“Tell me whether or not my wife was sexually assaulted five years ago,” Finnick demanded, his fists clenching as he leveled the man in front of him with a steely gaze.
Although the doctor had grown quite plump, Finnick still immediately recognized him as the same doctor who had told him that Vivian had, indeed, been assaulted.
“No, no. Your wife hadn’t been raped, sir,” the doctor affirmed quickly, clearly intimidated by Finnick. After all these years, this Mr. Norton guy had somehow grown even more terrifying than when they had last met. His knees nearly went weak just from the force of Finnick’s glare.
Wiping away the sweat on his forehead, the doctor gestured to Evelyn. “It’s all this lady’s work. She asked me to lie to you and gave me a huge amount of money. I only agreed because I wanted the money, so please have some mercy on me. I have a large family to provide for; I can’t lose my job at the hospital.”
“N-No! You’re lying!” Evelyn shrieked at the top of her lungs, nearly on the verge of pulling her hair out. “I don’t even know who you are! This is all nonsense!”
“Don’t try to push the blame onto me, young lady,” the doctor protested. “You gave me a sum of money to lie to this man here that his wife had been raped. So as to not make him suspicious, you even made me tell him that his wife had developed selective amnesia as a result of the stress she had gone through, as well as made me tell everyone that it was best not to ask her about what happened in case it would trigger her trauma.
“I did everything exactly as you said, so how could you accuse me of lying now? I’m not going to take the fall for you.”
“No, no… You’re lying, you’re all lying…” Evelyn was at a loss for words, only able to repeat that sentence over and over. All of her plans and efforts to make Finnick love her had come crashing down in a mere matter of minutes.
How did things turn out this way? Why is Mark suddenly confessing to Finnick? What the hell is going on here?
Watching Evelyn’s reaction, Finnick was now fully convinced that Mark and the doctor were telling the truth.
But how was this possible? Why did the truth turn out to be this, of all things? For the first time in his life, Finnick didn’t know what to do.
If Vivian hadn’t been raped, then this meant that the child in her stomach… was mine! Finnick wanted nothing more than to slap himself across the face, right then and there.
All the memories suddenly came flooding back to him. He remembered when Vivian happily broke the news that she was pregnant; he remembered her pained, disappointed eyes when he’d told her that he didn’t want the child; he remembered how she had desperately pleaded for him to believe her, to believe that the child was his; he remembered how she’d tried to convince him that Evelyn had framed her…
In response, not only did he choose to not believe her and do all he could to protect her and her child, he had badgered her over and over again to abort the baby.
It’s all my fault! If he hadn’t put her through that torture, the baby that he and Vivian had so eagerly anticipated would not have died. Her miscarriage would have never happened.
God, their first child together had died in their mother’s womb because of his mistake. The baby didn’t even get a chance to open their eyes and take a look at the world around them…
“Finnick, I came here today to explain everything that happened. You believe me, right? And…”
Finnick’s furious roar interrupted Mark.
“Get out!” He had finally blown his top off, grabbing the phone on his desk and hurling it at Mark. “Get out of my sight! I’ll deal with you later!”
Mark looked displeased at getting hit by the telephone.
No one had ever thrown something at him like that before. Even when his grandpa had gotten mad at him as a child, he had only ever scolded him verbally. Who did Finnick think he was to treat him this way?
Mark wished he could go up and punch Finnick right in the face, but today’s situation was a special one. He had dug himself into this hole, and Vivian still had proof of his bribery case.
Fine. Mark’s hands balled into fists. There would be other chances to get back at Finnick. The most important thing for him to do now was to find Vivian and tell her that he’d done as she’d told him to. Hopefully, she wouldn’t publicize the documents. If she did, he would make sure to drag her down to hell with him.
