Chapter 5

LYDIA 

When I came to, I was gasping desperately for air.

I sprang upright in bed, screaming desperately for help, hoping that someone would save me from Taylor.

My hands were instantly moving to clutch the exact spot that I had been stabbed mercilessly from muscle memory.

I expected to feel pain when I touched the spot, my eyes darting around me.

But there was nothing there, except of course the smooth skin of my belly.

When I looked down, I saw that I was perfectly fine with no injury.

Not even blood.

My hands instantly started to tremble with confusion as I looked around the room.

Where was I?

A few minutes ago I had been lying on the floor of the prison shower house, bleeding to death from several stab wounds.

Then how on earth was I here, in the bedroom I shared with Adrian?

How on earth was I back at the Blackwell mansion, from prison?

Had Adrian read any of the letters I sent to him from prison and come for me?

Or worse case scenario, had Vanessa heard I survived and come back for me?

Probably to keep me stowed away in this place till I rotted into a fossil?

Had she convinced Adrian I went mad and made him keep me here?

There were no levels to her gaslighting techniques—I knew that.

I also knew that Adrian was gullible for her, blinded by love to see anything.

But all of those thoughts didn't quite explain why my wounds were healed.

A phone buzzed quietly on the nightstand drew me out of my train of thoughts.

Before I picked it up, I realized that it was the same phone I had always used.

Who had brought it here?

I grabbed it from the table with shaking hands and stared at the date.

My mouth fell open.

Three months?

The realization that I might have gone back three months in time hit me.

And this date, this hour was just before the snake, Vanessa had called me over and asked me to take the fall for her.

My heart was racing. 

This couldn't be real. 

But the weight of the phone in my hand and the feel of my skin said otherwise.

This wasn't a dream.

It was real as fuck.

I was alive.

Reborn? Or perhaps this was a dream?

And this time, I knew exactly what was going to happen today.

Just like I predicted, the call was from my father who asked me to visit.

In my past life, they had kept me away from Vanessa after that fall down the stairs.

My guilt had built, eating me deeply in the passing days as I couldn't see her.

That was why I had been so desperate to suck up to her at the hospital.

Well, not this time.

I dressed quickly in a statement black pants suit and drove to the hospital. 

It was the same hospital where I had cried foolishly and begged for her forgiveness in my previous life. 

This time, I wasn't foolish, walking straight to the reception desk with confidence.

"I need to speak to Dr. Matthews," I firmly told the receptionist.

She nodded.

"Do you have an appointment?" She asked me, a tired smile on her face.

I shook my head.

"Then I don't think—"

"Save it," I interrupted her. 

I reached into my hand bag and pulled out the envelope I had previously prepared.

"He would be eager to see me after he has received this," I explained to her.

She took the envelope from me without question and went to deliver it.

I waited patiently, my fingers drumming against the counter to pass time.

She was back a while later.

"He's ready to see you."

I nodded.

Who would turn me away when I had photo evidence that they were cheating on their nearly married wife?

His father in-law, the prime minister, would end his career in one blow.

A wise decision was made.

Twenty minutes and one uncomfortable conversation later, I had what I needed. 

Dr. Matthews confirmed exactly what Taylor had told me as I withered away.

The miscarriage had been a lie. 

Vanessa Darnell, my sister, had never been pregnant the whole of her life.

Not two months ago. 

Not ever.

I realized then that the fall down the stairs might have been staged by her.

My push must have given her the idea for a miscarriage to guilt trip my ass.

Everything had been designed to break me, to make me so consumed with guilt that I would do anything she had asked.

My past self was really a fool.

With the results in my hands, I walked up the stairs to Vanessa's hospital room.

Everything was just as I remembered; her turn, her gaze, her lifeless eyes.

The manipulator.

My adopted parents were there in the hospital room with worried faces.

I realized then that they were both there to trap me, just like before.

We all just stared at each other for a while until my father finally spoke up.

"Won't you plead for forgiveness?"

For some reason, his words sounded hilarious and I started to laugh.

They all looked dumbfounded when I finally regained my composure.

"Beg for forgiveness? For what?"

My mother gasped dramatically.

I shook my head because her theatrics never failed to amuse me any day.

"What do you mean for what?" Vanessa snapped with furrowed brows.

I rolled my eyes.

"You pushed me down the stairs and made me lose my baby, Lydia!" She snapped.

Here she comes.

The gaslighter.

"You should be on your knees right now asking for my mercy and suggesting how you will atone for your grievous sins."

I quirked a brow.

"Mercy? Atonement?"

Her lips drew into a fine line.

"Yes. What will you do to take away the guilt of being a child murderer Lydia?"

A scoff left my lips.

"Let me guess," I started coldly. "You want me to take the fall for your embezzlement case at the Blackwell Industries?"

The shock on their faces was almost worth everything I had been through.

"How did you—" my father started.

I cut him off rapidly.

"It doesn't matter how I know," I began with a small smirk. "My answer is a no."

I saw Vanessa's eyes instantly fill with hot tears, right on cue as always.

"Lydia, please."

"No," I snapped in a no nonsense voice that said end of this discussion.

Her gaze rounded.

"You can not mean that! After everything I've done for you! I brought you into this family. I gave you a home, a life—"

I stepped forward and landed a sharp slap across her stupid the face.

