Brandon slammed the brakes in the hospital parking lot and killed the engine.
He yanked the car door shut behind him and strode toward the inpatient elevators.
As the doors slowly closed, he glanced at his phone.
Vanessa had texted half an hour ago: Your mom’s asleep. No rush coming back.
But he still drove fast–he couldn’t bear to stay in that cold, empty house any longer.
Brandon softened his steps as he approached the hospital room. His hand had just touched the doorknob
when he heard a sharp smack inside.
Like a slap. Skin against skin.
“You stubborn old witch,” Vanessa hissed, her voice like poison. “Why are you still alive?”
Brandon froze.
Through the narrow glass pane in the door, he saw Vanessa standing by Mrs. Caldwell’s bed, her back to
him. The once neatly styled hair was now wild and tangled.
Then her hand came down again–another crack, right across Olivia’s exposed leg.
“You fell from that high up and still survived?” Vanessa yanked the blanket with a violent tug. Olivia didn’t move. “You want me to take care of you? What, like that bitch Evelyn did? Keep dreaming.”
Brandon’s fingers tightened around the doorknob.
The woman inside–this snarling, vicious creature was a complete stranger compared to the gentle, sweet girl he thought he knew.
Each word she spat made his heart tremble.
“You know how disgusting it is to wipe you down every day?” Vanessa bent closer, grabbing Olivia’s face. “Once you’re gone, no one can come between me and Brandon ever again.”
Brandon had just started to move when his phone buzzed in his pocket.
He took a step back, retreating to the hallway bench. The cold glow of the screen lit up his pale face.
His assistant had just sent the surveillance footage.
The video played.
Vanessa was holding Olivia’s arm as they descended the staircase. Olivia stumbled. For a second, Vanessa hesitated then instead of catching her, she shoved.
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Thud!
Olivia tumbled down the steps.
At the top of the stairs, Vanessa stood motionless, a twisted smirk creeping up her lips before she finally let
out a theatrical scream.
Brandon’s grip on the phone trembled, knuckles turning white.
He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen.
The girl who had always been tender, affectionate—was this cold. Calculated.
And then he remembered Evelyn’s car accident.
At the time, Olivia had accused Evelyn of pushing her. Vanessa had backed up the story, swearing she’d seen
it with her own eyes.
Evelyn had been lying in the hospital bed, arm in a cast, face pale as chalk. “It wasn’t me,” she’d whispered.
No one believed her.
Brandon hadn’t believed her.
He’d been the one to escort her into the psych evaluation room himself, forcing her to confess.
His throat closed.
“Pull the footage from the day of that car accident,” he rasped into the phone.
Thirty minutes later, another video came through.
Brandon stared at the screen.
In the clip, Olivia stood upright and steady. Vanessa reached out–shoved Evelyn forward.
Evelyn, caught off guard, stumbled and crashed into Olivia.
His jaw clenched.
So it really hadn’t been her.
SCREECH.
A car’s brakes squealed. Evelyn’s body flew through the air like a rag doll, slammed into by the vehicle.
Vanessa rushed to Olivia, dusted off her coat, and the two shared a quiet, conspiratorial exchange… as Evelyn lay in a pool of blood.
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Brandon’s chest tightened with guilt.
He remembered how Evelyn had looked that day–forehead covered in blood, right arm fractured.
And what had he done?
He’d stood beside her hospital bed and said: “Why did you push my mom?”
The phone slipped from his trembling hand and clattered to the ground.
He bent to pick it up but found his hands shaking violently.
He thought of Evelyn’s hollowed cheeks, her body growing thinner by the week. Thought of the quiet, stifled sobs she cried into her pillow at night. Thought of her tearful eyes after Olivia slandered her, and how she’d
never once talked back.
A new message popped up from his assistant: “Mr. Caldwell, should we call the police?”
Brandon looked up, eyes bloodshot. “Save both clips,” he said hoarsely.
He replayed the footage on a loop, watching again and again that devastating second Evelyn was shoved forward, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief.
In the crash footage, just before the impact, she had still tried–desperately–to reach for Olivia, to pull her
back from danger.
“Evelyn.”
He covered his eyes. Hot tears leaked through his fingers.
Suddenly, alarm bells shrieked from the hospital room. Monitors blared. Nurses rushed in.
Brandon stood up mechanically.
Vanessa came running from the other end of the hallway, eyes wide and glistening.
“Brandon! Something’s wrong–your mom, she’s-”
SMACK!
His hand flew across her face.
The slap landed sharp and unflinching.
Vanessa staggered, slamming into the wall, eyes wide with disbeliet.
Brandon threw his phone at her. The screen froze on the frame of her pushing Olivia down the stairs.
“Explain this.”
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Vanessa dropped to her knees, legs giving out beneath her.
“I… it was an accident,” she stammered. “She slipped–I panicked, I didn’t mean-”
“Shut your mouth!” Brandon bellowed, lunging forward and seizing her throat.
The nurses stared in horror. The ever–composed Brandon Caldwell had turned into a wild, furious beast.
Security had to drag him off her.
Vanessa collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath.
Brandon gave her one last look, eyes empty and cold. “You’d better pray my mom makes it.”
