The Second Wife

The storm outside still shook the windows when Olivia froze in the middle of the library. Jessica’s face looked pale but her eyes burned with cold fire.

“I was pregnant first,” Jessica whispered. “But I lost the child.”

Her words dropped like stones in the silence.

Olivia felt her heart pound. The secret about her mother’s society still spun in her head, but this new claim made her blood run cold. Pregnant? First? What was Jessica trying to say?

Ethan, who had been standing by the desk, stiffened. His jaw tightened, his hands balled into fists.

“You’re lying,” he said, but his voice cracked.

Jessica gave a bitter smile. “Oh, Ethan, you know it’s true. You know what happened. Don’t pretend you don’t remember those nights. Don’t pretend you don’t remember the doctor’s visit.”

Olivia’s throat went dry. “Why are you saying this now?” she asked.

Jessica’s gaze snapped to her. “Because you need to know what kind of man you’re tied to. He promised me a life. He promised me everything. And I gave him a child. But fate took it from me. I was his first wife. His real wife.”

Ethan’s fists shook. “You were never my wife. We were engaged, yes, but we never married. And you…His voice dropped low. “You were never pregnant.”

Jessica gasped as if he had slapped her. “Don’t you dare!”

Her anger filled the room, sharp and choking. She stepped closer, pointing her finger at him. “Don’t you dare erase me. I was here before Olivia. I had you first. You belonged to me.”

Olivia flinched at the venom in her tone. She had seen jealousy before, but this was something darker, something poisonous.

Jessica’s eyes brimmed with tears, but Olivia noticed something strange: they looked forced, too shiny, too quick.

“Jessica,” Olivia said slowly, “if you lost the baby, where’s the proof? Where’s the record? The doctor’s report? Anything?”Evidence.. ?

Jessica’s face tightened. For a second, she looked trapped. Then she gave a weak laugh. “You really think I kept papers? You really think I’d hold onto something that painful? No. I buried it. I buried everything. Ethan knows.”

Ethan’s jaw flexed, his eyes locked on her. “What you buried was the truth.”

Jessica’s face twisted, half fury, half panic.

The library felt smaller, walls pressing in. Olivia’s hands trembled as she held onto the edge of the desk. She remembered her mother’s warning about secrets, pacts, blood. And now Jessica was weaving her own twisted web.

“Why now?” Olivia asked softly. “Why crawl back after all this time?”

Jessica turned her head slowly, her voice like honey hiding poison. “Because lies can’t last forever. Because he owes me. And because you”, she looked at Olivia with scorn, you stole my place.”

Olivia’s chest tightened. “I didn’t steal anything.”

“You stole everything,” Jessica spat. “The house, the name, the love. You think he chose you because you’re special? No. He chose you because I was broken. Because he needed a replacement. A warm body. A distraction.”

Her words struck deep. Olivia fought the urge to defend herself. She forced her voice to stay steady. “Ethan made his choice. He’s with me.”

Jessica’s laugh rang bitter. “With you? Maybe now. But you’ll never erase me. You’ll never erase what we had. You’ll never erase my child.”

Ethan exploded then. “Stop it, Jessica! There was no child. There was never a child.”

His shout shook the room. Olivia’s breath caught.

Jessica froze. For a moment, her mask slipped. Her lips trembled, her eyes darted to the floor.

Then she whispered, “So you’ll destroy me again? Pretend it was all in my head?”

“Because it was in your head,” Ethan said, voice like steel. “You faked the illness. You faked everything. You lied to trap me.”

The words cracked the air.

Olivia’s heart stopped.

Faked?

Jessica’s head snapped up. Her face drained of color, then flushed dark red. “How dare you?” she hissed.

Ethan’s voice hardened. “Tell her the truth, Jessica. Tell her how you cried, told me you were late, told me you were sick. How you demanded I marry you fast. How you waved fake papers in my face. You were never pregnant.”

Jessica shook her head violently, her hands flying up. “No! No! That’s not true!”

But Olivia could see it now. The cracks. The fear. The lie unraveling.

Jessica backed toward the door, eyes wild. “He’s lying, Olivia! He always lies! He’s trying to make me look crazy. He did it before, and he’ll do it again!”

Olivia’s voice was quiet but firm. “Jessica… were you ever pregnant?”

Jessica’s mouth opened. No sound came.

Then she whispered, “I was supposed to be.”

Silence. Heavy. Crushing.

Ethan stepped forward, his voice low and dangerous. “You tricked me. You knew I was loyal, that I would do the right thing. You wanted to chain me to you. And when the truth came out, you ran. And now you’re back to ruin everything again.”

Jessica’s tears spilled now, but Olivia didn’t see grief. She saw fury.

“You’ll regret this,” Jessica whispered. “Both of you.”

She turned, storming toward the door. Ethan moved as if to stop her, but Olivia grabbed his arm.

“Let her go,” she whispered.

Jessica stopped in the doorway, her voice sharp as glass. “You think you’ve won, Olivia? You think you’ve built a life with him? I’ll burn it down. Piece by piece. I’ll make you choke on ashes.”

The door slammed behind her.

The silence that followed was worse than the shouting.

Olivia stood shaking, her breath shallow. Ethan turned to her, his face hard, but his eyes pained.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Olivia stared at him. She wanted to believe him. But the doubt Jessica had planted twisted in her chest.

Was Ethan telling the whole truth? Or was there more he wasn’t saying?

That night, Olivia couldn’t sleep. She lay awake, staring at the ceiling, Jessica’s words echoing in her mind. You’ll regret this. I’ll burn it down.

She got up, walked through the dark halls of the house. The storm had passed, but the air still smelled of rain. Shadows stretched long and thin across the walls.

In the library, she saw the box again, the one with her mother’s letters, the seal of the secret society. She traced the edges with trembling fingers. Secrets on top of secrets. Blood pacts. Lies.

And outside, through the window, she thought she saw movement. A figure in the garden. Standing still. Watching.

Her breath caught. She blinked. The figure was gone.

But deep down, Olivia knew that Jessica hadn’t left.

She was still here.

The next morning, Olivia woke to the sound of glass shattering. She ran to the kitchen, heart racing.

The window was broken. A single item lay on the floor.

It was a doll. A child’s doll. Its head cracked, its dress stained with red paint or was it blood?

Pinned to the doll was a note.

In jagged letters, it read:

“You took my baby. Now I’ll take yours.”

Olivia dropped the note, her hands trembling.

But the worst part,

She wasn’t pregnant.

At least… she hadn’t told anyone yet….