"But Phil is all I have. If you... if you really can't accept this, then I'll just throw myself against that pillar right now and end it all!"
She stumbled backward as she wept, and she actually lunged toward the concrete column beside the entrance.
Phil grabbed her and pulled her into his arms in one swift motion, then whipped around to glare at me.
"Enough, Serena!"
"It's bad enough you walk around acting like you're above everyone."
"Clarissa has severe depression. Did you know that? Are you not going to stop until you've driven her to her death?"
Depression?
A cold laugh escaped my throat.
"She wasn't depressed when she was spending my money on shopping sprees."
"She wasn't depressed in a bikini on a Maldives beach."
"But the second she gets called out as the other woman in public, suddenly it's depression?"
Panic flickered behind Phil's eyes. He recovered quickly, squaring his shoulders and raising his voice.
"I'm the one who took her there!"
"She's been under too much pressure. She needed to decompress."
"Can you stop being so damn aggressive for once in your life?"
I looked at this man I'd been with for seven years and felt like I was staring at a stranger.
I'd given up the chance to study abroad for him. I'd stood beside him when he had nothing, helped him build his company from the ground up until it went public. And he'd taken every ounce of my sacrifice and treated it like something he was owed.
Clarissa nestled deeper into Phil's arms, her voice small and trembling.
"Don't blame Phil, Serena."
"This is all my fault. I couldn't help falling in love with him."
Her shamelessness was so staggering it almost made me laugh. I raised my hand, palm open, ready to slap the words right off her lips.
Phil's hand clamped around my wrist like a vice.
"Are you done making a scene, Serena?"
"I already told you the position of Mrs. Gilbert is still yours. What more do you want?"
"Do you really have to make this so ugly?"
I stared at the two of them, at their shameless, self-righteous faces, and felt nothing but revulsion.
I was about to leave when my phone erupted inside my bag, buzzing frantically.
It was the hospital.
I wrenched my wrist free from Phil's grip and hit answer.
A nurse's panicked voice flooded through the speaker.
"Are you Dorothy Abbott's family?"
"Dorothy just suffered a massive stroke. She's being resuscitated right now!"