"So how's the new kidney feel?" Jack's breathy voice drummed into the air.
The air in the dark suite suddenly turned to lead. Zoni felt the oxygen vanish from her lungs, replaced by a cold, suffocating vacuum. Her heart, which had been hammering against her ribs just moments ago, went eerily silent.
A new kidney? What kidney?
The words didn't make sense. Her hand subconsciously traveled to her stomach. Specifically to the part where the incision was made.
She had gone under the knife for Jack.
For her husband, she had practically torn a piece of herself out so he could live!
So was it that she had misheard him or had she mistaken Mia's voice for Jack's?
"Eh. It's fine now. My body just needed a lot more time to adjust to the thing." Mia replied, her voice dropping into a tone of casual boredom. "But I have to hand it to you, Babe... your wife's got one hell of a healthy kidney."
A throaty, dark chuckle vibrated through the bathroom door. Jack's chuckle. "I mean," he said, and Zoni could practically hear the smirk in his voice, "her life had to serve a purpose eventually, didn't it?"
Zoni began to shake. It started in her fingertips and surged through her limbs until her very bones felt like they were rattling against one another.
What exactly was happening? This was just too much for her to handle.
Her kidney had been given to Mia instead of Jack.
Mia the one who needed the transplant, not Jack.
The truth was a monstrous beast, rearing its head in the dark.
They had used her like a biological spare part. They had looked at her love, her devotion, and her body, and seen nothing but a donor they didn't have to pay for.
The emotional assault continued behind the door, a barrage of cruelty. They laughed about how easy she was to manipulate, how her 'noble heart" was really just a lack of intelligence.
Jack bragged about how he had orchestrated the entire relationship from the day they met six years ago.
Zoni couldn't listen to another word. The sound of their shared laughter felt like hot acid being poured into her ears. Her strength vanished; her knees buckled, hitting the rug with a soft thud.
She couldn't scream. She simply collapsed into herself, hot, thick tears flooding her face until her vision was a blurred mess.
Shakily, she began to crawl. She dragged herself across the floor like a wounded animal, her breath coming in ragged, broken hitches.
She made it out of the room and into the corridor, but the walls seemed to be closing in. Every sacrifice she had made; The late nights working to fund his "medical bills," the alienation of her friends, the literal piece of her flesh she had surrendered... every damn thing flashed before her eyes like a mocking slideshow.
She fell onto the cold marble of the hallway, her forehead pressing against the stone.
What she did after, or how she reacted, she had no idea. It was all a blur.
Fuck love.
Back to The Present
"Zoni! Zoni, if you are in there, open this door right now!"
Zoni's eyes snapped open to the loud banging. The cold floor of the bathroom stall was hard against her hip.
She had fallen asleep curled in a ball.
"Zoni!"
Aunt Tomaru.
Zoni sat up, her head throbbing with a dull ache. She felt hollowed out, as if her soul had been scooped out, leaving only a shell.
She stood up, straightened her hair with trembling hands, and unlatched the door. Aunt Tomaru stood there, flanked by three bridesmaids who looked annoyed.
The older woman took one look at Zoni's appearance and gasped.
"My God, Zoni! What on earth happened to you? We've been searching for hours!"
Zoni looked at her aunt—one of the many many people who had tried to warn her—and felt a fresh wave of shame.
She couldn't tell her. Not yet.
"I... I just got tired, Auntie," She whispered, her voice rasping. "I... um... must have passed out."
Aunt Tomaru's eyes narrowed, as she looked at the mess in the bathroom, and back at Zoni.
She clearly didn't believe shit.
But she saw the fragility in her niece's posture. She sighed, stepping forward to pull Zoni into a hug.
"We'll talk about this tomorrow," Tomaru promised, her voice a low. "For now, let's get you cleaned up. The guests are leaving, and you have a life to start."
A life to start. The irony was a bitter pill.
The rest of the evening passed in surreal silence. Zoni moved through the final rituals of the wedding like a ghost. She smiled when she had to, nodded when spoken to, and eventually found herself back in the master suite; the room she was supposed to share with her husband.
