His Bloody Regret Came Too Late

The Smith family was a den of vipers. To break Dominic and me apart, they drugged him, orchestrated a night of accidental passion with his socialite ex, and ensured she ended up pregnant with twins.

When I found out, I packed my bags, but Dominicshattered and desperatebegged me to stay. He swore hed never see them. He told me the pregnancy had been "handled." He even held a blade to his own wrist to prove he couldn't live without me. I was young, I was in love, and I believed the lie.

Three years later, the lie imploded at a kindergarten orientation.

In a fit of blind rage and betrayal, I kept the twins behind after the event to confront the teacher about why Dominics name was on their emergency contact list. On their way home, they were snatched.

Dominic didnt ask questions. He didnt look for evidence. He blamed me instantly. To force a confession I didn't have, he took my motherwho had a failing heartto the top of a pier-side drop tower.

I screamed until my throat bled, telling him I didnt know where they were.

Dominic only roared back, his face a mask of predatory fury: "Ive given you everything, Leah! Why would you touch those children? If you don't tell me where they are, I'm letting her go!"

He shoved her toward the edge of the platform. Her safety harness was unbuckled, flapping uselessly in the wind.

I had no answers to give. In his cold, calculated hatred, Dominic finally pushed the button. My mother plummeted.

Moments later, his phone rang. The kidnappers had been found. It had nothing to do with me.

Without a glance at my mothers broken, lifeless body, Dominic turned on his heel and ran toward his "real" family.

While he was holding those twins, I was in a sterile hospital room, pulling a white sheet over my mothers face.

In that moment, the love I held for him didnt just die. It rotted.

I stared at the white shroud covering my mother, my eyes so dry they burned. I had no tears left.

The doctor stood beside me, his voice heavy with a pity I couldn't stomach. "I'm so sorry. If she had been brought in just twenty minutes earlier... she might have had a chance. Her heart simply gave out from the sheer terror."

I dug my nails into my palms until I drew blood. The guilt was a physical weight, crushing my lungs. I should have left him three years ago. I could have saved her. My mother had treated Dominic like her own son since the day we married.

I had only asked the teacher to keep the kids for ten extra minutes to talk. I didn't kidnap them. But Dominic wouldn't listen. He chose his "legacy" over my mothers life.

After making the arrangements for her body, I dragged myself back to the empty house we once called a home. Seven days. I told myself I only had to survive seven more days. Then, Id take her ashes back to the coast, and Dominic Smith would become a ghost in my past.

Dominic didnt come home until the following evening.

He didn't notice my ghost-white skin or my hollow eyes. He just walked into the kitchen, radiating a cold, sharp bitterness.

"Leah, I honestly can't believe you," he said, his voice a low hiss. "You were willing to watch your own mother go over the edge rather than tell me where those boys were. Do you have any idea what they went through? Theyre still in the hospital because of you!"

Theyre in the hospital, I thought, the irony tasting like copper in my mouth. My mother didn't even get the chance to be a patient. She went straight to the morgue.

My chest tightened so hard I couldn't breathe. I looked him dead in the eye, but only a raspy, broken sound escaped my throat.

Seeing my distress, a flicker of somethingregret? pity?crossed his face.

"Fine," he sighed, reaching out. "As long as the boys are okay, Tiffany and I will find a way to move past this. I know youve been stressed taking care of your mom. In a few days, once things settle, Ill take you away for the weekend. We need to reset."

He tried to pull me into the familiar curve of his chest, but I shoved him away with every ounce of strength I had left.

"No... no more... taking care of her," I croaked. My voice was a ruined thing; he couldn't even understand the words.

He frowned, his patience evaporating. "Stop acting out, Leah. You were in the wrong here. Im staying at the hospital tonight to be with the kids. Don't call me unless it's an emergency."

He turned to leave, but his phone buzzed. He looked at the screen, and his face went pale. Before I could move, he lunged forward, grabbing my wrist in a vice grip.

"Get in the car. Now."

He didn't care that I could barely stand. He dragged me through the hospital corridors like a piece of luggage. The moment we reached the private wing, Tiffanythe woman who had been a shadow over my marriage for three yearslunged at me.

She slapped me so hard my head hit the linoleum wall. She wasn't finished. She threw herself on me, screaming, clawing at my skin like a wild animal.

Thinking of my mother, a spark of cold fire lit up in my gut. I tried to fight back, tried to push her off.

Suddenly, Dominics hands were on me, pinning my arms to my sides. He held me still, letting Tiffany land blow after blow across my face.

When he finally let go, I collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air.

Dominic looked down at me, his expression a complicated mess of guilt and resolve. "The twins are losing too much blood. Their levels are critical. Just let Tiffany vent, Leah. You owe her this."

I let out a jagged, hysterical laugh. Tears finally began to fall.

A doctor stepped out of the ICU. "We need the units now."

