CHAPTER 7

Discharging Evelyn from the hospital was a quiet, somber affair.

Sarah didn't let her best friend’s feet touch the ground more than necessary, whisking her away to a cozy guest room in her own home. 

The contrast was stark. 

Instead of cold marble and suffocating silence, Evelyn was surrounded by the scent of lavender and the warmth of a true friend.

Bandages remained wrapped around Evelyn's head, a stark white crown against her dark hair. 

She sat on the edge of the plush bed, watching Sarah fuss over the pillows and a tray of soup.

"Sarah, please," Evelyn said, her voice soft but steady. "Stop hovering. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack."

"I can't help it, Eve," Sarah whispered, her hands shaking as she set the tray down. "I'm just... I'm so worried that if I look away, you'll forget where you are."

Evelyn reached out, taking Sarah’s hand. "I haven't lost my mind. The doctor said I only lost him. My life, my work, you... It’s all here. It’s just like there’s a black hole where a person used to be. You don't need to be so scared."

Sarah sat on the edge of the bed, searching Evelyn’s face. 

"The doctor said it might come back in flashes. Can you recall anything at all from that day? What was the last thing you saw before the darkness?"

Evelyn went still. She looked toward the window, her eyes turning distant and glassy.

"I remember a hand," Evelyn began, her voice dropping to a hollow monotone. "A man's hand. It swung out and slapped me so hard I tasted metal. It was cold... so cold." 

She squeezed Sarah’s hand tighter, her breathing becoming shallow.

"There was a woman. She was blurry, but I could see her stomach. She was heavily pregnant. She was smiling at me, but her eyes were like ice. And the man... he was standing by her. He wasn't looking at me with love. He was looking at me like I was trash he wanted to throw away."

A sob hitched in Evelyn’s throat, but she kept going, the fragments of the memory piercing through the fog like shards of glass.

"She fell. I didn't push her, Sarah. I know I didn't. But he didn't believe me. He screamed that I was trying to kill his child. He called me a failure. Then... he shoved me." 

Evelyn’s hand flew to her stomach, her fingers curling into the fabric of her shirt. 

"I remember the floor hitting my head. And I remember seeing them walk away. He carried her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered, while I was bleeding out on the stones."

Tears began to rush down her face, hot and unstoppable. Her body trembled with the force of the realization her mind had tried to bury.

"I know he was my husband," she choked out, her voice breaking into a raw wail. "I can't see his face, but I can feel the hate he had for me. And Sarah... the baby. My baby. He thought I was trying to kill him, but I lost mine because of him. I lost my baby."

Sarah pulled her into a fierce embrace, letting Evelyn sob into her shoulder. 

The silence of the room was filled only with the sound of a heart breaking for the second time.

"I hate him," Evelyn whispered into the dark. "I don't know his name, and I don't know his face, but I hate him for what he took from me."

Sarah held her tighter, her eyes hardening. "Then let him stay a ghost, Eve. He doesn't deserve to be a memory."

Sarah stayed until the exhaustion of the trauma and the medication finally took over.

Slowly, Evelyn’s grip loosened. Her breathing leveled out into the heavy, uneven rhythm of a survivor’s sleep. 

Sarah tucked the duvet around her, wiped the tear tracks from Evelyn’s cheeks, and stepped out of the room. Her face hardened into a mask of pure steel.

She retreated to the kitchen, where the divorce documents sat on the counter like a venomous snake. She picked them up, flipping past the signature she now knew was forced, and went straight to the legal grounds for dissolution.

There it was. 

Typed in a cold, professional font: ‘Irreconcilable differences due to the permanent inability to produce an heir... failure to fulfill marital duties regarding the continuation of the family line...’

“You arrogant, blind bastard,” Sarah hissed, her eyes burning with rage.

Julian had discarded Evelyn because he thought she was ‘broken,’ never realizing she was carrying his child the moment he threw her to the floor. 

He had traded a loyal wife and a miracle baby for a mistress who had watched his wife bleed out.

Sarah knew a legal battle was coming. 

With the Hart family’s power, Evelyn would need more than just a story; she needed an execution. She pulled out her phone and dialed a private number.

“Marcus?” Sarah’s voice was low and dangerous. “I need a favor. A big one.”

“For you, Sarah? Anything,” a deep voice replied.

“I need you to hack the cloud server for the Hart estate. I want the CCTV footage from the foyer and the porch from yesterday morning. Every angle. High resolution.”

There was a brief pause. “The Hart estate has military-grade encryption, Sarah. If I get caught—”

“Then don't get caught,” Sarah snapped, her eyes flickering toward the room where her broken friend lay. “Julian Hart left his pregnant wife to die after shoving her into a marble pillar. I don’t just want Evelyn to divorce him, Marcus. I want to ruin him.”

“Consider it done,” Marcus replied. “I’ll have the files by morning.”

Sarah hung up and looked back at the papers. 

Julian thought he had won. He thought he had paid five million dollars to make his 'problem' go away. He had no idea that he had just handed the woman he betrayed a motive for war.