Deep Love Misplaced, Worlds Apart

I'd danced in the company for eight years, and I'd finally earned the right to become its principal.

All I needed was one more win as Best Dancer.

Before the competition, the costume I'd stayed up whole nights sewing by hand was gnawed to shreds.

My husband pulled me into his arms to comfort me. We got mice in the house. I should've kept a better eye on your costume.

"Don't worry. There's always next year."

The second year, my costume was fine, but a car crash happened on the way there.

By the time I rushed in, the competition was long over.

Dad's eyes went red with guilt. "It's my fault, insisting on driving you. I made you miss the whole thing."

The third year, I finally made it onto that stage.

The instant the music started, the chandelier overhead dropped straight down.

When I woke again, both my legs could no longer move.

But the TV was playing an interview of my little sister winning the principal spot.

In the video, the whole family stood proudly behind her, beaming, celebrating her.

And there was no one at all beside my hospital bed.

Through the blur of tears, line after line of live comments scrolled in front of me.

Clementine Fox's so pitiful. This family will pull any dirty trick to clear a path for the little sister.

First they ruined her costume, then staged that crash, fine, but now they've wrecked her legs too!

This family is absolutely sick!

My legs throbbed in waves, red seeping crimson through the bandages.

So it turned out everyone was an actor.

And I was the only clown in the play.

Before I could even take it in, the messages in the family group buried me all over again.

Mom: My Madison Fox is just the best!

The photo attached showed Madison laughing, hugging the trophy, hand in hand with my husband, Herbert Gilbert, close and cozy.

Herbert had turned his head to look at her, his eyes soft.

Below it, the relatives wouldn't stop.

Aunt Deb: Madison really is something. Just a shame your Clementine has amounted to so little.

Aunt Deb: After all these years, how is she still no match for Madison?

Mom: Madison's got the talent, the brains, worlds better than that dead-weight Clementine.

Mom: See, today she went and got her own legs broken. Nothing but trouble!

My parents had favored my sister since we were kids, and I'd long gotten used to them hitting me or cursing me over nothing.

I thought those words would land on me and stir up nothing at all.

But I'd still underestimated the hold they had on me.

The hand gripping my phone was shaking, my fingertips trembling out a few lines of text.

The second the message sent, a red exclamation mark stabbed into my eyes.

They'd kicked me out of the group.

Then my sister sent a picture out of nowhere.

The moment I saw it, my breath caught.

In the picture, Herbert was smiling, indulgent, reaching up to wipe a smear of cake from the corner of Madison's mouth.

He had never once done anything that tender with me.

Madison sent a few more messages.

None of them love you. Now even Herbert loves me more.

You'll never measure up to me.

I stared at the words on the phone, and it was as though a dark cloud had smeared itself across my sight.

Black, heavy, no light anywhere.

I swept everything off the table onto the floor.

Glass shattered, flying, leaving a streak of blood across the back of my hand.

Hearing the noise, Herbert rushed in.

He set down the chicken soup he'd just bought, cupped my hand, and blew on it gently.

"How could you be so careless?"

"I know you're hurting inside, but you can't take it out on yourself."

"Wait, let me put something on it."

The concern on his face didn't look faked.

He looked like a good husband, considerate of his wife.

But his face felt stranger to me by the second.

As if he'd always been wearing a mask.

I flung his hand off, held the photo up to his eyes, and demanded an answer with tears streaming down my face.

"You tell me what this is."

Herbert snatched the phone away, his expression flustered.

Seeing my face turn worse, he caught on, and his face darkened as he explained.

"I was just wiping the corner of her mouth. Don't be so paranoid, seeing things that aren't there."

"One photo doesn't prove anything."

I was paranoid?

Something was blocking my chest, pressing down until I couldn't breathe.

I shoved away the hand reaching for me again and slapped him across the face with my backhand.

The stabbing in my legs nearly swallowed me whole.

I wiped the tears from my face, and the scream tore out of my throat before I could hold it back.

"So it wasn't you who cut up my costume?"

"It wasn't you who crippled my legs along with them?"

"Herbert, what did I ever do to you, that you'd team up with them to destroy me?"

"My legs are ruined. I can never dance again!"

The live comments scrolled again.

It doesn't stop there!

Your second year in the company, he was the one who drugged you, so you'd be off your game and lose the solo slot.

The words hit me like lightning, and something twisted hard behind my ribs.

That year, on stage, I'd gone dizzy for no reason and fallen, wrecking my leg.

I didn't just lose the solo. For months afterward I couldn't perform at all.

All this time I'd blamed myself, thought I'd trained too hard, that my body had given out.

So it turned out they had arranged all of it.

Because they were afraid I'd take Madison's solo away from her.

So all that tender care Herbert lavished on me back then was only guilt too?

Herbert, furious and humiliated, yanked me back to reality.

"How can you slander me like this?"

"I told you a long time ago your dress was chewed up by mice!"

