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Nearly got caught

Author: Garnet
last update Petsa ng paglalathala: 2026-03-27 10:56:04

Serena

I waited till the door shut before I opened my eyes.

I didn't move yet. Not yet. I'm not so sure she has left the hospital, and no one will come in anytime soon.

For close to a minute, I held my breath and exhaled once I was sure it was right to open my eyes.

I took in a long and slow deep breath, so controlled it barely made a sound.

I blinked twice to adjust to the lights.

The room was empty. The monitor beeped on. The drip was cold in the back of my hand. My ribs ached — a dull, insistent pressure on my left side that sharpened whenever I breathed too deep. I took short, careful breaths and kept my eyes on the ceiling.

Every single word Rose uttered felt like a stab at the back. I had heard every single word.

Lord. I'd have been gone when I felt her weight so close over me. That pillow. Her hand on it. The silence that followed... I would have been dead if Damien's call had not come through.

I stopped that thought. Tucked it away somewhere I couldn't reach it right now. Filed it for later when I was somewhere that had a door I could lock and time I could afford to spend falling apart in.

I had been so foolish that it nearly cost my life.

My body shook lightly. Involuntary. The thought of lying there, knowing, feeling her that close and not being able to move a single muscle — that had been the hardest thing. Not even hearing her say the things she said to a woman she believed was already gone.

The hardest thing was staying still.

I pressed my hand flat against my stomach and held it there.

"I won't touch you," I whispered. So low, it barely left my lips. "You won't suffer anyone's actions, my baby. Mommy will love and protect you."

The record Lawrence planted said the pregnancy was over. Clean. Anyone who went looking would find exactly what Rose needed them to find.

But underneath my hand, my precious life was still l there. Still mine.

It's worth every fiber of this. Every tear. Every second of lying still while that woman stood over me and decided I was already finished.

I moved my hand from my stomach and reached for the nightstand slowly. My fingers weren't completely steady — the ribs, the drip, the particular aftermath of a body that had been through something even when the mind came through clean. I found the phone. The screen cracked at the corner, just as I'd left it. I unlocked it.

Later than I thought.

I opened Lawrence's thread and dialed his private number. I immediately went against it, and I caught myself realizing my voice would give me away.

Instead, I typed in these words:

“Change of circumstances. Move the full timeline up. All of it. Tonight.”

Once I hit the send button, relief washed over me.

Then I went back and opened a second message. My fingers are steadier now.

“The divorce papers. Whatever stack Rose hands him to sign tonight — I need them in it. I don't know how possible this is, but I believe you. No mistake. Make sure it's done before he leaves this building.”

I pressed send and set the phone face-down on the blanket.

I stared at the ceiling.

I thought about Damien in that chair an hour ago with both hands around mine, grip slightly too tight the way it always was when he was trying not to show something. The way he had pressed his mouth to my knuckles and exhaled like the breath had been sitting in his chest since he got the call. He had meant every word of it. But I was done with that bullshit.

Whatever this was, it'll soon be over.

He would sign whatever she put in front of him.

And he would not know until it was already done.

The phone vibrated.

Lawrence.

“Already in motion. Divorce papers go in the second stack. He signs within the hour. Will confirm when complete.”

Within the hour.

I read it twice. Set the phone down. I pressed my hand back to my stomach one more time, not dramatically, just quietly.

"Nearly done," I said. Just that.

The monitor beeped.

The drip pulled cold.

I had waited three years.

An hour was nothing.

I closed my eyes and breathed carefully, and let the plan run without me having to hold them up.

I had earned this stillness, and I was going to use it.

I let myself drift. Not sleep exactly, something lighter.

And then—

The door handle moved.

"Serena."

Damien's voice. Low and rough and carrying that particular guilt burst through the room.

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