Chapter Five

Marie's hands moved in a protective manner toward her stomach, and her fingers were spread out on the gentle skin of her belly. "I'm sorry, baby," she said, her voice trembling with the pain of her bereavement. "You were not protected by your mum. Mummy was not strong enough"

The tears she had held back with strong force of will finally spilled over, running down her cheeks and mingling with the dirt and grime of the hospital corridor. She was alone, defeated, her womb an empty vessel.

The reverberation of Lena's voice brought Marie and herself back to the present moment. "I'm sorry, Marie, I didn't know you were pregnant too," Lena said. It was Max's intention to save me, which is why he requested that you provide a blurd transfusion for me." She exerted a great deal of effort to seem convincing.

"Just hearing you talk makes me feel sick to my stomach!" Marie's eyes narrowed to slits, her jaw tightened so tightly that the muscles in her face moved. “You…” she growled, the word dripping with hatred. “You think I don't know what you did? How many lies will you weave until they all come tumbling down around you?”

The hatred and sadness that had been growing within her threatened to burst, a molten fury that made her shiver from head to toe.

She wished Lena would just drop ded right in front of her.

“What is this attitude?” Max's face distorted in wrath, the tendons in his neck jutting out like cords of steel. “Lena has apologized, what more do you want?” he continued.

Even though he felt a bit sorry for Marie, he didn't show it. He tried hard not to show it.

“What do I want?” Marie questioned, her breath froze in her throat, and she toppled over, gripping her stomach. “My child is gone…” tears collected in her eyes, “my child is gone…” she said, admist the hot tears that burned her eyes.

Max was about to say but he halted and then he tried again. “I didn't know you were really pregnant… or else…”

“Or else what, Max Brown?” Marie cuts in. “I begged you, I begged you so much. But you just cared about your Lena. Did you ever care about me, even just a tiny bit?” Marie's voice cracked, her pain seeping through every word.

A tear escaped the corner of her eye, finding its way down her face. “I loved you, Max. More than anything in this world. And you deceived me.”

Max gulped hard, lost for words. He carefully diverted his attention away from Marie.

Sensing the sensitivity of the mood and not feeling too comfortable with it, Lena rose slowly to her feet, her eyes shimmering with her false tears. “Marie,” she said as she clasped Marie's hands, her voice strangled with emotion, “don't blame Max. It's all my fault. It's all my fault you lost the baby.”

With a fierce scream, Marie tore her arm out of Lena's clutches, sending the lady reeling backward.

“Marie! What are you doing?” Max yelled, his voice shaking with wrath.

“What am I doing?” Marie was beyond reason, without compassion. She moved toward Lena with a savage, primordial urge, her fists clawing at the air. “I want her to pay for my child's life!” she yelled, her words a wail of pain and fury.

But before she could reach Lena, Max sprang with the quickness of a striking snake, interposing himself between the two ladies.

Max's hands were a whirlwind of action, shoving Marie with such power that she was sent tumbling backward, her feet hanging under her. She struck the ground with a terrible thud, her head reeling with the blow.

“Marie!” Max hissed, his features contorted into a mask of rage. “You will not harm Lena. Not while I'm here.”

“Max. Let her attack me.” Lena remarked, “If hitting me will make her feel better, then I don't mind.”

“Marie. What right do you have to ask Lena to pay for her life?” Max questioned, disregarding Lena's remarks. “If you hadn't pushed her down, causing her to have a miscarriage and heavy bleeding, you wouldn't have lost your child. All of them were caused by you!”

Marie's gaze noticed the blood bag Lena had put between her legs beneath the pillow. She ran toward it and took it out to show Max. As soon as Lena saw the blood bag, she fidgeted.

“Marie, the blood bag…” Lena trailed off.

“Lena,” Marie held the bag up. “This couldn't be what you called the miscarriage and heavy bleeding, right?”

Max's gaze flickered from Marie to Lena, his countenance tightening as uncertainty started to sneak into his mind. “Lena,” he murmured softly, his voice laced with a note of hesitation. “What is Marie talking about? This isn't your miscarriage, is it?”

Lena's lips opened and closed many times, her cheeks flushing as she battled to find a response. Her glance wandered across the room, anywhere except on Max's face.

“Max, I don't know what she's talking about… What blood bag?... I don't know, you have to trust me,” Lena stuttered.

Max switched his sight back to Marie. “Marie, have you made enough trouble?”

Marie's laughing was a hollow, bitter sound, like the rustling of dead leaves in the wind. It was a sound that had within it the anguish of betrayal, the grief of a heart torn into a million pieces.

“So it turns out…,” she hesitated, the words strained and raspy with anguish, “...when you're not loved, everything you do is wrong, and everything you say is incorrect.”

Marie sneered as she shifted her eyes toward Max, peering right into his eyes. Hers was like the keen edge of a sword, piercing through the air between her and Max. There was a new power in her eyes, a steel-like resolution that belied the broken parts of her heart.

“Max Brown, let's get a divorce.” She said, her voice booming with the power of her conviction.