My mind raced, clawing through everything she'd just confessed, searching for the one thread I could pull to unravel her.
"Ahh—!"
Geraldine screamed. Before I could react, she'd grabbed a fruit knife and dragged it across her own arm.
"Thaddeus, help me! Help!"
She stumbled backward, eyes wide with manufactured terror, staring at me as though I were a monster.
Thaddeus burst through the door. He took one look at the scene and his eyes went red.
"Thaddeus, listen to me—" I looked up at him, desperate to get the truth out.
His palm cracked across my face before I could say another word.
"Geraldine just came to me in tears," he said, his voice shaking with barely contained fury. "She told me you two used to be the closest of friends. She said that even though you destroyed her, even though she has every right to hate you, she begged me not to hurt you anymore."
"She came here to free you. And you repay her by cutting her open?"
He turned to Geraldine, his expression murderous. "This time, I promise you. I won't let her off. She dies today."
"That's not what happened!" The words tore out of me. "Geraldine made it all up! She claims you removed her uterus? Fine—"