I was an Angel, You made me a Villain

My hand went to my stomach the second I woke up and it was flat, panic hit me so hard I couldn't breathe properly.

"My baby," I whispered. "Where's my baby?"

The door opened and a doctor walked in, but she wouldn't look me in the eyes as she approached my bed.

"Miss Monroe, I'm Dr. Chen," she said quietly. "I'm very sorry, but you lost the child in the accident."

The words didn't make sense at first.

"What do you mean I lost the child?" I asked. "Where is my baby?"

"The trauma from the crash was too severe," Dr. Chen explained, still not meeting my eyes. "We did everything we could, but we couldn't save the pregnancy. I'm so sorry."

That's when it hit me that my baby was gone.

I started crying, and once I started, I couldn't stop.

Dr. Chen stood there awkwardly for a moment before she spoke again. "There's something else I need to tell you."

"What?" I managed to ask through my tears.

"The damage to your body was quite severe," she said carefully. "Combined with your sickle cell disease, you won't be able to have children in the future. I'm very sorry."

I felt like someone had reached into my chest and ripped my heart out.

I would never be a mother now.

I cried so hard that my entire body shook with it, and I cried until I literally had no tears left to cry anymore.

Dr. Chen eventually left the room, and a nurse came in to check on me a little while later.

When she looked at me, I could see pity written all over her face, but there was something else there too.

It was like she thought this was somehow my fault for being careless enough to get into an accident while pregnant.

She didn't say anything to me, just checked my vitals and left quickly.

That's when I noticed my phone buzzing nonstop on the table beside my bed.

I reached for it and saw dozens of messages waiting for me.

The first one was from my mother.

Mom: What were you thinking, running off like that? You've embarrassed this entire family.

She was not even messaging me to check up on me or even ask about the accident.

Just blaming me for causing problems.

I scrolled through more messages and they were all the same.

My father telling me I needed to apologize to Caroline and Damien.

My aunts and uncles saying I was being dramatic and selfish.

Not one person asked if I was alive.

I opened Instagram with shaking hands and immediately saw Caroline's newest post.

It was a photo of her with Damien, both of them smiling and looking happy.

The caption said: "Real love always wins."

The comments section was filled with people congratulating them and saying how perfect they looked together.

I felt physically sick looking at it.

I kept scrolling and found a post from Sophie, my best friend.

"Sometimes trash takes itself out."

My hands shook so badly I almost dropped the phone.

Then a news notification popped up on my screen.

DAMIEN HAYES TRENDING - NEW ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT

I clicked on it even though I knew I shouldn't.

There was an interview with Damien where he was talking about his upcoming album and his "inspiration" for the music.

"This album is really special to me," he was saying. "Caroline has been my muse through this entire process. She's my everything, my real ride or die."

The album I had helped him create.

My ideas, my late nights working on it, my creative input and he was giving her all the credit like I had never existed.

I threw my phone across the room as hard as I could, it hit the wall and the screen shattered into pieces.

Just like my heart had shattered into pieces but as I sat there staring at my broken phone on the floor, something changed inside me.

The tears stopped falling and my jaw clenched tight.

I wasn't sad anymore about what they had done to me.

Ip was furious.

The door to my room opened, and my grandmother Eleanor walked in.

She was eighty years old with silver hair pulled back elegantly, and she had sharp eyes that never missed anything.

She was the only person in my entire family who had ever truly loved me.

When she saw me lying in that hospital bed, her eyes filled with tears, but her face stayed strong.

"Adeline," she said, and her voice was shaking. "My sweet girl."

"Grandma," I said.

She came to my bedside immediately and pulled me into her arms.

"I heard about the accident from a neighbor who saw it on the news," she told me. "Your parents didn't even bother to call me and tell me what happened to you."

"They don't care, Grandma," I said. "Nobody cares."

"I care," she said firmly. "I've always cared about you."

I told her everything about catching Damien with Caroline in our bed.

About being pregnant and losing my baby in the accident and never being able to have children again.

About Sophie being the one who caused the crash that nearly killed me.

Grandma listened to every word, and with each thing I told her, her face got harder and more determined.

When I finished, she pulled back and looked me straight in the eyes.

"I need to tell you something, Adeline," she said quietly. "I'm dying. I have cancer, and it's stage four. The doctors say I have maybe six months left."

My world felt like it was ending all over again.

"No, Grandma, please," I whispered.

"Listen to me carefully," she said, gripping my hands. "Before I die, I'm giving you everything. All the money your grandfather left when he passed away. The properties. The investments. We're talking about millions of dollars, and it's all yours now."

She pulled a thick envelope out of her purse.

"But I have one condition before I give this to you," she continued. "I don't want you to just survive what they did. I want you to destroy all of them. Show them exactly what they lost when they threw you away like you were nothing."

I looked into my grandmother's fierce eyes and saw the same burning anger that I felt inside my own chest.

For the first time since I'd woken up in this hospital, I smiled.

It wasn't a happy smile or a sad smile.

It was cold and determined and absolutely dangerous.

"I'll make them all pay, Grandma," I said, and my voice was steady and strong. "Every single one of them."

Grandma smiled back at me with pride in her eyes.

"That's my girl," she said.