Chapter 4: The Price of My Silence

At the crack of dawn, the front door burst open.

Dad stormed in and slapped me hard across the face.

Mom hurled a phone directly at my chest.

The screen showed Tatum's final video before she slit her wrists.

She was sobbing uncontrollably, shaking like a leaf.

"Briar sent my private chats with Hudson to gossip accounts. She hired bots to call me a homewrecker and mass-reported my page."

"This is all my fault."

"I shouldn't have played a prank on her. I definitely shouldn't have expected her to forgive me."

I had absolutely no idea what private chats she was even talking about.

But because of her tears, everyone was convinced I had orchestrated a cyberbullying campaign to drive her to suicide.

Mom pointed a trembling finger at my nose.

"Briar Ellis, are you happy now?"

"Tatum cut her wrists last night! She's in the emergency room right now!"

Tatum's suicide note was filled with desperate apologies directed at me.

She claimed she only wanted to make everyone laugh, but ended up ruining my wedding.

Since I refused to forgive her, she had to pay with her life.

Hudson grabbed my wrist. His eyes held nothing but pure disgust.

"It was just one video, but you had to force her to delete it. You had to destroy her career."

"If she dies, you will live in hell for the rest of your life!"

My fever still hadn't broken.

Before I could even defend myself, they dragged me straight to the hospital.

Tatum was already awake.

The moment my parents and Hudson stepped out to find the doctor, she opened her eyes.

She flashed me a triumphant smile.

"So what if you loved Hudson for seven years? So what if you spent a whole year planning that wedding?"

"All I had to do was say I wanted to go to Hawaii, and he abandoned his own bride to keep me company."

"Even your parents think I'm a much better daughter than you."

I shook with blinding rage.

"So you faked the leaked chats and the cyberbullying to frame me?"

Footsteps echoed in the hallway.

The smug look vanished from Tatum's face.

She snatched my wrist and let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"Briar, don't pull out my IV!"

"I already apologized! Why won't you let me go?"

Hudson burst into the room and shoved me away with brutal force.

"Briar, are you out of your damn mind?"

"It wasn't me, she—"

I tried to explain, but Dad shoved me hard from behind.

"Get out! Stop stressing Tatum out!"

I stumbled forward and crashed violently onto the hard tiles.

Agony exploded through my body.

A warm liquid trickled down my thighs.

My period had been late this month.

I had assumed it was just stress from the wedding preparations.

But in that exact moment, a horrifying realization seized my mind.

I scrambled to grab Hudson's sleeve.

"Hudson, my stomach hurts so much."

"My period didn't come this month. I think I might be preg—"

Before I could finish the sentence, Tatum let out a fragile whimper from the bed.

"Hudson..."

Hudson ripped his shirt from my grip and rushed straight to her side.

My parents swarmed the bed with him.

Mom heard my voice, but she didn't even bother looking back.

"Tatum just woke up. Stop throwing a tantrum!"

They all crowded around the bed, whispering sweet comforts to her.

My vision faded to black.

I collapsed against the cold floor.

When I woke up, a doctor looked down at me with profound pity.

"You were six weeks pregnant."

"But we couldn't save the baby."

I stared at him blankly.

It took a long time for those words to pierce through the fog in my brain.

After he left, I slowly raised my hand and rested it over my aching lower stomach.

A child had been growing in there.

But I never even got the chance to know they existed.

I never got the chance to protect them.

Tears spilled over my lashes without warning.

They streamed hotly down my cheeks.

I curled into a ball on the hospital bed, sobbing until my whole body shook.

Yet not a single person pushed open that door.

My parents were with Tatum.

Hudson never came looking for me either.

The only thing on my phone was a text he sent half an hour ago.

[Tatum is awake.]

[Once you've rested, come over and apologize to her.]

I stared at the screen for a long time.

Then I discharged myself and went back to the house to grab my luggage.

Before I left, I placed the miscarriage report and the wedding cancellation receipt side by side on the dining table.

I turned around and headed for the airport.

Thirteen hours later, my plane touched down in London.

Meanwhile, Hudson had been waiting for my reply.

At first, he assumed I was just throwing another fit.

Then he called over a dozen times, and no one answered.

That lingering unease finally morphed into sheer panic.

He rushed back to our home.

The house was empty.

The only things waiting for him were two sheets of paper on the dining table.

One was the wedding cancellation confirmation.

The other was a medical report.

[Six weeks pregnant. Miscarriage induced by blunt force trauma.]

Hudson stared at the final line for a long time.

For the first time, the reality of what he had done began to sink in.

But by then, I was already thousands of miles away.