Rift 135_The Abandoned Wife's Second Chance

< Chapter 135

 (Scarlett’s POV)

 “ir-”

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 “I’m not asking you to forgive us,” she says quickly. “I just wanted you to know that if you ever need us, ever need anything, we’ll be there.”

 I stare at her, this woman who raised me, who taught me to bake and helped me with homework, who threw it all away for a biological connection she’d been mourning for

 decades.

 “Okay,” I say finally.

 It’s not forgiveness. It’s not reconciliation. But it’s acknowledgment. It’s the first step toward something, even if I don’t know what that something is yet.

 ir nods, understanding that this is all I can give right now.

 “Take care of yourself, habibti,” she says, using the old pet name that once made me feel so loved. “And take care of that beautiful little girl.”

 She stands up, smoothing down her skirt, and walks back to where James is waiting. They don’t approach me again, but I feel their eyes on me as I return to Dorian’s side.

 “How did it go?” he asks, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

 “Okay.” I shrug. “To be honest, nothing new. Now I just feel numb.”

 We sit infortable silence for a while, watching the controlled chaos of the emergency room. Families waiting for news, doctors and nurses moving with purpose, the constant hum of medical equipment keeping people alive.

 “We should go,” Dorian eventually says. “Lily needs you.”

 I close my eyes, leaning my head against his shoulder, inhaling his safe, steady scent. His presence is the antidote. His love is the life raft.

 “I can’t leave yet,” I whisper, the words heavy with resignation. “Not until I know he’s going to be okay. If something happens…”

 I can’t finish the thought. The unspoken fear hangs heavy in the air: If he dies sacrificing himself for me, I will never, ever be able to live with it. 

 The future I just built with Dorian will be permanently poisoned by the blood of the man I

 < Chapter 135

 want to forget.

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 Dorian looks at me, sees the absolute truth in my eyes, and understands. This isn’t just about Jasper’s life… It’s about saving mine from a lifetime of irreparable guilt.

 He nods, his face set in a cold determination. “Alright, we’ll wait.”

 (Virginia’s POV)

 The quiet whir of the life support machine is the only sound I allow myself to focus on.

 It’s a rhythmic, steady presence in this sterile, white box of a room–a sound that confirms Jasper is still here. Still breathing. Still mine to watch over.

 I sit stiffly in the chair beside his bed. He’s encased in white sheets and bandages, the dark crimson stain on his temple a terrifying, brutal sight.

 His face is pale, peaceful even, which only serves to tighten the suffocating coil of fear in my chest. He looks too fragile, too quiet. Not like Jasper at all.

 Outside, the Stones are a mess of hushed worry and strained diplomacy. Scarlett is there, still clinging to her new fiancé, Dorian.

 I can practically feel her cancerous guilt radiating through the wall.

 I know what she’s thinking: He saved me. I owe him. Good. She should feel that debt for the rest of her life. She deserves to be choked by the weight of his sacrifice.

 I reach out, my hand trembling, and gently brush the hair back from Jasper’s forehead. His skin is mmy, cool.

 He looks so vulnerable like this. So different from the strong, sessful man who usually carries himself with such confidence.

 My phone vibrates in my purse then, a sudden, intrusive shock in the silence. I nce at the screen. It’s a burner number. There is only one person who would call me with a burner number.

 Morgan.

 My stomach clenches as I answer, stepping away from Jasper’s bedside toward the window.

 “Hello?”

 “I had everything nned.” Morgan’s voice is cold, clipped with anger. “Your lover–boy ruined everything.”

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 < Chapter 135

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 The words hit me like ice water. Everything nned. My mind races, trying to process what she’s telling me.

 “What do you mean?” I whisper, though part of me already knows.

 “Don’t y stupid with me, Virginia. The car, the setup, leading her into that parking lot. It was perfect. Clean. Untraceable. And then your precious Jasper had to y hero at thest

 second.”

 The room starts spinning. I grip the windowsill to keep from falling.

 “You… you tried to kill Scarlett tonight?” <fn9720> ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ???? ???????s, ????s? ??s?? find{n}ovel</fn9720>

 “Tried?” Morganughs, and the sound makes my skin crawl. “I would have seeded if your boyfriend hadn’t thrown himself in front of a moving car. Now instead of a dead rival, you have a hospitalized lover and a police investigation.”

 “You didn’t tell me!” The words burst out of me before I can stop them. “You said you were making arrangements, but you didn’t say–I didn’t know-”

 “You didn’t want to know. Don’t pretend you’re innocent in this, Virginia. You called me. You said you’d had enough. You wanted her gone permanently, just like you did four years ago.”

 The words stun me in ce.

 I stare through the ss, through the transparent barrier, at Jasper’s pale, unmoving body. The blood on his head. The shattered arm. The frantic rush to the emergency room.

 I did this. The thought hits me with the force of the very car that struck him. I called her. I told her to make Scarlett disappear. God help me, I wanted Scarlett gone.

 But this? This isn’t what I wanted.

 A sudden, incandescent surge of white–hot fury drowns out the shock.

 “You–you absolute b***h!” I hiss into the phone, my voice vibrating with rage. “Your target was Scarlett! Why did you hurt my Jasper? Why did you hurt him when he had nothing to do with your stupid games?”

 “Didn’t I say it already? Your lover–boy ruined everything.” Morgan’s tone is dismissive, like she’s discussing the weather. “If he hadn’t jumped in to save Scarlett at thest second, would he be lying on a hospital bed now?”

 The casual cruelty of it takes my breath away. She’s talking about the man I love like he’s just coteral damage in her vendetta.

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 “So you can only me yourself for being useless,” she continues. “Despite being around him twenty–four seven, you couldn’t even keep him away for two hours. Pathetic.”

 Each word is a p across the face.

 “Morgan, I-”

 “Don’t contact me anytime in the near future. The cops will definitely investigate this case. They’ll be looking into Scarlett’s enemies, people who might want to hurt her. Your name wille up eventually.”

 Panic floods through me. “What am I supposed to tell them?”

 “Nothing. You know nothing about tonight except what everyone else saw. Jasper got hurt saving his ex–wife from a hit–and–run driver. Stay quiet. Stop acting like the frantic victim and start acting like the grieving future wife. And wait for him to wake up. If he wakes up.”

 The line goes dead before I can respond. I stare at my phone, my hands shaking so badly I can barely hold it.

 What have I done?

 I sink into the chair beside Jasper’s bed, the full weight of tonight crashing down on me. Morgan tried to murder Scarlett. Would have seeded if Jasper hadn’t intervened. And I’m the one who set it in motion with that phone call.

 I’m responsible for this.

 For a brief, agonizing second, the shame is so overwhelming I feel faint. I lean against the bed, face buried in the mattress, tears–real tears, not the performative ones–beginning to streak down my face, washing away the carefully applied makeup.

 “No,” I whisper, shaking my head fiercely. “No, this isn’t my fault. I didn’t know what Morgan was nning. I didn’t ask her to hurt Jasper. I would never hurt Jasper.”

 This is her fault.

 This is all Scarlett’s fault.

 If she had just stayed away, if she’d never returned to Avalon, none of this would have happened.

 Yes, this is her fault. It’s her fault!

 I wipe the tears from my cheeks and straighten my shoulders. Morgan was wrong about one thing–I’m not useless. I’m not pathetic.

 < Chapter 135

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 I’m a woman who can go to any length for the man she loves, and Scarlett Stone is the

 enemy.

 I will make her pay for hurting my Jasper!

 Violet Moon

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