DAMSELS IN DISTRESS

All eyes turned to the table as Selena screamed at the top of her lungs.

Poisoned?

How?

Alfred jumped to his feet, looking confused.

He placed a gentle arm around his new, teary wife and yelled for someone to call an ambulance.

Mary watched, depression eating deep into her soul.

She watched as the man she had devoted her life to bent over another woman—her half-sister—lovingly cupped her in his arms like a baby.

He rocked her as she cried… while Mary stood and watched.

Where had he been when she had sacrificed her liver for his mother and spent almost a year in the hospital?

Where was he when she had her first miscarriage?

She had cried alone… clutching her pillow, eating a tub of ice cream alone, while he flew around the country for “impromptu” business deals.

"How could you? An innocent baby? How could you? You heartless, childless woman!" Alfred yelled.

Mary looked at him.

"I only gave her the food she requested," she said slowly.

"You knew it was poisoned! Was this your plan all along? Is that why you requested to handle the cooking?" he asked, still clutching Selena in his arms.

She looked unconscious.

"Everyone, stop eating! She probably poisoned all our food to kill us all. She planned a massacre!" Karen screamed.

The exit doors were now locked, and some guards walked in with her father and Alfred's mother.

"What have you done?" his mother asked as she approached the unconscious lady on the floor.

Mary looked to her father, hopeful that for once he would take her side.

She didn't know what Alfred or his mother would do to her, but she didn’t want to find out.

It would be cruel—that she was sure of.

But he looked at her, hissed, and walked away, his eyes fixed on his prized daughter.

Selena.

Her heart ached again, and this time, she felt the ground spin beneath her.

She fell into the buffet table, hitting her ribs hard on one of the silverware pieces.

She winced in pain, but no one looked at her with pity.

In their eyes, she was the jealous, unloved woman who had tried to kill a pregnant lady out of spite and revenge.

"Oh Lord, the baby!" someone screamed, and she forced her tired eyes open.

Just what she had been afraid of.

Blood flowed from Selena's clothes.

The baby!

What had she done?

Was the food really poisoned?

"Where is the damn doctor?" Alfred screamed, veins bulging across his head and neck.

He looked like a nightmare.

Fear and anger played a violent game of chess in his eyes.

He looked at Mary, hatred boiling in his heart.

Why?

"Why punish my unborn child and not me? I was the one who remarried, not the baby! Why harm the innocent child?"

Mary could see the visible tears in his eyes.

He had never shed a tear for her.

Not even when her parents had kicked her out into the street.

Not even that night when he had selfishly taken her pride and she had gripped the sides of the bed in pain.

Not even when the doctor had shown her the report that she had lost her womb after donating an egg—an act he had forced her into for one of his female friends.

He had never shed a tear for her.

A faint smile played across her face.

Her life had been a pawn for other people's satisfaction.

She had never truly lived.

"And you're laughing? You have the guts to smile?" Karen cried out and slapped her across the face.

The slap was so hard, blood spurted from her mouth.

"I will make you suffer for this," Karen said, her voice trembling with emotion.

She pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

Mary’s face twisted in confusion.

Karen looked at her, eyes filled with dark vengeance, and said,

"Pull the plug. Now!" she ordered the person on the line, then turned to Mary.

"A life for a life. You killed my grandchild—it's only fair your mother gets to escort the baby to Jesus."

No! No!

Mary shook her head vigorously.

"I didn’t poison Selena! I didn’t poison Selena! Please save my mother… Please save my mother!" she started screaming, fear playing scenes in her eyes.

Karen looked at her in disgust and walked toward the ambulance that had finally arrived.

"No!... No! Please, save my mother!" Mary cried even louder, crawling on her knees toward the ambulance.

Her tears had nearly flooded the room—

The room she had thought was decorated for her tenth anniversary.

"You are the most heartless woman I’ve ever seen in my life. Your mother really birthed her double when she birthed you. 

I can’t believe we share blood," her father said coldly as he walked past her while she knelt, watching the ambulance go.

She rose slowly to her feet and looked around the room.

People had begun to leave one by one, but Alfred still stood, staring at her as if in shock over everything that had just happened.

His eyes were like blazing fire, yet ice cold at the same time.

There was a darkness in his gaze that frightened her to her core.

He walked toward her deliberately, never taking his eyes off her for a second.

In his hand, he held a folder and a pen.

"I thought I would never have to use this, that things would never get to this point. But now I see… I’m making the right choice. Sign this," he sneered.

He handed her the folder.

She weakly flipped through the pages and laughed.

Divorce papers.

"You’re leaving me?" she asked.

"You killed an unborn child, Mary. An unborn child. You’re a murderer. I can’t believe I ever slept with an abomination like you."

His words were venomous—poison for her already shattered heart.

She never found out who had tampered with her pills.

But it didn’t matter anymore.

She could die now, and no one would shed a tear.

She took the pen from him and, with the last tears left in her eyes, signed the papers.

This was her final act of love.

He was now free—just like he had always wanted to be.

Of course, she should have expected this.

The marriage had been her idea from the beginning.

She had seen him that day on the farm and fallen head over heels in love.

Of course, he had only accepted because of her wealth—nothing more.

Just like Leah in the Bible, she had been rejected for Rachel.

Her sacrifices had meant nothing to him… or to any of them.

"But why, Alfred? Was I never enough?" she asked, handing him the folder, a weak smile of defeat plastered on her face.

"You were never enough… at least not for someone like me, All you’ve ever been is a spare part for us all—nothing more," he said.

The dizziness was becoming unbearable.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

She collapsed, hoping she’d fall to her death—

But he caught her.

She saw him catch her just before her eyes drifted into darkness.