When Love Becomes a Cage by Nora

Vinson looked like he had just dashed off a construction site, still clad in his work gear, his face smeared with dust, and breathing heavily.

But he couldn't care less, "What's up with Clyde?"

"What else could it be? It's all about that Rachel!"

Jade clenched her fists, seething with anger.

"Even if Clyde's been a mess, he couldn't have forgotten everything, could he?"

"And that Rachel, knowing full well the situation, how dare she try to step into your shoes?"

She and Eliana started ranting, while I closed my eyes, taking it all in.

Rachel might have fallen for Clyde back in college, and perhaps that's where her resentment towards me stemmed from.

Every time I bought her lunch, making excuses for not wanting it or being unable to finish it, I could see a glimmer of resentment in her eyes.

Back then, I thought she resented her own lack of means or her background.

It never occurred to me that she resented me.

She might have felt I was insulting her with my charity, or that I was just discarding things I didn't want onto her.

this resentment had sharpened into a dagger

I understood why she did

a fleeting moment of

Patterson family gathering still echoed in my mind. I was always

blind to the tragic death of my parents, to the years of agony being married to Clyde had brought me. She even overlooked how Clyde humiliated me at

I deserved it

were becoming a blur to me. Warren thought they were too noisy and sent them out to grab some comfort food and essentials for me. Eventually, it was just Vinson and me left in

the bed, silent, just watching my hand as

"Vinson..."

"Does it hurt?"

at once, then fell

"No, they gave me an

away, not wanting him to see

not hurt? The injection hurt,

needle in my hand, I felt an

once said he didn't want me to have children because it would be too painful, knowing how much I feared pain, tears

always knew pain was my

I was

me the basic respect, thinking everything I did was to

called out to me, bleeding, I saw Clyde

knew he saw Rachel in