Jack was already there, glued to the TV with a joystick in his hand. Zoni ignored him, and walked into the bathroom.
With robotic precision, she began her skincare routine. She cleansed her face, watched the makeup wash down the drain, and stepped into the scalding shower. She scrubbed her skin until it was raw, trying to wash away the feeling of his lies.
Jack looked uncomfortable when she finally emerged in a silk robe. Her silence was something he didn't know how to parry.
"Zoni, babe, you're being really weird..." he said, trying to sound casual, but his eyes were darting toward her, searching for a crack in her armor.
Zoni didn't answer. She walked past him to the balcony, needing the cold night air to settle the fire in her blood. She stared out at the dark gardens, her mind racing.
Jack followed her out, his footsteps careful. He didn't offer a hug or anything. Instead, he leaned against the railing and cleared his throat.
"So, um... Look, now the ceremony is over and we're officially married, why don't we handle the business side of things." He licked his lips as he got closer. "I was thinking tomorrow we should head down to the city office. We need to make the house papers a joint venture. It only makes sense, right? What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine..."
Of course. The fucking house.
The house Zoni had spent every cent of her sweat on to renovate.
The audacity was the final spark. The fire that had been simmering in her gut exploded.
She turned to him, her eyes wide and glowing with a terrifying clarity.
"A joint venture, huh?" she repeated, her voice low. "You want a 'joint venture' on the house I bought? After you took my kidney and handed it to your side piece on a silver plate?"
Jack froze.
The color drained from his face, replaced quickly by a mask of defensive fury. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"I heard you, Jack! In bathroom" she roared. "I heard Mia rave about how good my kidney felt in her body! I know everything."
"Okay, you need to take your meds, Zo."
"I said I know everything! The manipulation, the lies, the 'medical bills' that went into her pocket!"
The escalation was instant. Jack, seeing that his charade had collapsed, didn't bother begging for forgiveness. His face contorted into something ugly and feral.
He stepped toward her, his voice rising to a shout. "So what if you know? What are you going to do about it, Zoni?"
Zoni could not believe her ears. "You're the devil!"
"And you're a pathetic girl who bitches about everything. You gave it to me, remember?" Jack smirked. "It was a gift."
"It was fraud!" Zoni screamed back.
Suddenly, the balcony doors slid open. Mia stepped out, looking annoyed.
"Oh, shut up already, Zoni," she snapped. "I could hear your screeching from the wardrobe."
Zoni stared at her, stunned. "You were hiding in my bedroom? On my wedding night?"
"Our bedroom," Mia corrected with a smug grin, stepping close to Jack and sliding an arm around his waist. "And honestly, Jack's right. You're too stupid to own a house that nice anyway."
Zoni's jaw set. Her grief was gone, replaced by a cold, hard resolve. "I am going to the police, and filing a complaint for fraud. I'm taking back every cent, and I'm going to watch both of you rot in prison!"
Zoni knew she'd made a mistake, cause the atmosphere shifted. The air grew still and heavy as Mia and Jack exchanged a look.
The threat of jail was the one thing they couldn't manipulate their way out of.
"You aren't going anywhere, fool." Jack growled.
They moved as one. Before Zoni could even reach for the glass doors, they lunged. Jack's heavy hands slammed into her shoulders, pinning her against the marble railing.
Mia stepped in close, her face inches from Zoni's, her eyes gleaming with a sickening triumph.
"You really should have just kept your mouth shut, Zo," Mia whispered, her voice like a snake's hiss. "You're going to die just like your mother did—helpless and alone."
Zoni's heart stopped. Mum?
The "accident" a year ago. The brake failure. The cliff.
In that brief moment of distraction and shock, they heaved Zoni's body over the railing. The realization hit her with the force of a physical blow.
They had murdered her mother.
Then, there was only the wind as Zoni fell. The scream died in her throat as the ground rushed up to meet her.
There was a sudden, sickening jolt, and a flash of white-hot agony as the pointed head of the massive decorative statue in the courtyard pierced through her chest.
Death embraced her.