The ground slipped beneath Alec's feet. His wife.... His Beth killed Melissa? His Melissa? But Beth didn't even know who Melissa was until he had talked about her. His arms tightened around Beth. "Please think before you speak Jaq. Beth didn't even know who Melissa was until she met me."

"Oh but she is still the one who killed her." Jaq was asserted. "I dug a little in her past, which was something you should have done but how could you, you were so fooled by her innocence." She spat the words out. "Did you know she used to live in Georgia before?"

Alec looked at his wife from the corner of his eyes. Another revelation about his wife's past which she had forgot to mention. "Yes, I know." He lied.

"Well do you know she was married before?"

"Yes."

"So you must know where her previous husband is right now?"

Beth clutched Alec's arm. Jaq was pushing Beth over the edge. Alec knew how much these wounds hurt. His still hurt and last night he realized he wasn't the only one. He didn't wish to hear these false allegations anymore. Jaq clearly wanted to break them up otherwise she wouldn't have come with Hosley by her side.

"Jaqueline, why don't we have this conversation later, it's Christmas today." Grace tried to intervene.

Ignoring Grace, she continued, "Well, do you remember the other car involved in Melissa's accident?" She pulled out a photo from her purse. When she turned around, it was the same picture Alec had memorised two years back. A black sedan lying on it's roof, Melissa's car's bonnet crushed into it's left side. Scattered glass on the road. Air bags spilling inside the car but.... But those airbags weren't enough to save Melissa.

Beth gasped loudly and turned her face away. She hid her face inside Alec's shoulder.

"Look at it this Beth, don't turn away, you know this picture very well darling. You know this black sedan very well, don't you? It's your car, isn't it?"

"Jaqueline!" Alec shouted at her.

"Don't shouted Alec! It's hers and she knows it. That is why she turned away from this picture."

"Jaq enough!" Grace tried to stop her too.

"You all don't believe me? We'll look at these, these documents then." Hosley handed her a file. "They clearly state that sedan is Beth's."

Alec grabbed the documents from her, she was right. The car was registered under  Beth's name. It can't be possible.... How on Earth? He turned towards his wife, "Beth? Is that...." He still believed Jaq was lying. He just wanted Beth to say it. Documents can be forged. Beth can't possibly be the reason.... "Beth is this true?"

"Two more people were injured in that accident, two more. Do you remember that Alec? Guess who they were? Beth are you going to tell them or should I?"

Alec looked at Beth again. He could feel his shirt getting wet from her tears. He gently tapped on her shoulder, "Beth?"

"Fine, I will spill the beans. Those two were Mr Noah and Mrs. Beth Richards."

Alec gulped. "Beth, please, just tell me this is all a lie. Beth say something. Please!" He begged her. He wanted to know what truth was. All he wanted to hear was that Jaq was lying and she was trying to break them up.
"Beth?" He asked again but she only cried in his arms.

"What more proof do you want Alec? She is the one who murdered Melissa!" Jaq pointed. Alec still kept looking at Beth. She only cried. "And look at you Alec, so pathetic, holding your wife's murderer in your arms!"

"For the love of God..... Can you please stop? What are you getting out of this?" Lucy tried to stop Jaqueline.

"Beth please, tell me that is not your car. One answer and I won't ever ask anything more from you. Please tell me Jaqueline is lying." Alec pleaded. When Beth looked up into his eyes, he saw the truth in her teary eyes. "No.... No... It can't be. Say you are lying!" He shook Beth.

"It's the truth-" Jaqueline tried to shout.

"Shut up Jaq, I am talking to my wife here! Beth, Tell. Me. The. Truth! Say that isn't your car?"

"Noah had bought that car two months  before the accident as an anniversary gift." Beth finally answered through her tears.

Alec's hands dropped. Each word she had said, covered in salty tears, seared through his flesh, burning new wounds.

"That .... " He tried to speak but words betrayed him, just like his love had. "Jaq...." He walked away from Beth. "Jaq, She is right? You- You are reason for Melissa's death- My Melissa? She died because- because of you? How could you do this to me Beth? And after all that, you are still here, standing in front of me, married to me! How low can you fall? How can you just- You are a pathetic woman Beth Richardson! A pathetic human and my wife's murderer!"

•

Beth looked at her husband walking away from her. Each word coming out of his mouth, slowly forming a false accusation, slowly destroying last of her remaining strength and respect. She gulped and tried to replay everything he had just said.
"Did you just call me a murderer?"

"Because you are one!" He pushed her away.

His words cut through each of her wound and suddenly her tears stopped. Anger surged inside her veins. This man, who was holding her in his arms, supporting her, suddenly feels she is a murderer.

