Chapter 8
Louise staggered to her feet, shoved Haley aside, and fumbled for her phone to call the lab manager.
Haley's face twisted with rage at being ignored. She grabbed Louise's wrist and dragged her into the core lab area. "You don't even belong in this lab.
"All you do is throw your filthy cash around to make Simon stay with you. Don't you feel sick about yourself?
"While we're pulling all-nighters for a single data point, you're jetting off overseas with your friends, blowing cash. No matter how hard we work, we can't even catch up to where you started.
"Bet you feel pretty smug, don't you, Louise?"
Haley dragged Louise deeper into the lab, her grip frantic. The place was packed with sensitive equipment, and the data stored there was priceless.
"Today, I'll show you who Simon really chooses," Haley snapped.
A vicious glint flashed in Haley's eyes as she snatched up a bottle of distilled water and hurled it straight at the main server's interface.
"What the hell are you doing?" Louise shouted, her voice trembling with shock.
Seizing the moment while Louise was distracted, Haley yanked her hard, let out a sharp scream, and dragged her backward, stumbling toward the door.
Just then, the lab door swung open.
Simon stood in the doorway, catching the moment: Louise looked expressionless, while Haley stumbled backward, as if Louise had shoved her.
Behind them, the main server flickered with garbled code before going completely dark, and the air was thick with the acrid stench of burning circuits.
"Louise, are you out of your mind?" Simon roared, his eyes blazing with fury.
He charged forward and shoved Louise hard, knocking her aside.
Louise stumbled and slammed into the cold metal rack, a sharp, ripping pain tearing through her wounded left leg.
Simon didn't spare her a single glance. He rushed to the main server, desperately trying to save it, but the screen was dead.
Five years' worth of core data might have been lost forever.
Simon slowly turned around, his gaze on Louise icy, filled with disappointment, and a level of disgust he'd never shown before.
"I thought you were just spoiled," Simon said, his voice trembling with fury. "But I never imagined you could be this cruel, destroying everything everyone poured their heart and soul into.
"This time, no one can save you."
Oddly, as he spoke, a wave of relief washed over him.
After something this catastrophic, he was the only one left who could "save" her.
Once she'd paid the price, he'd come back for her. Maybe then, they could start over.
Simon pulled out his phone and called the police himself, his voice heavy with grief. "Hello, I need to report a crime. There's been deliberate sabotage at the Royal College lab..."
The police car and ambulance arrived almost at the same time.
Haley was loaded into the ambulance, with Simon climbing in right after her.
Louise was handcuffed and shoved into the back of the police car.
The two vehicles sped off in opposite directions, swallowed by the night.
*****
That night in the police station was the worst nightmare of Louise's life.
It was late, and the guards were barely around.
Groups of female inmates, locked up for all sorts of reasons, seemed to have gotten some kind of signal. They targeted Louise one after another, making sure she didn't catch a break.
They hurled insults, shoved her, and beat her mercilessly. Louise curled up in the corner, shielding her head as her old wound on her left leg took the brunt of their kicks, the pain so intense that she nearly passed out.
It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that a guard finally noticed something was off and separated her from the others.
At six in the morning, Wendy showed up with a top-tier lawyer and got Louise out on bail.
Her injured left leg was twisted in a way that looked almost grotesque, her right cheek puffed up and bruised, and the wound from Simon's shove still stood out on her forehead.
She looked completely washed out, like a ghost of her former self.
"That bastard, scumbag!" Wendy sobbed, clutching her tight, tears smearing her face. Louise didn't even have the strength left to comfort her.
As they helped her out of the police station, her vision went black and she fainted.
Half-conscious, Louise felt tears falling on her, and Wendy's hand never left hers, her voice a constant, worried murmur in her ear.
"That damn Simon actually had the nerve to call you? Why doesn't he drop dead already," Wendy spat.
Louise forced her eyes open, her voice barely a whisper. "Wendy, the full security footage from the lab, and the real IP trace for that post are all with the lawyer."
She gripped Wendy's hand tight, her eyes shining with a kind of clarity and determination born from heartbreak. "Once I left, hand everything over to the police. I'm trusting you to handle the rest."
*****
To get Louise out of this place and into treatment as fast as possible, the Turner family pulled some strings and arranged a private medical jet to fly her straight to Italio.
On the way to the airport, Wendy never stopped crying. She clung to Louise, cursing Simon over and over.
Louise listened in silence, every now and then the corner of her mouth tugging into a wry, almost mocking smile.
Her heart for Simon was already dead. After all the betrayals and pain he put her through, there was nothing left.
As she was wheeled up the boarding ramp on the medical stretcher, she took one last look out the window.
The city that had carried five years of her hopes, laughter, and tears slowly receded into the morning light, fading further away.
She exhaled softly, a barely-there smile of relief flickering across her lips.
The sedative started to kick in, and her vision began to blur.
Before she closed her eyes, a tear slid silently down her cheek, disappearing into her hair. But the smile on her lips grew bigger.
It felt like, with that tear, she was cutting that name, that person, out of her life for good.
The plane soared into the clouds.
From that moment on, their paths would never cross again.