The crisp sound echoed in the room as her face instantly fell to the side.

Satisfaction swallowed me as her hands were flying to her reddening cheek. 

I heard my mother gasp. 

When I glanced, I saw that my father's face was growing purple with his rage.

Good, let them seethe.

"You slapped me?" Vanessa asked, still clutching onto her cheeks.

I nodded.

"Yes I did."

She blinked furiously.

"Everything you have is because of me you lowly ungrateful orphan!"

I liked the anger in her voice.

"You gave me nothing," I said quietly. "But you took everything from me."

Her eyes darted in confusion.

"You took my light, my future, my dignity and even my life. But not anymore."

"How dare you!" My mother lunged towards me, hoping to hit me I guess.

But I was no longer that quiet orphan child she used to hit at the slightest provocation.

I was a reborn woman.

So, I deliberately took a step to the side the moment she was almost upon me.

She fell to the floor from her own impact, landing like a bag of expired bones.

Her scream was everything.

"Y-youu!" She stammered, pointing straight at me with knives for eyes.

I stepped closer.

"I won't let you touch me, any of you. I am so done with being your scapegoat."

"You ungrateful little wretch," my father snarled in contribution. 

I spared him a glance.

"We took you in when no one else wanted you because of Vanessa. We fed you, clothed you, educated you—"

"You adopted me to dim my light so Vanessa could shine brighter. Don't pretend now that it was charity." 

His jaw grew slack.

"You adopted me so you could make me second best to your daughter.”

I looked at each of them in turn. 

"Find someone else to take the fall for your embezzlement crimes. I'm out."

I turned and walked away from those rotting hearts without a glance back. 

My mother screamed threats to my back as my father called me every ugly name that his pea sized brain could think of. 

I didn't even spare a glance when Vanessa collapsed into dramatic sobs.

I drove home and spent an hour with a lawyer, filing divorce papers. 

Then I headed back to the Blackwell mansion and waited for my prodigal husband, the cheating bastard.

It was well past midnight when he stepped into the house smelling of Vanessa.

I instantly knew that he must had been with her in the hospital, making new babies I suppose to replace the lost one.

He gazed at me with unbridled hatred the moment he noticed my presence.

"I heard you caused a scene at the hospital today and even slapped Vanessa."

I scoffed.

It was clear that those scumbags had twisted the narrative once again.

And Adrian being a fool had swallowed it down, hook, line and sinker.

Maybe if Vanessa tried harder, he might even swallow the fishing rod.

I stepped forward in my silk robe and handed him the envelope.

"What's this?" he asked, looking from the envelope to me and back again.

"Divorce papers. Sign them."

He finally looked up.

He was wearing an annoyed expression.

"Look Lydia, I do not have the time for whatever tantrum you are about to throw."

I rolled my eyes.

"Vanessa is not feeling well and I need to bathe and go back to check on her."

"You know, I'm still your wife, right?"

He laughed, actually laughed. 

"Wife?"

His expression hardened.

"I have never seen you as my wife Lydia. You were always just the stand-in."

He leaned in closer.

"You were a placeholder until I could have the woman I actually wanted."

The words should have hurt because in my past life they had destroyed me. 

But now, at this moment, I felt nothing at all except maybe cold determination.

My mind went back to the charity gala six months ago when Adrian had introduced Vanessa as his companion for the evening.

Meanwhile I was standing three feet away in a dress he had made me wear. 

I remembered the business dinner where a client asked if I was his assistant and Adrian had said yes without correcting him.

I had loved him despite all of it. 

I recalled that night when a drunk investor had cornered me at a company party.

I had tried to fight the groping bastard off but he was way way stronger than me.

Adrian had appeared and stepped between us without even thinking about it. 

He had dismissed the investor crassly, introducing me as his wife.

The world had stopped on its axis when he had done that, and I had felt owned.

That was the moment I had fallen and I wished desperately that I never did.

For one moment, I had seen the man that he could have been to me.

But that man didn't exist. 

Maybe for Vanessa.

Not for me.

"Sign the papers, Adrian. Or don't. Either way, I am done with all of you."

"I have never seen you as my wife Lydia. You were always just the stand-in."

He leaned in closer.

"You were a placeholder until I could have the woman I actually wanted."

The words should have hurt because in my past life they had destroyed me. 

But now, at this moment, I felt nothing at all except maybe cold determination.

My mind went back to the charity gala six months ago when Adrian had introduced Vanessa as his companion for the evening.

Meanwhile I was standing three feet away in a dress he had made me wear. 

I remembered the business dinner where a client asked if I was his assistant and Adrian had said yes without correcting him.

I had loved him despite all of it. 

I recalled that night when a drunk investor had cornered me at a company party.

I had tried to fight the groping bastard off but he was way way stronger than me.

Adrian had appeared and stepped between us without even thinking about it. 

He had dismissed the investor crassly, introducing me as his wife.

The world had stopped on its axis when he had done that, and I had felt owned.

That was the moment I had fallen and I wished desperately that I never did.

For one moment, I had seen the man that he could have been to me.

But that man didn't exist. 

Maybe for Vanessa.

Not for me.

"Sign the papers, Adrian. Or don't. Either way, I am done with all of you."