Watched Me Suffer and Called It Growth? Goodbye Forever to All Four of You! Chapter 02

I turned to leave, but a laugh I knew too well stopped me halfway down the hall.

I looked through the window.

Tessa’s belly was already rounded. She lay half-reclined on the bed.

Colin held a children’s picture book and read to her.

His face was soft.

My fingers clenched. I couldn’t look away.

Back when we were together, I used to lie across his lap and watch TV with him. I’d ask him,

“When we have a baby, will you read bedtime stories too?”

He’d smiled and ruffled my hair. “I will. But I have to read to our Paige first.

Or she’ll cry.”

He hadn’t lied. Only the wife had changed.

Spencer’s excited voice cut through the memory.

“Tess, let me feel. I’m going to be Uncle Spencer.”

Garrett shoved him aside almost immediately. “Back off. Tess already said the kid can call me godfather. Everything I have goes to him.”

Colin gave a quiet hum and turned the wedding band on his finger.

“Stop fighting. My name goes on the birth certificate.”

I listened to them argue. My chest felt hollow. Hollow and bleeding.

They used to fight over me the same way.

They used to say they’d be the most important people in my future kid’s life.

They used to pinch my face and tease, “Paige is such a clingy little thing. We’ll have a mini one who sticks to us forever.”

Everything changed after I brought Tessa home and introduced her.

Then they started saying I cried too much. That I talked too much.

Even getting close became wrong.

I couldn’t get enough air. My fingers wouldn’t stop shaking.

Inside, Tessa smiled.

“I asked Colin to bring Paige back. She’s still my best friend.”

“We already agreed she’d be the baby’s godmother.”

Spencer scoffed.

“It’s only been a few years. You really think she’s changed? She’ll be all over me again asking a hundred questions.”

Garrett frowned. “Exactly. I just caught two rattlesnakes to drop on that island. She still needs a good scare.”

Colin sighed and explained like it was reasonable.

“Tess has a soft heart. She’s always wanted to bring her back.”

“Think of it as doing something good for the baby. Worst case we leave a few more things in her room. Scare her enough and she won’t have the energy to cling.”

Their voices made my whole body shake.

Images from the island flooded back.

When I first arrived there was nothing except the animals that kept coming after me.

I ran until my legs almost gave out. Get rid of one and another appeared.

I dug holes with my bare hands and hid in the dirt.

Every time I slept, something wet and slick would slide across my face–snakes, insects.

They made noise.

Every day something gnawed at me. Every day something bit me.

I kept waiting for them to see. Waiting to go home.

And now they were telling me those horrible, sickening things had been put there on purpose.

Just to stop me from being “clingy.”

I hadn’t slept through a single night in years.

I bit through my lip and looked inside.

Tessa sat surrounded by them, face glowing with happiness.

Skin perfect, not a pore in sight.

And me–

Years of fear and sun and wind had left me dark and thin.

Skin cracked. Scars everywhere.

I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

I shoved the door open. My voice came out ruined.

“Why? Why did you do this to me?”