The Moon Sets over a Sea of Hate

The eighth time I caught Oscar Stanton in a hotel suite, he silently picked up the fruit knife from the nightstand and slashed his wrist eleven times. “Satisfied now?” Blood ran between his fingers and dripped onto the carpet. He looked at me as though I were a madwoman who had driven him to kill himself. I stood frozen, the toy gun still clenched in my hand. For a moment, everything felt strangely unreal. After all, the last time things had gotten this bad, I had kicked his mistress into a crocodile enclosure and demanded that he never see her again. In retaliation, he had buried my mother’s ashes beneath a public restroom. He laughed and said, In retaliation, he had buried my mother’s ashes beneath a public restroom. But now, before he could even determine whether the gun in my hand was real, his face went pale and he pleaded, “Don’t hurt Cammie. She’s pregnant. She can’t handle this kind of shock. “Punish me however you want, but leave the baby out of it.” I froze and placed a hand over my own stomach. “What did you say?” Oscar’s chuckle was light as he closed his eyes. “I’m saying I give in. “Happy now? Isn’t this exactly what you wanted?” He had finally given in. But he was only doing it to protect another woman’s baby. The fear in his eyes for her made the baby inside me seem like nothing more than an unwanted accident. At that moment, every movement in my womb felt like a cruel joke. Suddenly, I didn’t want to keep losing myself to this madness anymore. Chapter 1 The toy gun slipped from my hand and hit the floor with a dull thud. The wariness in Oscar Stanton’s eyes didn’t ease in the slightest. After watching me in silence for a moment, he stripped off his shirt, took the barbed whip in both hands, and knelt rigidly in front of me. “As long as you don’t hurt Cammie, you can whip me as many times as you want.” I stared at his kneeling figure, my eyes burning with unshed tears. “Oscar, do you remember why you brought Camilla back to the country in the first place?” Oscar’s back stiffened. He lowered his gaze in fear, avoiding my eyes. “Those are the grievances of the previous generation. It has nothing to do with Cammie herself. She’s innocent.” Camilla Isley was the daughter of my father’s mistress. Her mother, Hester Isley, had been so determined to take my mother’s place that she drove her to jump from the twentieth floor. After marrying into the Constantine family, Hester found endless ways to torment me. On my eighteenth birthday, she drugged my milk and had me delivered to the bed of an older man who had AIDS. Oscar saved me. During the darkest years of my adolescence, he was the only light I had. When I was twenty, my father’s investments failed and the Constantine family went bankrupt. He liquidated every remaining asset, transferred all the money to Camilla and sent her overseas to escape the fallout. Then he used my personal information to register me as the debtor, saddling me with hundreds of millions in debt. While creditors beat me until I permanently lost the hearing in my left ear, Camilla sat beside the Seine, drinking coffee in the sun. As I choked down dry bread in a cheap apartment, Camilla dined on thousand-dollar caviar at Michelin-starred restaurants. When I was so poor that I had to sell my blood on the black market, she swept through luxury boutiques, buying enough designer handbags to fill an entire car trunk. By the time Oscar found me, I weighed barely eighty pounds. I lay slumped across a bench in the clinic, too weak even to open my eyes. He gathered my skeletal body into his arms. His eyes were bloodred as he gritted out each word. “I swear I’ll make that bloodsucking parasite suffer a fate worse than death.” But during the second year after Camilla was brought back, Oscar slept with her. Once, he said that he would get justice for me to make up for the youth I had lost. The boy who had once promised to get justice for me and protect me was now kneeling at my feet, telling me Camilla was innocent. A tear struck the back of my hand, burning against my skin. It felt as though someone had carved a piece out of my heart. I stepped back, my voice barely more than a whisper. “Let’s get a divorce, Oscar.” Oscar’s head snapped up. His gaze was hateful, like I was an enemy. The next second, one large hand came down on my pregnant belly and pressed viciously. His voice was cold as ice. “Haven’t you played this hard-to-get game enough? If Cammie loses so much as a single hair, I’ll make the baby in your belly pay with its life.” My pupils contracted. It felt as though all the blood in my body had frozen, the cold spreading from my fingertips straight into my heart. It