All Chapters of Branded the Other Woman: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

When I froze, Belinda Kingsley took my silence as confirmation. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and slammed my head toward the steps beside us. I just had several tubes of blood drawn, so I was already dizzy and weak. Her assault on me nearly knocked me unconscious."Don't play dumb. If you had the guts to seduce someone else's husband, then you should've seen this coming, too!"Her grip tightened in my hair, yanking so hard it felt like my scalp was being torn off. I reached up and pried at her fingers, my nails digging into the back of her hand. She hissed in pain and flung me away, causing the back of my head to crack against the ground.The crowd around us began to murmur."She looks so pretty. Who would've thought she'd do something so shameless?"An older man spat in my direction. "Disgusting. Back in the old days, someone like her would've been dragged off for punishment!"Now that they had people backing them up, Belinda and her mother, Karen Vossler, grew even more embo

He opened the player and turned the screen toward the three of us. "The hospital's surveillance system broke down two months ago. This is the most recent footage we could retrieve. Come take a look."The footage showed the hematology department corridor on the third floor. The camera angle was high, looking down over most of the hallway. People moved in and out of frame. Then, I appeared, holding a document. I was walking while reading it.I remembered that day. I had gone in to do compatibility testing with another patient. We hadn't matched, but I ended up matching with Belinda's husband instead.A man approached from the other end of the corridor—it was her husband. This had been two months ago, just after his diagnosis. He still looked like a healthy man on the surface. When he saw me, he quickened his pace and stepped directly into my path.There was no audio, only visuals. In the footage, he stood in front of me, his head slightly lowered as his lips flapped urgently. His bro

Honestly, I was only pretending to faint in the beginning. However, I actually blacked out when my eyelids slid shut.I was already running on fumes before everything the mother and daughter duo had put me through. Then, I spent hours being detained in the precinct, emotions running high. Suffice it to say, I wasn't looking too hot.When I finally came to, all I saw was a stark white ceiling. The air smelled sharply of disinfectant. The hospital room door was slightly ajar, and I heard the faint rattling of a cart being pushed by a nurse coming from the hallway.I tried moving my fingers. As time passed, strength slowly began to return to my body.Then, I noticed two decidedly unwelcome figures standing at the foot of my bed—Belinda and her mother, Karen.Both of their eyes were swollen from crying, especially Belinda's. Her makeup was a complete mess, eyeliner smeared into dark, bruised patches beneath her eyes. Her lipstick was so smudged that it looked like a slashed bruise acr

I sat on the hospital bed, listening to every word they said.Lydia's face had gone flush with anger. She rose to her full height, more than ready to go to war for my sake. However, I caught her wrist and asked her to open the door for me.The disparaging comments cut off abruptly the second I set foot into the hallway."You're right about everything," I drawled, stopping in front of Belinda. "My bone marrow can save your husband, but I don't want to donate."A wave of boos erupted from the crowd."See? She even admitted it herself!""How can someone so young be this vicious?"I turned around and took my phone out. "Now, now. Before you lot go around condemning me, I'd like you all to look at something."I opened a video in my gallery, turned the screen toward the crowd, and raised the volume to the maximum.The footage was shot from above, overlooking a hospital corridor. Belinda was grabbing my hair and slamming my head against the steps. My skull hit the tiled edge with a d

The fire escape to the stairwell was slammed open from the outside in less than 30 seconds. Two hospital security guards in uniform rushed in, radios in hand. "What's going on here? Who triggered the fire alarm?"Right behind them came two nurses who had run down from upstairs after hearing the siren.I yoinked out the handkerchief and shouted, "They tried to kidnap me! Call the police! Please call the police!"Belinda and Karen were immediately pinned against the wall by the guards. Belinda struggled wildly, shrieking, "Let go of me! This is a family matter! She's my sister! Are we not allowed to take her home?"Karen chimed in just as loudly, "That's right! This is a personal matter! Stay out of it!"One of the nurses crouched beside me, checking the bruises on my arms and the injuries on my feet while calling for an emergency doctor over her radio. At the same time, the other nurse was already taking out her phone and dialing 911.I leaned against the stairwell wall. Every inc