A Diamond in Her Own Right

A Different Woman

Dean's pupils dilated as shock flashed across his face.

He had likely never heard me speak to him in that tone of voice before.

Evelyn of the past was a punching bag who always cowered and groveled behind him, too afraid to even breathe loudly.

"W-What did you just say?" he spat out through a clenched jaw, speaking like every word was forced through sheer force of will.

"I said, you're disgusting," I clearly and loudly repeated my declaration.

Laura was the first to fly off the handle. "Evelyn, you bitch! How dare you speak to Dean like that!"

She charged over to push me.

I leaned to the side and dodged her, seizing the chance to trip her up with a foot as well.

"Aah!" She let out a shriek as she tumbled tail over teakettle, slamming her head against one of the bed's legs. Her head soon swelled with a large bruise.

"Laura!"

Dean tried to sit up in his panic, but ended up gasping in agony as the movement aggravated his wound.

"How dare you attack her, Evelyn!" he roared in his fury.

"Why are you so wicked now? Where did the sweet and kind Eve I knew go?"

"Oh, so you even understand enough to use the past tense then?" I sneered as I watched Laura rolling around in her tantrum on the ground.

"The lions of Loasia taught me that to survive, I had to be even more vicious than rabid wolves. Also, don't call me Eve. You've lost that right."

I then turned to leave.

"Stop right there!" Dean yelled from behind. "If you take a single step out of here, I'll file a complaint to your hospital director. You won't ever be able to work in this industry again!"

I paused and turned to look back at him.

"Mr. Blake, you must be mistaken about something." I pointed to my name tag before continuing grandly, "I am the hospital director. If you wish to file a complaint, go ahead."

That thoroughly stunned him.

He stared at me like he was looking at a stranger.

The woman whose life once revolved around him, who used to serve him on hand and foot, was now standing with her head held high under the spotlight of attention.

However, she was no longer his.

He was unable to accept that disparity.

"No... There's absolutely no way..." he muttered to himself for a while before abruptly looking up as though struck by realization.

"Your benefactor is helping you, isn't he? Evelyn, you actually sold yourself to get the job, didn't you? You disgust me!"

His imagination was so vivid that it left me sighing in awe.

In Dean's mind, a woman was nothing without a man.

I only achieved what I did because I was sleeping with some old man.

"Dean, it seems those with filthy minds always find the world filthy."

I left, completely uninterested in explaining myself to someone so brain-dead.

I could hear something shattering against the ground in the ward behind me while Laura sobbed and embellished what happened.

"Just look at her, Dean! She must be feeling guilty! She has been in Loasia for five years! Who knows how many men she has done it with? A woman like her does not deserve to be Mrs. Blake!"

I closed the door, locking the slanderous insults away.

As I walked to the nurse's station, I took a deep breath to suppress the disgust I felt.

My phone buzzed.

It was a message from Jason Butler, my husband. "I made your favorite ribs for dinner tonight, dear. What time are you clocking off? I'll pick you up."

Attached to the text was a photo of our daughter, Candice.

My slightly furrowed brows relaxed as I looked at my phone.