrist, another pressed something cold against my arm. “Mrs. Madden… try to breathe slowly.”

“Fuck… breathing slowly!” I gasped.

The doctor readied a syringe. Pain prickled, then warmth spread through my veins. Slowly, I regained control, muscles unclenching, the room steadying.

Minutes later, I blinked at the older man with glasses sliding down his nose. “Feeling better?”

I let out a long breath. “I’ve had better days.”

“Your blood pressure shot dangerously high just now.”

“No shit,” I muttered.

He flipped through a clipboard. “There’s something else we need to discuss.”

My stomach twisted. “What now? Am I… pregnant?”

“No…When we ran your blood tests earlier…” he started, careful. “…we noticed something unusual. Something affecting your red blood cells.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“They’re weaker than they should be.” His gaze was steady. “Could explain your fainting and vision issues.”

“Impossible,” I snapped.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” I paused. “…Well, I mean…”

The doctor waited. I exhaled. “I don’t eat food cooked by random people. Only my husband well… my ex-husband.”

“Even drinks?”

“Yes.”

“Supplements?”

“No.”

“Medication?”

“Only what my eye specialist prescribes.”

He nodded. “Full medical exam tomorrow morning.”

“Someone’s poisoning me?” I asked, voice hollow.

“I didn’t say that,” he replied. “But something isn’t normal.”

I sank back against the pillow. “Wonderful.” My ex-husband divorced me, married my best friend, and now… maybe poisoned me.

He stood. “We’ll run more tests tomorrow.”

“Fine.”

The nurse began paperwork. “That’s five hundred for today’s treatment.”

I turned, slow. “Excuse me?”

She froze. “For… the medical service.”

“You’re insulting me?”

“You’re my family doctor,” I said dryly. “Since I was sixteen.”

He chuckled. “She has a point.”

“You know the Madden family has covered every bill for years.”

She lowered the clipboard. “Right… sorry, Mrs. Madden.”

I let out a long, bitter breath. “Next time, think before asking a half-blind woman for payment.”

“Get some rest tonight,” the doctor said.

I leaned back, mind spinning. Lips twisted in a bitter smile. “Daelan…” I whispered. “If this leads back to you…” My fingers clenched the sheet. “…I swear I’ll make your life a living hell.”

Hours later, gripping the steering wheel, I drove out of the hospital. Hands shaking, partly from sedatives, mostly rage. His words haunted me: Something is weakening your red blood cells. A humorless laugh escaped me. “God, Callista… you really are the dumbest woman alive.”

The massive iron gates of the Madden estate came into view. My chest tightened. Memories twisted painfully in my stomach…Daelan burning pancakes, swearing under his breath, my laughter. Folding laundry, teasing him, bragging to everyone: friends, family, strangers. My husband cooks. My husband does everything.

Now the taste of humiliation burned. “Is this what happens when you brag about your man?” I muttered darkly. “He turns into a complete fucking asshole?”

I stepped out of the car toward the gate, then froze. A large hand blocked my path. “Stop there, ma’am.”

My brow furrowed. I recognized him…head of security. The man I’d personally hired, tipped generously every Christmas blocking me from my house. “Excuse me?” I said slowly.

“Do you have an appointment?”

I blinked. “At least my eyesight’s getting better,” I muttered sarcastically.

“Do you have an appointment, ma’am?”

I took a slow step forward. “Listen carefully,” my voice low and dangerous. “Do not push me tonight. I am not in the mood for whatever stupid prank you’re pulling.”

“My boss ordered no one enters without an appointment,” he said stiffly.

“My boss?” He nodded.

I didn’t laugh. My face hardened. “You must be joking.” “This is my house,” I gestured at the mansion. “I built this place from scratch. Every brick. Every tile. Every damn window.”

He shifted uncomfortably. “Ma’am… orders are clear.”

“Oh really?”

Patience snapped. SLAP. My hand cracked across his face. His head snapped sideways and its echoes filled the driveway. “How dare you,” I hissed.

Clutching his cheek, he stumbled back.

“Three years I’ve been paying your salary,” I breathed hard. “Three fucking years… and tonight, you block me from my own house?”

I looked up and my eyes met Elysia at the balcony in myy favorite silk dress, holding my crystal wine glass and sipping.

The air left me in a gasp.