TWO: Left for dead.

I froze on that spot, a sudden hiccup leaving my chest as his words bounced off in wave signals against my skull.

From afar, thunder rumbled and lightning struck across the walls in a flash. The flimsy curtains in the room flailed from the sudden wind and then a droplet of rain hit the ceiling once, twice, three times, and then a heavy downpour followed.

That same news wouldn't stop playing now; instead, the voice grew more static and carried through the downpour outside.

The thunder rumbled and in fright, I jumped into his arms without thinking twice and the next time I blinked, my butt hit the tiles so hard, I could swear I heard the bone in my pelvic region snap.

I bit my lips to suppress my moan. My eyes were beginning to shine with unshed tears as I looked up at him.

“You are dumping me after five years??” My voice was bitter. “Well, you didn't have to throw me to the floor to pass it across. I have ears!”

“I spoke to your father, he’s given me his blessings to marry Edna…”

Edna?

No…

He looked behind him to the open patio and on cue, long legs strapped in red heels came into view first before her entire frame fell in.

Edna, my eldest sister, was right there like she’d materialized from the gates of hell.

Wait, she had been behind the patio all along?

What was even more gutting was the protruding bump rounded so prettily on her belly.

“Hey, Ophelia” her sugary voice came. She kicked me while wrinkling her nose. “Poor you, Veline’s cosmetic CEO reduced to nothing after a major business scandal”

Snap! Snap!

“This would be great for a viral news headline”

Her phone’s camera clicked with a blinding white flash on my face, so I had to place a protective elbow over my face like a shield.

Brandon stood there, saying nothing to her in my defense.

So this was it? How long had this been going on without my knowledge?

“Babe, that's enough. Don't stress the baby” He said instead, placing a hand on both sides of her bump to pull her back gently.

Something in me snapped like a vicious twig. Maybe it was from the whole mess my life was spiraling into or the now overbearing news reporter who wouldn't stop saying the same thing for the past ten minutes or maybe it was just because I was only getting to realize now that the so-called man I thought was mine alone had been screwing both I and this traitorous woman I called a sister behind my back.

I swatted off Edna’s phone as she tried to take more photos. Just as the device dropped to the ground, she also fell with it and started wailing out loud like a banshee as she held onto her bump.

My eyeballs rolled so hard at her they almost got stuck. Before Brandon could reach for her I had already jumped to my feet with a swift agility even I didn't know I possessed.

Once I had an iron grip on his tie, I sent a hand flying straight into his face with a slap that even my body reacted to at the harsh intensity.

“Ophelia!” He barked, fighting to yank my hands off his tie.

“You can't walk out of here the same after practically shoving your cheating ass in my face” I barked back to match the same vigor of his voice.

My throat strained painfully on impact.

The rain had died down now and the gusts of wind swirled lazily outside, the low wheezing sound of it audible. The bulb’s light died and the atmosphere fell into an eerie gloom.

Brandon gained the upper hand and yanked me back until we were outside the patio and I was partially over the railing.

“Let go!” I slapped his hand, my lungs squeezing the more he reinforced his grip around my neck.

“You can't finish what you started?” He raised a dark questioning brow at me. “I only came here for a peaceful closure Ophelia, but you've crossed the line now”

When I glanced across my shoulder briefly, a massive chill that rattled my nerves settled in me. This scene played like a deja vu in my head but I'd seen this in movies where a character gets pushed over the railing and they land straight into a car. Was this going to be my fate likewise?

“Brandon, I'm sorry…” Tears stung like something pepperish in the corner of my eyes.

His hold tightened, gaze dark with that venomous intensity I’d never seen before.

“You injured Edna and my baby” His voice was harsh.

But behind him was Edna glaring back at me with a wide nasty smile prettying up her face.

“I really can't do this anymore with you Ophelia,”

My heart raced wildly in my chest as my legs slipped off the floor and I went brain dead for a beat as the world literally toppled before my eyes and in one swift motion, I was hanging on for dear life from the railing of the last floor of a four-story building.

“Please…” I whimpered, looking over my shoulders to the bare ground where there wasn't even a car waiting for me to land on if I ever let go of this railing, and for a moment I imagined my skull cracking open and my blood spilling across the tarred ground.

The media would pick this up real quick. My pictures would be branded all over New York’s billboards with the tag ‘gone too soon’

No, I couldn't die this way.

So I held tightly onto the cold rails. My manicured nails were on the verge of breaking from the vigor of digging them into the iron.

“Please Brandon…help!” I cried, hot tears burning down my cheek.

For a moment the realization and panic flashed raw and wide in his eyes and I thought maybe, just maybe he’d finally realize what madness this was and grab my hand to pull me up, not until Edna walked, her eyes glinting with pure evil.

“Step back, baby” she placed a palm over Brandon’s shoulders and shoved him back lightly.

The coward of a man took a surrendering step back. “I’m sorry Ophelia, it wouldn't have gotten to this if you didn't start a fight.”

Edna cackled like the devil incarnate she was as she stepped forward, gripping the edge of the railing.

“Edna, it doesn't have to get to this, okay? Please…help…” I pleaded.

The hand I had clinging onto the railing was beginning to grow numb and I could barely even feel my arm at this point.

“Aww, baby sister” she cooed with a soft venom in her voice then crouched to the ground, her hand passing through the narrow space in the railing.

“I'm going to seriously miss you when you are gone” She brushed the back of her palm down my face. “Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ll restore the lost glory of Veline cosmetics”

“No! Not my company please…” I shook my head frantically. “Don’t you dare…”

“Aaargh!” A strangled cry cut me off when she stabbed a pen knife into my hand. My heart beat accelerated from the shock and when I looked to Brandon, he had turned away, maybe from guilt or he just wanted to exonerate himself as not being part of my murder, either way I hoped he would rot in hell, he and this evil woman he chose over me.

“Just die! I’ll honor your death with the largest lilies, that flower you love so much, I’ll place them right at your coffin” she smiled cruelly.

“Edna, please…I don't want to die” I was begging now, my voice breaking the harder I sobbed.

But Edna didn't bat an eyelash when she pulled the knife from where it was stuck in my hand, blood gushing down my wrist. She retracted her arm up in the air, the blade pointed down at me.

I tried dissuading her. “…you can't take a life you didn't give”

Her brows furrowed as if reflecting but almost immediately her countenance grew even deadlier. “Spare me the bullshit. You’ve done worse to the people beneath you!”

For once in my life I was a villain. And maybe this was payback, this was my karma.

But I still wanted to live. I could right my wrongs…

Edna still stabbed my wrist and I gasped sharply. My wrist snapped, betraying me.

Gravity’s force pulled me as I let go of the rail. It happened so quickly and right before everything faded into oblivion, I saw Edna lock lips with Brandon.

My body felt like it had no stamina or weight of its own—which in all senses didn't. Falling past four more layers of building, my skull cracked when it finally kissed earth.

The sound was dull, sickening like a watermelon splitting open and my body stiffened immediately, probably going into shock.

My limbs were numbed and I saw my blood pool on the pavement—thick and crimson. Gradually, my vision blurred out, my body finally shutting down.

This was it.

Pathetic life, pathetic ending.

“Help…”

The word caught in my throat, every functioning cell in me going stiff.

With eyes wide open and bulging red, I died.

Or maybe I thought I did.