was not the first time in the five years after Oscar’s affair that I brought up divorce. But every time he signed the papers without so much as a frown, my hatred and resentment overwhelmed what little reason I had left. I retaliated against Camilla like a woman possessed and found countless ways to torment Oscar. I had pushed him so far that he had developed a conditioned stress response to my threats. He didn’t believe I would ever truly let him go. As if sensing the danger, the baby inside me kicked restlessly. The pain forced me to curl up on the floor. There wasn’t a trace of concern in Oscar’s eyes. His voice was as calm as if he were merely delivering a notice. “Cammie had a scare. I need to take her to the hospital. I’ll go home with you after her check-up.” He paused, then added as though he were making an enormous sacrifice, “I won’t see her again until after you’ve had the baby.” With that, he stepped around me and walked straight into the bedroom. The door slammed shut, leaving my ears ringing. Leaning against the wall for support, I made my way out of the hotel one agonizing step at a time. I had barely reached the lobby when my vision went black. Then I lost consciousness. Chapter 2 When I woke again, I was in the hospital. There was only a single nurse in the ward. “You’re at risk of a miscarriage, so you can’t be agitated in any way. The doctor has prescribed you some medications to help stabilize the pregnancy. Have your family pick it up when they arrive.” But I had no family. My mother had died years ago, and my dad had run off to escape his debts. Even my husband, who had once claimed to love me, was accompanying his mistress to a prenatal appointment. I slowly climbed out of bed to collect the medications myself. When I passed by the VIP area on the third floor, a familiar voice drifted through a partially open door. I stopped. Through the gap, I could see Oscar sitting by the bedside, gently feeding Camilla some soup. Camilla rested a hand on her belly and looked up at him with tearful eyes. “Are you really going to leave me alone during this time, Oscar? What if the baby misses its daddy?” Oscar affectionately tapped the tip of her nose. “Don’t be silly. How could I ever leave you here alone? “I put a GPS tracker on Luna’s phone. Once she calms down, I’ll come and spend time with you.” Camilla gave a coy pout and threw herself into his arms. I could hear their sounds of passion coming from inside, and my insides felt like they had been scooped out. A breeze blew past, chilling me to the bone. I took out my phone and called a hidden number. “I’ll go with you to Summer Bay as you wanted, but you have to fake my death.” “I can do that.” After ending the call, I looked through the doorway at the two figures entwined inside. Oscar, if you refuse to believe that I truly want a divorce, then congratulations. You’re about to become a widower. When Oscar came home in the evening, he saw that my dinner was a plain bowl of oatmeal. He frowned, picked it up, and poured it into the trash. “How can you eat just that when you’re pregnant?” He took off his coat and went into the kitchen. Oil sizzled in the pan, and the aroma of cooking food soon drifted through the house.. Warm yellow light bathed him, making him seem like he was made of gold. If I had not overheard his conversation with Camilla, I would have believed that he had learned his lesson and was truly coming back home to me. In a daze, he finished cooking dinner, filling the table with various dishes. Oscar put a huge slice of salmon onto my plate. “Have more salmon. It’s filled with vitamins.” My fingers tightened on my fork, my knuckles going white. “I’m allergic to fish, Oscar.” It was Camilla who enjoyed eating fish. The room plunged into silence in an instant. Oscar stiffened, and his expression shifted. He picked up my plate and dumped it into the trash. Then he went to the fridge to take out some mango juice. He twisted the cap and started to down the juice. I was shocked. I lunged forward to snatch it away. “What are you doing? You’re allergic to mangoes!” He avoided my hold and finished the entire bottle of mango juice. A few seconds later, a startling rash appeared on his neck. He loosened his tie as his breathing sped up. “It’s my fault for forgetting you’re allergic to fish. It has nothing to do with Cammie. I’ve been punished, so don’t go and bother her.” Tears gathered in my eyes all of a sudden. My voice shook as I asked, “Are you willing to die for Camilla, Oscar?” “Yes,” he answered without hesitation. His voice even took on a hint of pleading. “My little moon, I’m begging you. Let Camilla off.” When he used that nickname, I was frozen to the