Vivian dropped the scissors with a look of wide-eyed innocence, but the smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth gave her away.

I stared at the ruined dress. The pain in my chest was unbearable. Losing Stewart hadn't hurt a fraction of this.

"You vile bitch! That was my mother's. You owe me!"

I didn't feel the cut on my hand. I didn't feel anything except blind rage as I swung and slapped Vivian across her pale face as hard as I could.

"Ah!"

A bright red handprint bloomed across her cheek.

"Vivian!"

Stewart backhanded me even harder. The force sent me crashing to the floor.

"Stewart, my face hurts so much!"

Vivian wailed at full volume, throwing herself into Stewart's arms as if she'd suffered some unimaginable injustice.

My chest heaved. Tears burned in my eyes as I stared up at Stewart from the ground.

He knew what that dress meant to me. Better than anyone.

But he couldn't see the blood running down my hand. He couldn't see the dress torn to pieces on the floor.

All he did was cup Vivian's swollen cheek and stroke it over and over, so gentle, so tender, his hands trembling with how much it pained him.

"Leonora!"

He tucked the sobbing Vivian behind him and turned that frozen stare back on me.

"Have you lost your goddamn mind? If you hurt the baby, how the hell are you going to make that right?!"

"Apologize to Vivian. Now."

### Chapter 5

"She destroyed my wedding dress!" I screamed through my tears. "Why the hell should I apologize to her?!"

"It's a piece of junk worth a few hundred bucks! Didn't I already say I'd pay extra for it?!"

Then his gaze dropped to the back of my hand.

"Why are you bleeding so much?"

His expression shifted instantly, and he ran out to find a staff member with a first-aid kit.

The second Stewart turned his back, Vivian's tears vanished like a magic trick.

She curled her lips into a mocking smile:

"All these years you clung to Stewart like a shameless little leech, throwing yourself at him without a shred of dignity."

"Now he and I are legally married, and you still think he's going to walk down the aisle with you? That's hilarious. Stop dreaming that he'll divorce me in two years and come running back, because..."

She placed one hand lightly over her flat stomach, leaned close to my ear, and smiled with pure venom:

"The baby I'm carrying is his."

The room tilted around me.