Till Death Do Us Part, Indeed

Turne

carefully devoid of emotion. Augustine and Cristina were, predictably, the undisputed monarchs of the night. Cristina, resplendent in a gown that looked suspiciously like a modified version o

uriosity-it was a familiar chorus. "Poor Annice," their looks seemed to say. "She really let her

plastered on her perfect lips. "Annice, darling," she purred, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "

ight, was my mother's amethyst ring. The one Augustine had "lost" years ago, the one he swore he'd pr

st sapphire, sat in a drawer at home, a relic of a past that felt impossibly distant. Cristina's hand, perfectly man

lly constructed beauty a weapon. Me, gaunt and pale, my eyes shadowed by fatigue and illness,

t only for my ears. "Poor thing. Still clinging to the past, aren't you? Augustine tol

ble, to run, to beg for his protection. He wanted me to be the broken woman he could swoop in and save, solidifying his

constructed calm shattered. My hand shot out, not to grab the ring, but to slap her. Hard

ss the room in an instant, his face a thundercloud. He grabbed my arm, his fingers digging into my flesh.

yed precariously, then crashed to the floor, sending a shower of sparks and a wave of panic through the crowd. Al

iar, suffocating panic rising. The enclosed space, the scent of dust and burning metal, the frantic press of bodies-it was too mu

me, her eyes wild with a fresh fury. She lunged, her manicured nails raking across my face, leaving sting

one with her body, waiting for someone to find us. The fear, the hunger, the crushing silence. The enclosed space. Th

only connection to the outside world. He had held me, fed me, promised to never leave

ings, erased her as if she had never existed, and left me with a nanny I didn't know. He never spoke of her again.

fering it up to his mistress as a twisted joke. The full horror of his betrayal slammed into me, not just the affair, but the casual cr

to black. I felt myself falling, the chaos around me dissolving into a silent, suffocating voi