spot. When Hester had forced Mom into a corner, I was standing on the edge of the balcony trying to find her. Oscar did not tell me to come down and only stood on the balcony with me. He had said, “Luna, you are the moonlight in my life. Without you, I could not survive alone.” That nickname meant too much to me. It represented the eleven love-filled years of our relationship. I recalled the wonder of our first kiss, the pain of that meeting in the clinic, the magic of our wedding night… At that moment, he was using that nickname to beg me to spare another woman. I grimaced, my heart feeling lonelier than it had been when I was crying. “Alright, I’ll let you both off.” I took two steps back and went back into the bedroom. Chapter 3 Our wedding photos hung on the bedroom wall. A pair of ceramic figurines sat on the nightstand, and the closet was filled with matching outfits we had once worn together. For years, I had carefully preserved every one of those things. I always thought that Oscar would come back to me as long as all those things still existed. Right then, I found all those things laughable. Supporting my pregnant belly with one hand, I slowly cleared them away one by one. It took me two hours to clear away seven years of marriage and five years of madness. I dreamt that night. Oscar was eighteen years old, and he had looked at me with sadness and relief. He flicked me lightly on the forehead and said, “You should have let go of anyone who didn’t love you a long time ago, my little moon.” When I awoke, the space beside me was empty. A note lay on the dining table, written in Oscar’s handwriting. [Breakfast is in the warming drawer. There’s a merger meeting this morning at the office. If you don’t believe me, come check on me anytime.] I crumpled the note into a ball and threw it into the trash. After breakfast, I turned on my computer and started settling the assets in my name. Properties, stocks, investment funds, and the private savings I had quietly accumulated over the years. I listed every asset clearly, one by one. I knew what it was like to have no money. My child would never go through the same, ever. As I worked through the figures, my phone screen suddenly lit up. It was a message from Camilla. [I have a surprise for you, Luna!] A link to a livestream followed. I tapped it. The moment the video loaded, my blood ran cold. The video was from a security camera, and it showed my bedroom. The woman on the screen was sitting at the desk, head lowered and looking at a phone. She was sitting in exactly the same position as I was. Sweat started forming. I quickly looked up and in the direction of the camera. A tiny red light was hidden inside the vase. I rushed over, grabbed the vase and hurled it at the floor. The small camera was dislodged, and I stomped it to pieces. My phone pinged once more. [There’s more, Luna.] There was another link. This time, the video showed the bathroom. In the video, I faced the camera directly and showered nonchalantly. Comments raced across the screen. [What a hot mama, with all the right curves. Just one look satisfies me.] [Such a hussy even when pregnant.] [Anyone have her contact information? How much a night?] There was a silent explosion in my head, and it started to buzz. I grabbed the things around me and started throwing it all about in a frenzy. Within moments, the entire room was in ruins. Camilla’s taunting voice played through the voice notes. “You look like a sow when you’re angry, Luna—all that huffing and puffing. It’s hilarious. “Oscar told me he hasn’t touched you in three months. Are you lonely? Your video last night got so many viewers! Let me share your contact so you can get some relief.” “How dare you, Camilla?!” I grabbed my car keys and rushed outside. The car raced off to Camilla’s villa like a bullet. Halfway there, Oscar called. He sounded angry and worried as he said, “You’re going to see Cammie again, Luna? Stop right now and go home!” I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. “Did you install those security cameras in the house, Oscar?” He admitted it without hesitation, his tone almost self-righteous. “Yes, I did. You were emotionally unstable, and I needed a way to keep an eye on you.” “Keep an eye on me?” Tears fell even as I laughed. “Did you know that Camilla used footage of me in the shower and put it in a livestream? Everyone’s seen it!” “That’s impossible. Cammie panics whenever she sees you. Why would she ever provoke you first? “I’m warning you, Luna. Turn back now and don’t even get close to Cammie.” Even though I knew that he would never believe me, his unhesitating protection of her made me feel like my heart was being ripped out. Right