Dominic didn't wait. He hauled me up and shoved me toward the technician. "Shes a match. Take whatever you need."

I struggled, my weak hands fluttering against his chest, but he pinned me down on the cot. I watched, detached from my own body, as the thick needle pierced my vein.

Dominic stroked my hair, his voice dropping into that terrifyingly tender tone he used when he wanted to manipulate me. "Itll be over soon, honey. Think of this as your penance. Once this is done, we can start over."

I closed my eyes tight, systematically erasing every memory of love I had ever felt for this man.

After two bags, the world began to tilt. My head rolled to the side, but Dominic grabbed my arm, his voice tight with anxiety.

"Doctor, they're twins. Shouldn't you take more? Just to be safe?"

The doctor shook his head, looking uneasy. "Sir, if we take any more, shell go into shock. She could die."

Dominic didn't hesitate. He shifted my arm, offering it up like a piece of meat. "Shes stronger than she looks. Do it."

I broke into a cold sweat, my voice a mere whisper. "Dominic... please... I had nothing to do with the kidnapping..."

He just looked at me with profound disappointment. "Still lying, Leah? Even now?"

They took two more bags. By the end, I was a shell.

Dominics eyes softened for a fraction of a second, and he reached out to help me up. But then, Tiffany called his name from the ICU window, her voice trembling with manufactured terror.

Dominic turned and ran to her without a second thought.

I was left on a gurney in the hallway, discarded like a used bandage. Later, I was movednot to a room, but to a small chair in the twins' suite, effectively tethered there by my own exhaustion.

Dominics parents arrived an hour later. His mother, a woman who wore pearls like armor, walked straight up to me and backhanded me across the face.

"You animal," she spat. "We knew you were low-class, but to target three-year-old children? Youre lucky we don't have you arrested."

I was too weak to even flinch. I looked toward Dominic, expecting the man who used to defend me against his mothers barbs to step in.

He stood by the window, his hands trembling as he stirred a cup of broth for Tiffany. He wouldn't look at me. His eyes, once full of a heat that could melt me, were now as cold as a winter morning in the city.

"Just endure it, Leah," he said quietly. "You brought this on yourself."

His mother let out a sharp, jagged laugh and kicked me square in the stomach.

I felt a sharp, hot burst of pain, followed by the sickening sensation of warmth spreading between my thighs.

As the world faded to black, the last thing I saw was Dominics face, finally breaking into an expression of pure, unadulterated panic as he ran toward me.

When I woke up, I didn't open my eyes. I couldn't. I just listened to the voices in the room.

"Maybe its for the best that the pregnancy didn't hold," Dominic was saying, his voice sounding hollow. "If she could hurt the twins like that before she even had her own child, imagine what she would have been like later."

"Lets just pretend it never happened," his mothers voice replied. "Don't even tell her. The Smith heir should come from Tiffany anyway. We were never going to accept a child from her bloodline."

A single tear escaped my closed eyelids.

Did he ever love me? I wondered. Or was I just a three-year distraction?

When the room finally fell silent and the footsteps faded, I opened my eyes. I reached down and touched my abdomen. It felt empty. Cold.

I should have left years ago. One wrong decision had cost two livesmy mothers and my childs.

I was staring at the acoustic ceiling tiles, lost in a trance of grief, when the door creaked open.

Tiffany walked in, her "grieving mother" facade replaced by a sharp, triumphant smirk. "Leah Smith. Still breathing? You really are like a cockroach."

She walked to the side of my bed and pressed her thumb hard into the bruising on my arm where the IV had been. "Oops. My bad. But hey, a little bruise is nothing compared to a miscarriage, right? You weren't fit to be a mother anyway. Think of it as a favor."

She started to gigglea high, tinkling sound that grated on my raw nerves.

With the last of my strength, I grabbed the heavy thermal carafe from the bedside table and swung it at her. It clipped her shoulder, spilling lukewarm water everywhere.

Tiffany didn't get angry. Instead, a look of predatory glee crossed her face. She deliberately threw herself onto the floor, knocking over a chair as she went.

A second later, the door burst open. Dominic was there, his face contorted in rage. "Leah! What the hell are you doing?"

He lunged at me, his hand connecting with my cheek so hard I tasted blood.

He froze when he saw how pale I was, his hand trembling as he pulled it back. But Tiffany began to sob from the floor.

"Don't hurt her, Dominic! It was my fault," she wailed, her voice thick with fake tears. "I just wanted to apologize. I thought... maybe she lost the baby because of the stress I caused. I wanted to make peace, but she..."

She let out a broken whimper. "It's fine. I deserve it for trying to be kind."

Dominic looked at me with a disgust so deep it felt like a physical blow. He reached down and gathered Tiffany into his arms.

"I never knew how truly venomous you were, Leah. You aren't half the woman she is. My parents were right about you from the start."

