A Deranged Woman

"Micheal, it was her! That woman unplugged the oxygen, not me!" Aria, once again wrongly accused, snapped. She staggered up and rushed toward Ruby, pointing at her with a trembling hand.

Micheal spun around and gripped Aria’s throat with one powerful hand. "I saw it with my own eyes—you were at the bedside, she was across the room. And you still dare to deny it?"

Aria felt the air drain from her lungs. In her mind, she saw her baby girl’s tiny body from yesterday, lifeless and struggling for breath. Her eyes welled up with blood-red fury. "It really was her, Micheal! And someone else pushed Grandpa too. Micheal, I—"

Smack!

While still choking her with one hand, Micheal landed a brutal slap across her face with the other.

"If Grandpa doesn't make it through this, don't think I won't take your life myself, Aria."

"Grandpa was always so good to me," she gasped, barely able to speak. "Why would I ever hurt him?"

She really couldn't breathe anymore.

Why, Micheal? Why won’t you believe me?

Everything she said was the truth.

Micheal gave a cold laugh and abruptly released her. "Fine, then I’ll let you die knowing exactly why." He gestured toward his men outside the room. "Bring it here."

"Yes, sir."

A minute later, a bodyguard brought him a thick envelope. Micheal opened it, pulled out a document, and shoved it in Aria’s face.

"This is why. Because Grandpa found out you were cheating on me, that the child wasn't mine. He changed his will and cut you off completely. And then, you tried to kill him to silence him. Aria, you truly disgust me. If you hadn’t tricked me that night and used your pregnancy to pressure Grandpa into forcing me to marry you, do you think I’d have ever chosen you?"

"I didn’t— I didn’t scheme that night. I don’t even know what happened… I went into that room and then you— you just came at me and…"

That night was her first. He’d taken everything from her. She’d gotten pregnant with his child. Didn’t that mean he should have married her?

"Aria, I was drugged that night! And the one who drugged me was you! You wanted the Smith family fortune so badly, you were willing to do anything to marry me. You plotted every move. And I endured it, for Grandpa’s sake—because he wanted to see a great-grandchild before he passed. So I married you.

And this is how you repay me? By trying again and again to kill him? Aria, you’re a twisted, heartless woman!"

Micheal roared with rage. His hands found her throat once again, squeezing even harder this time.

"I didn’t… I didn’t drug you…" Aria couldn’t even finish her sentence.

Her face turned as pale as a sheet.

She was dying.

Micheal was going to strangle her to death.

But she hadn’t drugged him. She had no idea what really happened that night at the party. She had been just as much a victim, losing her virginity to a man she hadn’t even known was coming. It had all happened without warning.

No. She couldn’t die. Not like this.

She had to live—to uncover the truth behind everything, to expose whoever had been setting her up from the start. If she died without doing that, she’d never rest in peace.

Aria had never done those terrible things, and she never would.

Mustering all the strength she had left, she raised her hands and tried to push Micheal away. Her only hope now was to stay alive and make him regret it—regret everything he’d done, especially letting their baby die.

But Micheal stood like a mountain—tall, cold, immovable. She couldn’t budge him at all.

Her face grew whiter.

Her body was going limp.

Suddenly, from the bedside where Ruby was still trying to resuscitate the old man, came a panicked voice:

"Mr. Smith! The old master—he… he…"