Collateral Damage: Love and Lies

"Sandra, you shouldn't have falsely accused Lorraine in the first place," Neil said, his eyes straying over to Lorraine's stomach. He looked pained. "You brought this on yourself. You'll have to live with the consequences of your actions."

He was blaming me for the loss of Lorraine's baby.

Did he really love children that much?

My heart ached.

We once had a child together too.

Back then, Neil had gone missing while hiking up a snow mountain. To find him, I had scaled the same mountain but ended up falling off a cliff and landing in a pool of my own blood, losing our child in the process.

He had probably forgotten how he had cried while holding me at the time.

Just as our standoff grew tense, a man wearing a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles entered the police station.

"Peter?" I said.

Peter Sutton nodded at me. "I've brought the detection equipment from the institute."

The police officer immediately made the call. "Good. We have the equipment now. This is a serious matter. Let's do a full-scale search!"

"What does that mean?" Lorraine asked, baffled.

The police officer ignored her. He swiftly headed out with Peter.

The police conducted a thorough search of the area around my house that very night, including Lorraine's house.

Neil inhaled sharply through his nose at the sight of this. He pulled me aside and asked, "What exactly do you do for a living? Why are they kicking up such a fuss over a lost item?"

I had never told him what I did at my job as it was classified.

"It's top secret. The thing I lost is lethal. If you don't want to die, give it back immediately."

"Don't try and scare us," Lorraine interrupted. "If it's really as dangerous as you say it is, then you'll get a heavier punishment for stealing it!"

At that, Neil's uncertainty disappeared from his expression, replaced with a look of determination. "Lorraine is right."

Even now, they still couldn't understand the gravity of the situation. They were too ignorant to believe what I said.

After searching all night, Peter finally packed up the equipment. "We didn't find anything. The iridium is likely still sealed in the lead container. Hopefully, no one tries to open it."

The police were exhausted too. "Well, I suppose that's the best news we can get for now."

Lorraine relaxed. "I don't think it was ever stolen. She probably lied to cover up her own theft."

Neil chimed in, "Yeah, the surveillance footage only showed one person. The evidence is all there."

Silence filled the room.

Peter patted me on the shoulder. "The research institute will be investigating this matter fully, but I believe you'll be fine."

I gave him a grateful look.

The police officially declared this as an open case. As the person responsible for losing the iridium and endangering public health, coupled with the surveillance evidence against me, I was named the sole suspect in the case.

Neil and Lorraine exchanged a smile when the decision was made to detain me.

"Are you two happy now?" I asked.

Lorraine raised her head arrogantly. "The murderer of my child is going to jail. Of course, I'm happy."

"And you? Is that how you feel too?" I turned to Neil, the man I had spent so many years with.

"Does it matter how I feel? Did you care about my feelings when you forced Lorraine to abort our child?" he spat. The look he gave me wasn't one of love—it was one of hatred and vindication.

I met his eyes. Even though I kept telling myself that the man who once stood up for me and risked his life to defend me from street thugs had ceased to exist, my heart still clenched painfully.

I lowered my eyes. When I looked back up, the last trace of affection I had for him vanished.

Now that I saw how gleeful they were about my impending imprisonment, I wouldn't hold back anymore.

Before handing over my phone to the police, I made some quick postings.

Peter glanced at my phone. "Getting ready to fight back?"

"Of course. If I don't, they'll think I'm a doormat for them to stomp on."

It didn't take long for me to list out the entire timeline of my relationship and Neil's cheating in chronological order. Then, I posted all of it on social media.