One Lipstick, Nine Lies, Zero People On My Side Chapter 06

One Lipstick, Nine Lies, Zero People On My Side Chapter 06

“Is the baby really Stellan’s?” Orson’s voice came through the security footage. “Tell me the truth, Leonie.”

“What difference does it make?” she snapped. “You and I are over. One night doesn’t give you the right to destroy my marriage.”

“I had a DNA test done. He’s my son.”

Orson caught her arm as she tried to walk away.

“I betrayed my own sister for you, and now you expect me to give up my child too?”

“We were together for six years, Leonie. You can’t do this to me.”

Those few sentences exposed everything they had hidden.

The footage showed Orson dragging Leonie into a storage room at the end of the hall. Neither of them heard the baby crying in the consultation room they had left behind.

By the time a nurse found him, he was struggling to breathe.

She rushed him to the emergency department, and that was the only reason he survived.

Iona gripped the sides of the laptop so hard her nails scraped against the frame.

“Tell me this isn’t real.”

Her eyes moved between Orson and Leonie.

“Say Sabine made it. Say she did this to get back at us.”

Orson couldn’t look at her.

He had never imagined the clinic cameras would capture the entire confrontation.

The silence dragged on until Iona’s face crumpled.

“Orson. Say something.”

He swallowed.

“I’m sorry, Iona. The video is real.”

Something in her eyes went dark.

Leonie’s fear turned instantly to rage.

“Why would you admit that?” She struck Orson across the chest again and again. “Are you out of your mind?”

This time, he caught her wrist.

“Enough.”

His voice cracked through the room.

“I’ve already done too much for you. I’m not lying anymore.”

Then he finally told them the truth he had buried for six years.

Leonie had never been an old college friend.

She had been his girlfriend.

They had met in college and stayed together for six years, spending four of them in secret because the Strathmore family considered Orson beneath her.

When he finally earned a position at Muir & Saye and started planning a proposal, Leonie ended their relationship with a check for 500,000 and told him to disappear from her life.

The next time he saw her, she was married to the man engaged to his sister.

Iona stared at him as if the person she had married had vanished in front of her.

Then she laughed.

The sound was raw and unsteady.

“So that’s what I am? A replacement?” she asked. “Someone you settled for because she didn’t want you?”

His silence answered for him.

Iona lunged at Leonie and slapped her across the face.

“Why?” she screamed. “You two never stopped sleeping together, so why did you drag me into this?”

For the first time, regret hit her with full force. She regretted betraying Sabine. She regretted marrying Orson.

The room erupted into chaos. The baby began to cry as Iona reached for Leonie.

Leonie twisted away, but Iona’s nails raked across her cheek.

“Get away from us!”

Leonie slapped her back.

“Enough, Iona. You don’t get to blame me for the choices you made.”

Blood beaded along the scratches on her face, but her expression had gone cold.

“You hated watching Sabine become one of the hospital’s youngest cardiothoracic attendings while your career stalled. You came to me because you wanted my father to help you get promoted.”

Iona went still.

“You used me first,” Leonie said. “Don’t pretend this was ever about friendship.”

Her gaze shifted toward Orson.

“And you were the one who wouldn’t leave Orson alone. If you hadn’t chased him so relentlessly, you wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

There was nothing left to hide now.

Leonie held the baby tighter and looked down at Iona with open contempt.

“You grew up in foster care and spent your whole life desperate to belong somewhere. Sabine was the only person foolish enough to call that friendship.”

Iona’s face changed.

She charged at Leonie again.

Before she could reach her, Orson grabbed a heavy vase from the side table and swung it into her back.

“I’m sorry. But I won’t let you hurt Leonie or my son.”