Chapter 4

Graham returned, a bouquet of gaudy red roses clutched in one hand, a small, velvet box in the other. He tried to offer me a placating smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. His gaze flickered nervously around the sterile hospital room, avoiding mine.

"Babe," he said, his voice overly bright. "I got these for you. And this." He presented the velvet box. Inside, a diamond pendant, sparkling under the fluorescent lights. "A little something to make up for... everything."

I looked at the roses, then at the pendant, then at him. His face was a mask of forced sincerity. "I don't want them," I said, my voice flat. "I want to go home."

His jaw tightened, but he nodded. "Of course. Let's get you discharged."

As we made our way to the car, my vision, still a little blurry, caught a glimpse of movement near a parked car. Keeley. She was leaning against the hood, casually scrolling on a tablet. Her eyes, however, were fixed on me, a faint, mocking smile playing on her lips. She made no effort to hide. She was waiting for me. For us.

"Is that your device?" I asked, my voice cutting through the strained silence in the car. "The one with my intellectual property on it?"

Keeley merely raised an eyebrow, a picture of insouciance. "My dear, I have no idea what you're talking about." She looked at Graham, her smile innocent. "Do you, darling?"

Graham cleared his throat. "Elise, please. Don't cause a scene. Keeley was just helping me organize some files." He reached into my bag, pulling out another small, heavy velvet box. "Here, I also got you this. A new watch. It's the latest model, imported from Switzerland. You'll love it."

I looked at the watch, then back at Keeley, who continued to smirk. "My data, Graham. I want to know where it is. If anything happens to it, I will sue you both. For intellectual property theft, for professional misconduct, and for everything else I can think of." My voice was low, but each word was sharp, precise.

Keeley laughed, a tinkling, brittle sound. "Sue us? Oh, honey, you really think you have a leg to stand on? You're a nobody. And besides," she turned to Graham, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness, "Graham, darling, are you really letting her threaten us like this? She's clearly unstable."

Graham's eyes narrowed. He looked at me, then at Keeley, then back at me. He was clearly torn, but his loyalty, as always, leaned towards the woman he was utterly obsessed with. He stepped closer, his hand reaching for my arm.

"Elise, don't push this," he warned, his voice low and dangerous. "You're being irrational."

I shook his hand off. "Irrational? Is it irrational to protect my life's work? Is it irrational to demand accountability for being drugged and thrown from a balcony?"

Keeley gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in exaggerated shock. "What is she talking about, Graham? She's making things up! She's clearly delusional!"

"She's lying!" Graham roared, his face contorted in a mask of rage. He took another step towards me, his eyes blazing. "You're a liar, Elise! A manipulative, deceitful cheat!"

My breath hitched. "What are you talking about?"

"This!" Keeley shrieked, pulling out her phone. A photo flashed on the screen. It was a picture of me, in the hotel room, with Corbett. My hand was on his shoulder, a tender, innocent gesture. But the angle, the framing, it twisted the image into something scandalous. "She's been having an affair! With her 'brother'! She's been cheating on you this entire time, Graham!"

Graham stared at the photo, his face turning a sickly shade of white, then scarlet. His eyes, initially filled with shock, quickly morphed into a terrifying fury. "You... you cheated on me?" His voice was a low growl, laced with disbelief and a chilling rage. "After everything? After I gave you everything?"

"That's not what it looks like!" I protested, my voice rising. "Corbett is family! He's my guardian's son! He's always been there for me!"

"Family?" Keeley shrieked, clinging to Graham's arm. "Oh, please! Everyone knows how these 'family' relationships work in your elite circles! She's been sleeping with him, Graham! She's been using you for your money while she had a secret lover!"

Keeley's words, laced with venom, inflamed Graham's already simmering rage. His face was a mask of pure hatred. He lunged at me, his hand shooting out. The slap echoed through the quiet street, a sharp, deafening crack. My head snapped back, a searing pain exploding across my cheek. I stumbled, falling to the ground.

"You disgust me!" Graham snarled, his eyes burning with a cold fury. He grabbed my arm, wrenching me up. "You lied! You cheated! I gave you my name, my home, my future, and you threw it all away for some illicit affair!" He dragged me towards the house, his grip like iron bands around my arm. "You're a disgrace! A manipulative whore!"

"I didn't cheat!" I cried, the words tearing from my throat. "I never cheated on you! You're the one who-"

"Silence!" he roared, his voice echoing in the now empty street. "You will pay for this, Elise. You will regret the day you ever crossed me." He shoved me into the living room, towards the small, dimly lit utility room beneath the stairs. "You lied to me about your parents! You lied about everything! I thought I knew you!"

He flung me inside, the door slamming shut with a resounding thud. The room was small, dark, and suffocating. The air was thick with the smell of dust and disuse. My body ached, my head spun. The betrayal, the physical violence, the false accusations-it was all too much.

From outside, I could hear Keeley's voice, sweet and triumphant. "Oh, Graham, darling, she's probably secretly recording us in there! She's always been so calculating! She knew how important your cure was. She knew that data was worth millions!"

"She was planning to sabotage you, Graham!" Keeley continued, her voice rising in feigned indignation. "She was going to steal the data, steal your cure, and sell it to your rivals! She confessed it to me! She said she knew exactly how to tweak the algorithms, how to make it look like my data was the faulty one! She said she'd make sure you'd lose everything, especially with your condition progressing. She even mentioned something about your family being furious if something went wrong with the cure she was working on!"

My blood ran cold. She was confessing everything. Everything she had done, she was now twisting and attributing to me. My fingers fumbled for the small, almost invisible recording device I always kept in my bra. A habit from my days in dangerous field research, a hidden safeguard. It was still there. Still on. Capturing every word.

The hours crawled by in the suffocating darkness. Graham occasionally pushed a plate of dry bread and a bottle of water through a small slot in the door, but he never spoke. He never met my eyes. His silence was colder, more condemning than any accusation.

Finally, the door creaked open. Graham stood there, his face grim. "Are you going to admit your lies, Elise?" he demanded, his voice low and dangerous.

"I have nothing to admit," I said, my voice hoarse. "I am innocent."

His eyes flashed with anger. He grabbed my arm again, dragging me out of the utility room and up the stairs. "Then perhaps a different kind of reminder will jog your memory."

He pushed me into our bedroom, the room that had once been our sanctuary, now a battlefield. The scent of Keeley' s perfume was overpowering here, mingling with the lingering smell of his cologne. The bed, unmade, bore the undeniable signs of recent intimacy.

My stomach churned. A wave of disgust washed over me. "Get away from me," I choked out, pushing him away.

He lunged, grabbing me, forcing my face to the rumpled sheets. "Look at it, Elise! Look at what you lost! Look at what you threw away!" He laughed, a harsh, mirthless sound. "You think you're so pure, so untouchable? You think you're better than me? Better than Keeley? You're nothing!"

"You're disgusting," I spat, tears of pure contempt streaming down my face. "You're a vile, pathetic excuse for a man!"

He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. His eyes were cold, devoid of any warmth. "You used to beg for my touch, Elise. You used to tell me I was the only one."

"That was before," I whispered, the words heavy with pain, "before you took everything from me. Before you murdered my child. Don't you dare touch me. Not after what you did. Not after what we lost."

My voice cracked on the last word, the raw grief tearing through me.