Chapter 3 A Betrayal That Stung

Seraphina couldn’t feel the cold in the night air as she drove away. The only reason she was glad was because she was able to bail before Damien could find her.

Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as she drove through the winding streets. Her breath came in shallow bursts, her chest still aching from what she had seen and heard.

Talia was here in Seattle. She knew she was alive. She knew Damien.

Nausea climbed her throat but she suppressed it.

She tried to focus on the road, but her mind kept flashing back to that image- his hands on Talia, their voices, their laughter, that kiss.

She bit down on her bottom lip to keep herself from crying out. Her vision blurred for a second, and she blinked fast, struggling to stay focused.

She slowed the car as she reached a quiet corner near a gas station. Her hands were shaking too hard now. She couldn’t keep driving.

“I can’t…” she whispered to herself, pressing her forehead against the steering wheel.

Her whole body trembled.

She reached for her phone with stiff fingers and fumbled to unlock it. Her contacts were a blur, but she found Sheila’s name and pressed call. Hopefully Sheila wouldn’t be on her nursing duty. They had moved together to Seattle here to live a private life.

It rang once.

“Hey Sera,” Sheila’s voice came through cheerfully until Seraphina spoke.

She opened her mouth, but no words came out for a second. Her throat was tight. Finally, her voice broke through, low and shaky. “I need you to come get me.”

“What? Where are you? What happened?”

“I…” Seraphina swallowed. “I left Damien’s place. I saw something. I-I can’t…” Her voice cracked. “Please. I can’t drive anymore. My hands won’t stop shaking.”

“Okay, okay, breathe. Where are you?”

Seraphina looked around, trying to focus through the tears brimming in her eyes. “I think I’m near a gas station… Shell. There’s a big green sign. It’s on the corner of... I think Lakeview and Grant.”

“I’m coming right now. Don’t move, Sera. Just stay there.”

“Okay,” Seraphina whispered, her voice barely audible.

She ended the call and dropped the phone on her lap. The car was still running, but she didn’t move. Her head leaned back against the seat as tears slipped down her cheeks one by one. She didn’t wipe them.

She just sat there, under the dim lights of the empty road, broken and betrayed, waiting for the one person she could still count on as dizziness crawled through her body.

~

When Seraphina woke up, it was at the hospital. Sheila was by her side.

“Oh my…Thank God. You are awake.” Sheila dashed to her side, then grabbed her hands, worry etched on her face. “I was so worried, what happened to you?”

Seraphina wanted to speak but couldn’t. There was pain all over her body. The past event came rushing in but apart from it, was the chronic pain she was feeling in her stomach.

“Wha…what happened to me? My stomach hurts so bad.” She struggled to sit up, but Sheila cautiously held her down.

“Don’t move for now, Sera. You will have to rest for a while.”

Seraphina didn’t miss the somber look in Sheila’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, Sera.” Now Seraphina was growing more worried. The female doctor entered before she could ask any more questions from Sheila.

“You are awake.” Then the doctor looked to Sheila, “Does she know yet?” Sheila shook her head timidly, avoiding Seraphina’s gaze.

“You both are scaring me. What is it? Did you diagnose anything?”

“You lost your baby, Miss Seraphina.” The doctor revealed. Seraphina could hardly process the words.

"Baby?" she repeated slowly, as if the word didn’t belong to her. She looked at Sheila, hoping this was a bad joke. But Sheila’s eyes were already starting to water. And in that moment, something hollowed out inside her- like her chest was caving in from a grief she hadn’t even had the chance to prepare for.

“I was… pregnant?” she whispered, barely able to form the words.

Sheila’s hold on her hand tightened. “You didn’t know?”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Miss Sera. Your baby was barely two months old and it’s normal that you hadn’t realized yet. You must have lost track of your period count downs.”

Seraphina could only stare. Her mind was blank.

After the doctor gave her advice to not stress and all, she was left alone with Sheila.

“It’s okay, Sera. You don’t have to talk about it now.” Sheila’s concerned voice cut through the silence.

“What happened…to me?” Seraphina asked, eyes narrowing at nothing in particular.

“When I came to get you, there was blood on the seat. Your dress too. You were unconscious, Sera. You weren’t even breathing properly. I had never been that scared in a while.”

Seraphina blinked hard. The hospital room swam in and out of focus. Her heart was still racing, but her body felt like it had been hollowed out from the inside.

“How did you find me?” She asked weakly.

Sheila hesitated. “You told me where you were... over the phone. Forgotten?” She had forgotten. All she could process now was Damien’s betrayal and the loss of the baby she hadn’t been privileged to know about before the loss.

Seraphina nodded faintly, trying to connect the dots in her spinning mind.

Then she frowned.

“My phone…” she murmured.

Sheila reached into her bag and pulled it out. “Here. It kept buzzing, though. Nonstop.”

As soon as Sheila handed it over, the screen lit up again.

“Damien” name popped on the screen.

Seraphina’s stomach turned.

“I didn’t answer,” Sheila added quietly, already sensing something was wrong. “But he’s called…for more than ten times now.”

Seraphina didn’t say a word.

She stared at his name on the screen until the call ended and his picture- his lying, smiling, bastard face- faded into darkness. Then there were lots of messages that followed.

‘Were you at my house? Saw your purse.’

‘Please pick your call. I need to know what’s going on!’

‘Sera? Please call me back. We need to talk.’ Seraphina’s mind went back to earlier. They needed her thumbprint to access her father’s vault. That was why he was with her. She had even forgotten that it was her thumbprint her father used as the access for his vault. Did that mean Talia and her mother hadn’t been able to access her father’s real wealth?

That only left her with questions- why would her father leave the vault’s matter out of the will? If her father had really prioritized Talia and Sheryl more than her, then why was it her thumbprint he used as his vault’s access?

And also…how had Talia found out she was alive? She was Sera Knox here. She had long pulled away the identity ‘Seraphina Moreau’ after she narrowly missed a bullet.

She had made sure she was guarded this whole time, avoiding parties and open spaces in Seattle. She had even burned down fat to look totally different, dyed her hair blonde.

The plan to fake her death had gone smoothly. If Talia knew she was alive, then it must have been someone that knew her who shared it with Talia. But who?

“Sera… what happened?” Sheila’s voice jolted her from her deep thoughts.

Seraphina shut her eyes for a moment, inhaling deeply, then slowly opened her eyes.

Her phone buzzed again and she peeked at the message, thinking it was from Damien. But it was not. Her entire body froze as she read the content in the message from an anonymous sender.

“I need to be discharged.”  She said before she could change her mind.