"Can you stop blaming everyone else for your own failures?"

Mice?

Watching his face twist with fury, I was struck by how absurd it all was.

Acting this cheap, and I hadn't seen through it for all these years.

For Madison, they had destroyed with their own hands the life I'd fought eighteen years to build.

And now they were saying I was the one slandering them?

A cramp seized my stomach, like countless needles driven in at once.

I clutched my belly, bent over from the pain.

Gritting through it, I grabbed the pillow beside me and hurled it at him out of spite.

Right then Madison pushed the door open, trophy in her arms.

The pillow flew straight at her.

She shrieked in fright, her hand slipped, and the trophy dropped onto her leg.

Herbert lunged over and pulled her into his arms, one hand cradling her head.

The pillow struck him.

Then drifted lightly to the floor.

Madison buried her face against his chest, sobbing quietly.

"I knew you were upset that I won the championship, so I brought the trophy to give it to you."

"I'm sorry, sis. I shouldn't have made you angry."

She squeezed out a few pitiful tears and cast a helpless glance at Herbert.

"But my leg really hurts so much"

At that, Herbert shot me a dark glare.

He crouched down, pushed up her pant leg, and examined her leg carefully.

My throat itched, and a warm, metallic sweetness filled my mouth.

My leg had been torn to bloody pulp, and he never spared it a single look.

But Madison hadn't so much as scraped the skin, and he was frantic.

Only once he saw she wasn't hurt did Herbert relax and stand.

Mom and Dad rushed in, and the moment they took in the scene they laid into me with a torrent of abuse.

"You've got no talent yourself and you still want to ruin your sister. How did I ever give birth to a daughter like you!"

"Your sister came to cheer you up out of pure kindness, and you want to hurt her!"

"How can you be so vicious!"

The words poured out of them, not the slightest attempt to hide how much they despised me.

Herbert turned on me too, his face cold as he scolded.

"Stop making a scene!"

"No matter how angry you are, you don't get to take it out on Madison's leg!"

"She's not like you. She still has to dance!"

I dragged a bitter twist across my lips.

I had treated them as family, and all I'd ever been to them was the stone in Madison's path.

From the time we were small, the moment Madison got so much as a bump, they'd hit me and curse me without asking a single question.

I had finally built a career of my own, a family of my own.

I thought I'd finally gotten free of them.

But now it was all in ruins

I threw everything I could reach at them, forcing out the words through my crying.

"Get out, all of you. I never want to see any of you again!"

Mom spat at me, then turned and shielded my sister as she left the ward.

Herbert gave me one long look.

"Go cool off on your own."

Then he slammed the door and was gone.

Alone in the room, I fell apart.

When I was too worn out to throw anything else, I collapsed back onto the bed.

Tears slid down one after another, soaking a wide patch of the sheet.

I stared up at the ceiling, and slowly my breathing evened out.

But there was still a hollow place inside me.

The next second, a voice call popped up on my phone.

It was from Madison.

The background was all noise.

The crack and crackle of things breaking, mixed with Madison's laughter.

Something clicked, and I shoved myself up, hands braced against the bed.

Right on cue, Herbert's voice came through the call.

"She smashed your trophies, so you smashed hers."

"That's fair."

Through the surge of tears, I could just make out Herbert's figure.

He had once cradled my trophies so carefully.

Handled them like treasures, locking them one by one into the display case.

His gentle promise still sounded in my ears.

"Clemmie, don't worry. As long as I live, I'll never let anyone hurt you, not even a little."

And now, for the sake of being fair, he was smashing every honor I had.

Clementine's so pitiful. Her legs are ruined, her career's destroyed, and now even the last thing she had left is being smashed.

Oh no! They're cutting up all of Clementine's dance costumes too!

My breath caught, and I clutched the phone, crying so hard I couldn't get air.

"Don't cut my costumes!"

"I was wrong, I'm sorry, I'm begging you, don't touch my costumes!"

But nothing I said could stop them from destroying the things I treasured.

Listening to the fabric tearing on the other end, I closed my eyes, tears dropping one by one onto the phone.

With a shaking hand, I hung up.

Another message came in.

Sis, does it hurt? Are you feeling hopeless yet?

Choking, I typed out two words.

Why

She answered instantly.

You stole the man I love! I'm just letting you taste it too.

I let out a bitter laugh.

Everyone loved her more than they loved me. When did I ever steal the man she loved most?

The live comments were flooding in.

That was how I learned they had known each other all along.

Madison had chased Herbert for three years.

But in the end, Herbert had ended up with me.

Madison is so vicious. Over one man, she'd destroy her own sister's whole life.

And her sister was good to her too. At home everything came second to Madison, and she still wasn't satisfied!

Even tears run out eventually.

I took a deep breath and blocked and deleted both her and Herbert.

Listening to the birds outside the window, I found I wasn't in as much pain as I'd expected.

