The Wife He Threw Away, Rebuilt

nda

ttling the overwhelming urge to remain in the dark. My body was a landscape of throbbing pain,

h the haze, emotionless and professi

izziness washed over me. I just stared at the ceiling, my mind a blank canvas of

creaked o

y broken body. "I've settled the medical bill," he said, his voice flat, for

al. He was paying to erase me, not to save me. I closed my eyes,

hen I didn't respond, he said nothing more. The silence was d

miliar, met mine. A flicker of something-surprise? guilt?-crossed his

to remind you about the charity gala tonight. She's almost ready." Mom

, agonizing squeeze. My son. M

back to me. "Alrig

clicked shut, sealing me once more in the suffocating silence of my new reality. I stare

opened ag

erfectly coiffed, her makeup flawless. She looked like she' d st

ing with the sterile hospital smell. "You just don't know when to quit, do you, Amanda? You always were so persistent."

wed, a cold knot forming in

clutch and tapped the screen

Daddy. She's scary. Carla is my real mom. She tells me stories and ba

. My son. The words were a fr

come back, son. She's gone. Carla is good for us. S

Brody. I'll make sure she never bothers us again. Some people ju

nly too small, too suffocating. My face was pale, my l

nows you're nothing but a nuisance. A ghost from a past no one wants to