From Beggar to Ex-Mate: I Dumped the Alpha

I wake with gauze wrapped around my back like a mummy's bindings, but it can't trap the chill seeping from my wounds.

Alex Hilton sits by the bed, smoking.

Ash falls onto my pillow like shards of glass.

"Susan's pissed. You need to apologize."

He crushes the cigarette with his usual ferocity, smearing ash across my lips.

"Baby, don't be difficult."

The predatory glint in his eyes reminds me of Grandpa Hilton's words:

"He sees you as a trained dog."

He pets my hair approvingly.

"Play something for Susan. She likes Adagio in G Minor."

His voice blends with tobacco smoke, and I recall when he said my flute could melt snow-now it's a tool to entertain his new toy.

The champagne gown chokes me, diamonds blinding under chandeliers.

As I enter the Hilton ballroom, whispers sting like needles:

"The beggar dares show her face"...

"Dressed like a peacock, still reeks of poverty".

Once, he'd have sewn up such mouths, but now he enters with Susan on his arm, her plain sundress and ponytail a flag of defiance.

I finally see the pattern-Susan mirrors the girl I was when he found me: wild, unbowed.

Yet he'd frowned then: "A lady shouldn't be so bold", shaping me into a docile doll.

Now he smiles indulgently as she commands: "Alpha Alex, where's my performance?"

The flute feels like a cold iron rod in my hands.

The first note of Adagio makes him scowl.

With each stroke, I hear echoes of him in music school-

"Your music saves me"-now it's a public execution.

"Stop!" Susan interrupts.

"Playing the victim? You begged for divorce."

Her sneer pierces me.

Laughter ripples through the crowd as Alex murmurs comforts into her hair-a gesture once mine.

A string snaps, slicing my finger.

Watching his irritation, I realize this farce ends now.

When he furrows his brow for Susan, I understand: he loves not Susan, but the game of dominance she lets him play.

And I, the broken toy, belong in the trash.

I watch Alex Hilton tilt Susan Charles' chin, his thumb brushing her cheek-the same gesture once reserved for me.

"Don't pout," he murmurs, guiding her onto the dance floor.

The flute in my arms suddenly sears hot, strings digging into my ribs like a dying animal's whine.

Turning to leave, my gown sweeps a champagne tower.

Crystal shatters like the decade of lies I've swallowed.

Three steps out, hands yank my hair, dragging me into shadow.

A man raises his empty left wrist: "Remember? Alex had my hand chopped off for brushing you." A woman rips off her mask, acid scars glowing green under chandeliers:

"Called you ugly-he poured acid on my face."

Their accusations hail like hail.

Gazing at their maimed bodies, I retch.

These were Alex's "protections," now nooses around my neck.

When a needle jams under my nail, I black out from pain, screams smothered.

As they pin me to broken glass, wine and blood soak my dress.

Across the room, Susan stands at the fringe, lips curling in a wolfish smile.

"She sent you!"

I snarl, struggling.

They force my palm onto shards.

"She's framing Susan!" someone shrieks.

Glass shatters around me, ice cubes stinging open wounds.

Through the crowd, I lock eyes with Alex.

He's dabbing wine from Susan's skirt, expression bored.

When our gazes meet, he frowns as if I've spilled soup at a picnic.

All pain vanishes. the farce reveals itself: his paranoia wasn't love, his control wasn't protection.

I was a caged songbird, discarded when my tune grew tiresome.

I rise on broken glass, each step a bloody print.

No one stops me; Alex doesn't bother to look.

As I push through the ballroom doors, night air chills my neck-and I realize I'm weeping.

Behind me, the waltz continues.

But the Yuki Smith who loved Alex Hilton?

She died tonight.