So love ran out too.

Maybe the sooner I got away from them, the sooner I'd truly be free.

I picked up the phone and called my lawyer, asking them to draw up the divorce agreement.

After lunch, the aide wheeled me out to the hospital garden to clear my head.

I sat staring blankly at the vines winding up the wooden trellis.

When I came back to myself, Herbert had wrapped his arms around me from behind, resting his head on my shoulder.

"Still angry?"

He pulled out a slice of mango cake and held it out to me.

"I bought it just for you. Something sweet is good for your mood."

"I know you didn't mean it. Eat the cake, and we'll call it over."

Looking at the cake, a wave of nausea hit me.

A faint itch was already creeping up under my skin.

I'm allergic to mango.

In our very first year together, I'd ended up in the hospital after eating some by accident.

He hadn't even remembered that.

I heard my own calm voice.

"Let's get divorced."

Herbert lifted his head, stunned.

"What did I ever do to you? And now you want a divorce!"

I lightly stroked my numb, feelingless legs, my voice drifting off on the wind.

"I don't love you anymore."

Herbert's face went dark, the good-husband mask dropping away.

"Can you stop being so unreasonable?"

"I failed Madison's love, so I'm just paying her back."

"It's not like I stopped loving you."

I didn't want to hear another word of his nonsense.

I pushed as far away from Herbert as I could, wheeling myself forward.

Herbert sighed and caught up, trapping my hand inside his.

"I know you're upset, but you can't say things like divorce out of anger."

"How would you even survive without me?"

I tugged the corner of my mouth: "Better than living beside a pack of murderers like you."

I lifted my head and let out a bitter laugh.

All the hurt and resentment inside me was about to spill out.

Then my mother slapped the words back down my throat.

"Are you really so set on killing your own sister!"

"How can you be so eaten up with jealousy!"

"Why did you report your own sister for bribing the judges!"

I froze for a second, then a smile pulled at the corner of my mouth.

I'd always wondered how a dancer as mediocre as Madison could ever take first place.

So it turned out she'd bribed the judges.

Seeing me say nothing, my mother slapped me across the face again.

"You've still got the nerve to smile? If you hadn't reported Maddie, how would she ever have been torn apart online!"

"Maddie can't take this. You go record a video right now and clear her name!"

Herbert's face changed too, brows drawn, staring at me like he couldn't believe it.

"I can't believe you'd actually do something like this!"

"Post a video setting it straight and apologize to Maddie, now!"

I shook my head and refused flat out.

"I wasn't the one who reported her, and I won't clear her name."

"She bribed the judges. She's the one in the wrong."

"What's happening to her now, she brought on herself."

My mother clutched her chest, jabbing a finger at me, unable to get a word out for a long moment.

Then she spun around and stormed off in a fury, and Herbert chased after her.

Watching their backs disappear, I let out a breath.

I turned and called the hospital to arrange a transfer.

It was only after I set the phone down that I saw my name trending.

I tapped it open. Herbert had posted a video.

"I'm Clementine's husband."

"I'm here to apologize on Clementine's behalf. Clementine was jealous that Maddie won first place, so she smeared her with a false accusation of bribing the judges."

"Clementine hurt her legs in a stage accident and can never perform again. She was afraid Maddie would outshine her, and that's why she did this."

"I apologize on her behalf."

The comments blew up, everyone piling on me.

This Clementine's got something wrong with her head. Miserable herself, so she has to drag someone else down. Disgusting!

Poor Maddie, our goddess, getting torn apart online. My heart breaks for her.

Pretty obvious who loves who here. Honestly, this guy's got it rough too, stuck with a wife this vicious.

This hottie and goddess Maddie are so perfect together. You think maybe this Clementine was the mistress who stole Maddie's man!

That actually makes sense!

My fingertips twitched, and before I could react,

a crowd came rushing out of nowhere and slammed me down onto the ground.

They were still yelling that I had to pay for what I'd done.

I fought with everything I had, but there were too many of them.

Before long my body was covered in cuts, some of them bleeding.

In the chaos, I saw Herbert standing a short distance away.

Watching me get beaten, his face calm.

I saw clearly the words his lips shaped.

"This is your lesson."

And with that he turned and walked away.

Ten-odd minutes later, the hospital security guards rushed over and pulled me out.

I was covered in injuries, taken into the emergency room for three hours.

When I woke again, I transferred hospitals right away. I didn't want to spend another moment there.

Elsewhere, Herbert looked at the flood of abuse online.

And for no reason he could name, something in his chest went tight.

Clementine's despairing face rose up before him again.

Could it be she really wasn't the one who reported her?

The phone suddenly rang.

Herbert's heart skipped half a beat, a bad feeling washing over him.

"Mr. Gilbert, I'm Ms. Fox's attorney."

"Ms. Fox has retained me to file for divorce"

He didn't catch a single word after that. Only four remained in his head.

Filing for divorce.