then, a robotic female voice said, “Your destination is in 500 yards.” Oscar’s tone changed, tainted with rage I had never heard before. “Luna, you brought this on yourself.” Before I could understand what he meant, a black vehicle shot into view from the corner of my eye. Bang! The powerful hit came from the side, and the car flipped like it was just a toy. The airbag deployed, and glass rained down on me. I was thrown into the door before rebounding. Sharp pain radiated from my tummy, and warm blood started running down my thighs. Chapter 4 I was trapped in the warped space within the car and could not move at all. Wave after wave of pain radiated through me from my tummy, and the patch of dark blood on the car seat only grew. The driver of the car in front, Jared Stewart, came out and came over to the driver’s seat of my car to give me a look. Then, he took out his phone and made a phone call. “Mr. Stanton, I’ve stopped Mrs. Stanton’s vehicle by force as ordered. The car is on its side, and Mrs. Stanton is quite hurt. Should I call an ambulance?” There was silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds. Then, Oscar’s voice came through, cold as ice. “Give it a moment. Send her to the hospital once Cammie is safely escorted to her new residence.” My breathing grew weaker. The pain in my lower abdomen came faster and harder with every passing second. The little life I had carried for four months was slipping away from me. I struggled to speak, forcing out the words with the last of my strength. “Take me to the hospital... I’m losing my baby...” Jared panicked and said worriedly into the phone, “Mr. Stanton, Mrs. Stanton’s bleeding a lot. I’m afraid…” “I said Cammie comes first.” Oscar’s voice was even colder. His tone brooked no argument. Those words crushed the last fragile hope inside me. I closed my eyes. Tears streaked with blood slid down my face. Whatever warmth I still carried went cold at that moment. My consciousness sank into darkness. When I next awoke, I was in an ambulance. Shrill sirens pierced the air. An EMT was working frantically over me, trying to control the bleeding. “She’s miscarrying and hemorrhaging! Her blood pressure is still dropping. Go faster!” My eyelids felt like they were lined with lead, and the pain in my lower abdomen had given way to numbness. I didn’t know how much time had passed before the ambulance suddenly screeched to a stop. I was brought out and rushed to the emergency room. However, when we got there, several bodyguards in black suits stopped us. “Mr. Stanton has reserved this entire hospital for Ms. Isley’s medical check-up. No one else is allowed inside.” The EMT was on the verge of tears. “She’s miscarrying and losing massive amounts of blood! Every second of delay could kill her!” The bodyguards were unmoved. Expending all my strength, I took out my phone and called Oscar. It took a long time for Oscar to answer. His voice was tinged with anger as he said, “Luna? You’re such a bother. You actually followed us to the hospital? Stop trying to hurt Cammie. With me here, there’s nothing you can do to her.” “Oscar…” My voice was breathy and distant. Every word seemed wrenched out of me. “I won’t come for her… Let me in… I’m dying…” He scoffed. His tone was taunting as he said, “You’re a plague on this world, Luna, I doubt you’ll die so easily. If you do, I’ll die with you.” Oscar hung up after saying that. After that, the bodyguards seemed to have received new orders. They came up to push my stretcher away. The EMT lunged forward to stop them. “You can’t do this! She is going to die! Let us in!” Amid the chaos, someone in the crowd shouted, “Mr. Stanton is here!” The lead bodyguard frowned. Afraid that I would rush in during the commotion. He seized my arm and hauled me off the stretcher. I hit the concrete hard. My wounds tore opened, and blood spread beneath me in a vivid red pool. I was sprawled on the ground, trying hard to lift my head. Through the throng of people, I saw Oscar supporting Camilla as she walked out. He was carefully shielding her slightly protruding belly. He seemed to be protecting something priceless. The black Bentley slowly pulled away, shrinking to a speck before disappearing at the end of the road. I opened my mouth, and blood spilled past my lips. The light before my eyes gradually faded. Beep— The heart monitor emitted a single, piercing tone. The world fell silent. In the car, Oscar’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. He subconsciously rolled down the car window. The medical staff’s voices could be heard in the evening breeze. “Patient Luna Constantine has no signs of life. Time of death: 1853 hours.” Oscar’s face went white.