He turned and walked out, carrying her like a prize.

I watched them go, laughing until the sound turned into a sob.

Youre right, Dominic, I thought. We both made a mistake. You chose her, and I chose you.

I was discharged a week later.

When I opened the front door of our penthouse, I found Tiffany and the twins sitting in our living room. Dominic stood in front of them, blocking my view like a bodyguard.

"The boys have severe trauma from the kidnapping," he said, his brow furrowed. "They need stability. Ive moved them in so I can look after them personally."

There was a challenge in his eyes, a silent dare for me to object. I simply nodded, my face a mask of indifference.

Dominic blinked, caught off guard by my lack of fire. He reached out to grab my hand, a look of confusion flickering in his dark eyes.

Before he could touch me, Tiffany stepped in, slipping her arm through his. "Dominic, if Leah isn't comfortable, the boys and I can leave. We can stay at a hotel. Its just... theyre so scared, and youre the only person they trust right now."

She shot me a look of pure malice over his shoulder. I remained silent.

Annoyed by my lack of reaction, Dominic snapped, "This is a Smith property. I decide who stays. If Leah has a problem with it, she can be the one to leave."

He watched me, waiting for the explosion. In the past, I would have burned the house down. I would have screamed until he chose me.

Now, I just felt tired.

"I'm just here for my documents, Dominic," I said, my voice sounding like it was coming from miles away. "Sign the divorce papers and leave them on the desk. When you have a gap in your schedule between playing house, let me know. We can go to the courthouse and end this."

Panic flared in his eyes, masked instantly by bravado. "Fine! Go! See if any other man with my bank account wants a woman as cold as you."

Then, his voice dropped, turning manipulative again. "Look, once the boys are better, I'll send them to the estate in the Hamptons. This will be our home again. Just give it time, okay?"

He tried to pull me into an embrace. I pulled back, smelling nothing but rot on him. The man I loved was dead. This was just a walking, breathing corpse of a marriage.

I went upstairs to my office. On the way, I saw the boys in the hallway. They had found the porcelain urn I had brought home from the funeral parlor.

They had poured water into it and were using my mothers ashes as "gray paint," smearing it across the wallpaper.

My heart shattered into a million jagged pieces. I lunged forward. "You little monsters! Put that down!"

The boys saw my desperation and grinned. Then, with a casual cruelty that could only be inherited, they smashed the urn onto the hardwood floor.

I fell to my knees, frantically trying to scoop up the gray dust with my bare hands. The boys started jumping on it, their sneakers grinding my mother into the floorboards.

I lost it. I shoved them backhard.

They fell, catching themselves on the sharp porcelain shards. They let out a synchronized howl of pain.

Tiffany appeared instantly, her eyes wild with fury. "Leah! What is wrong with you? Its just a jar! You pushed my children over a jar?"

Dominic appeared behind her, his face darkening to a bruised purple as he saw the blood on the twins' hands.

I was still on the floor, weeping, trying to gather what was left of my mother. Dominic lunged forward and backhanded me.

The world spun. I fell onto the broken porcelain, the shards slicing into my palms and knees. Dominic didn't even look at my wounds.

"You haven't learned a thing," he spat, his voice trembling with cold rage. "You need a lesson you'll never forget."

He grabbed me by the collar and dragged me down the hall, throwing me into the windowless walk-in pantry. He slammed the heavy door and turned the deadbolt.

I wasn't let out until the following morning.

The butler opened the door, his eyes full of disdain. "Get out. Mr. Smith says youve had enough time to think."

I stumbled out, clutching a small plastic bag containing the few ounces of ash I had managed to salvage.

I had a flight booked for that afternoon. All I needed was my employment release from the preschool where I worked.

When I walked into the Director's office, she sighed heavily. "Leah, why did you have to cross Mrs. Smith? Dominic is a powerful man, and his family is everything to him. My hands are tied."

My heart gave a dull, familiar throb of pain. Because the Smiths never officially recognized me, I was still "Miss Susan" to the world. Our marriage was a secret they kept in a drawer.

I just nodded, waiting for her to stamp the papers.

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the courtyard. I walked to the window and saw Tiffany. She was standing in the middle of the playground, throwing handfuls of photos into the air.

Behind her, two men were unfurling a massive red banner over the school entrance:

[THANK YOU, MISS LEAH, FOR TAKING CARE OF MY HUSBANDS NEEDS. IM WILLING TO PAY THREE DOLLARS FOR YOUR NEXT SHIFT.]

The parents waiting at the gates turned to look at me, their expressions curdling into disgust.

The world began to tilt. I felt the bile rise in my throat.

Tiffany saw me through the glass and raised her voice, her face twisted in a mocking grin. "This is the woman who tried to break up my family! Be careful, ladies. Don't let your husbands come to pick up the kids. Miss Leah is always looking for a promotion."