Chapter 22

She knelt down beside Kate and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look up. "This is the last time," she said, her voice soft and deadly. "The last time you hurt her. The last time you touch her. The last time you even look at her wrong. Do you understand me?"

Kate nodded frantically, tears streaming down her face. "Yes. Yes, I understand. I swear. I swear."

Taylor released her chin and stood up, brushing off her hands as though she had touched something dirty.

“Good”

Kate scrambled across the wet marble floor toward Andrew, her expensive heels slipping and skidding on the damp surface. She dropped to her knees beside him, her hands hovering uncertainly over his shaking shoulders as he continued to cough and retch, water still dripping from his hair and chin onto the polished stone.

"Andrew! Andrew, are you okay?" she cried out, her voice high and frantic with concern. Her fingers found his face, cupping his cheeks, tilting his head up to look at her. "Say something! Please, say something!"

Andrew's chest heaved as he struggled to pull air into his burning lungs. His shirt was soaked through, clinging to his skin, and his entire body trembled with the aftermath of the near-drowning. He looked utterly broken completely broken in a way I had never seen him before. The arrogant, confident man I had married, the one who had always walked with his chin held high and his eyes full of disdain, was gone. In his place was a shivering, pathetic shell of a human being.

"I'm fine," he finally managed to choke out between coughs, his voice hoarse and ragged. He pushed Kate's hands away weakly, his eyes fixed on the floor. "I'm fine."

But he wasn't fine. We all knew it. And as I watched him struggle to compose himself, something shifted in his expression something I hadn't expected. His eyes, when they finally lifted to meet mine, were filled with something that looked almost like... regret.

"It's all my fault," he said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. The words seemed to cost him something, as if they dragged themselves out of some deep, hidden place inside him. "I shouldn't have treated Sophia like that before. I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have done any of it."

The admission hung in the air, heavy and uncomfortable. Kate's face twisted with confusion, her brow furrowing as she looked between Andrew and me. She clearly hadn't expected this hadn't expected her so-called husband to suddenly develop a conscience.

I stared at him, my heart pounding in my chest. For five years, I had waited to hear those words. Five years of swallowing my pride, of enduring his coldness, of hoping against hope that one day he would realise what he had thrown away. And now, when the words finally came, they felt... hollow.

"Get out of my house now," Taylor said, her voice cutting through the silence like a blade. She stood beside me, her arm wrapped protectively around my waist.

"Alright! Alright, we will leave right away!" both my dad and mom said at the same time, their voices overlapping in a frantic chorus of compliance. They rushed forward, their hands reaching down to grab Andrew by the arms, hoisting him up from the floor with desperate, trembling effort. His legs wobbled beneath him, still weak from the ordeal, and he leaned heavily on them for support.

"Just lead the way," Arthur muttered, his face pale and sweaty, his eyes darting nervously toward Taylor as though expecting another punishment to materialise at any moment.

"Let's go, come on, I'm fine, go on, come on," Andrew mumbled, his voice a broken whisper as he allowed himself to be half-carried, half-dragged toward the door. His feet shuffled against the marble, leaving wet footprints in his wake.

Kate followed close behind, her arms wrapped around herself as though she were cold or perhaps as though she were trying to hold herself together. She kept glancing back over her shoulder at me, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen, her makeup smeared across her cheeks in dark streaks. There was something in her expression I couldn't quite read fear, certainly, and humiliation, but also something else. Something that looked almost like... envy.

The double doors swung open, and then closed behind them with a soft, final click.

The room fell silent.

I let out a breath I hadn't realised I had been holding, my shoulders sagging with relief. It was over. For now, at least, it was over. The confrontation, the punishment, the reckoning all of it had finally come to an end.

Taylor turned to me, her dark eyes searching my face. "Are you alright?" she asked softly, her hand coming up to cup my cheek. Her thumb brushed gently across my skin, wiping away a tear I hadn't even noticed was falling.

I nodded, not trusting my voice. The emotions swirling inside me were too complex, too tangled to put into words. Relief, grief, anger, hope they all blended together into a single, overwhelming wave that threatened to pull me under.

But I didn't want to be pulled under. Not anymore. Not ever again.

I leaned in, pressing my lips to Taylor's.

The kiss was soft at first gentle, tentative, almost questioning. But then something inside me ignited, a spark that caught and spread until I was kissing her with a desperate, hungry intensity that surprised even me. My hands found her waist, pulling her closer, and she responded in kind, her arms wrapping around my neck as she deepened the kiss with a passion that made my head spin.

It was a kiss that said everything I couldn't say. Thank you. I'm yours. I'm safe. I'm home.

Taylor's fingers tangled in my hair, tilting my head back as she kissed me deeper, her tongue brushing against my lower lip in a way that sent shivers cascading down my spine. I melted into her, forgetting everything forgetting the room, forgetting the confrontation, forgetting the family that had just been expelled from our home.

But we weren't alone.

Kate was still there.

She stood frozen near the doorway, her hand hovering over the handle as though she had been about to leave but had been stopped by the sight before her. Her eyes were wide, her lips slightly parted.

I could feel her gaze on us could feel the weight of her stare like a physical thing. But I didn't stop. I didn't pull away. I didn't even acknowledge her presence.

Let her watch, I thought, a dark, satisfied thrill running through me. Let her see it.

Taylor must have sensed Kate's presence too, because she pulled back just enough to whisper against my lips, "She's still here."

"I know," I whispered back, my eyes still closed, my forehead resting against hers. "Let her watch."