"Olympia gave it to me before the party even started. Asked me to return it to you. I didn't think I'd need it as evidence."
"Rosamond, you keep saying your grandmother loved you more than anyone. But now you're using her bracelet as a prop to frame Olympia."
"You are a complete disappointment. Since you care so little about this bracelet, let's put it out of its misery. At least then you can't use it to hurt anyone else."
Something dark and final crossed his face. He hurled the bracelet at the ground.
It shattered into pieces, just like her heart.
"No!"
Rosamond dropped to her knees, scrambling across the ground like a woman possessed, gathering every fragment she could find.
Bryce glanced down at her with flat, empty eyes.
"Pathetic."
Then he gathered Olympia in his arms and walked away.
Rosamond clutched the broken pieces to her chest and wept. She wept until she couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't feel the shards slicing her palms open, blood running between her fingers.
"I'm sorry, Grandma. I'm so sorry..."
"It's all my fault. I couldn't even protect the one thing you left me..."
In the darkness, her phone screen flickered to life. A message from her mother.
Rosamond, your immigration paperwork is finalized. Your father and I will be waiting for you at the airport the morning after next.
Something stirred in the numb wasteland of her chest.
She could finally leave.
Rosamond stumbled back home and packed her things like a marionette, every movement hollow and mechanical.
All she wanted was to leave this place that had given her both boundless joy and unbearable pain, and never come back.
But the moment she reached the door, several bodyguards seized her and forced her into a car.
Rosamond fought with everything she had.
"What are you doing? Let go of me!"
She was no match for them. They dragged her to the hospital and threw her to the ground.
Every bone in her body screamed on impact. She forced herself to lift her head, and there stood Bryce, his face dark as a storm.
He stared down at her, his voice cutting through the sterile air.
"Satisfied now?"
"How did I end up with a wife this vicious? You'll stop at nothing to get rid of Olympia. Aren't you afraid of what's coming for you?"
Rosamond frowned, unable to understand what he was talking about.
Bryce caught the confusion in her eyes and scoffed.
"Don't tell me you didn't know Olympia has a clotting disorder."