She could stand there and listen to Jaqueline call her a murderer because she thought Alec believed in her. Because she thought Alec was smart enough to understand what Hosley and Jaqueline were up to but instead he was also accusing her.

She had never felt so humiliated in her life before. How could he stand there and talk like that when he didn't even know the whole truth. How could he insult her in front of his family and friends and think she would stand there, looking so weak and pathetic.

She wiped her years and looked straight in his eyes. "How dare you? How dare you Mr. Mason?" She didn't even feel like calling him by his first name. He had pushed her so far, he had created so much distance between them that she didn't feel like his wife anymore. "How dare you blame me for -"

"You are the only one to be blamed! It was your fault.... It was all you! I lost the woman I loved because of you!"

"Really? Do you even know what had happened that day?"

"What I know is that you killed my wife and that all there is to know!"

"Well then you know wrong! What Jaqueline told you or the documents Mr. Hosley has just tell you half of the things. That is not even close to the whole truth, it is just a part of the truth."

"Then what is the truth Beth? If you know it why don't you tell us!" Jaqueline said snidely. "You think I am lying?"

"Jaqueline please, I think you have done enough damage. It's time for you and the counselor to leave." Grace said sternly.

"Oh, but madam, the fun has just started." Hosley smirked.

"Fun? Is-"

"Leave it Grace. I want them to stay. I want to them to also hear what I have got to say. Everyone has said enough. You all want to know the truth?"

"I think it's kept hidden long." Alec looked straight at Beth.

"Well then you shall hear every last bit of it Mr. Mason." Beth spoke without losing the eye contact.

"Beth don't. They don't deserve it." Lucy tried to stop Beth. She knew the pain Beth had gone through, how could she not, she had witnessed most of it.

"No Luce, they think they know everything. They think they can just go on calling me a murderer and I will just stand and hear them make false allegations against me. They are wrong! I get to have my say in this and they have to hear it till the very end!"

"Well nobody is stopping you Ms. Richards!"

"You think I killed your wife right, at least that is what Jaqueline said, didn't you, Jaqueline? You mentioned about my car, but I think you forgot to mention about my statement regarding that accident or about how the accident had taken place."

"I know very well how it had occurred Beth, I have known that since two years. It was your car on the wrong side of the road and Melissa had crashed into it."

"Well if you this much, you would have also known it was fallen on its roof Alec or missed that detail out too!" Beth spat. "How many people were killed in it? Two, you had said Jaqueline? Well there were three! His wife, my husband and my baby!"

Alec gulped at this revelation. She sensed he had never heard about this. "I was in pre term labour that night. I wasn't supposed to go in labour for another two and half months but I did and Noah was driving us to the hospital. And you know how we ended up on the wrong side of road Alec? An animal had come in front of our car and Noah tried to save it and turned the car a little too much. Our car got hit by the divider and that is how we came in front your wife's car. It wasn't something I was intending too but it just happened and I would have save your wife if I wasn't unconscious that time! And your wife could have also tried to stop her car, maybe she even did but she crashed into Noah's side and he died on the spot.

"And my baby, they had to do an emergency C-section but he died within half an hour after birth. This scar," She lifted her shirt up, "This scar you had asked me about, it is from that very day, reminding me every day about how, in just matter of minutes, I had lost everyone I loved.

"And it doesn't end here. You know when I got to know about this? You know when Alec? When I woke from coma two weeks later. You hear me Alec, two weeks! Two weeks later I got to know my family has died. My mother and Lucy had buried them. I couldn't even bury my own family! I didn't even get to say goodbye! " Tears had started flowing again but her voice didn't shake. Her grief became her strength and she continued. "You think you lost everything that night Alec? I did too!

"Even I get nightmares every night. Even I want them to come back. Some times I feel I my baby is still alive in my womb until I touch that God forsaken scar! Even I lost parts of me that day, yet it is I, who is getting blamed for your wife's death. I didn't know who that lady was. You think I would have bothered checking about that lady. All I remember is that the police officer telling me she had also died that very night.

"If I had ever known it was your wife, do you really think I would have married you? You think I never thought of your wife as my family's murderer?" Beth wiped the fresh tears marking her face.

"Don't you dare-"

"Dare what Alec? Cross my lines? But haven't you noticed it's you who has. Not me! That accident happened and there was nothing no one could do to save the people we lost. I wish there was but there wasn't.

"What is worse is that you are blaming me for her death! Instead of stopping your friend from humiliating me, you too are blaming me. Today, you showed me Alec how low you can fall! You didn't even bother checking the details of the accident, you just believed everything this woman said and blamed everything on me! If you had bothered reading the documents, you would have found an official record of my statement to the police station everything I told you right now. But instead of doing that, you embarrassed me in front of everyone, humiliated me and took away my dignity and self respect. You called me pathetic, but truth is, it is you who is the pathetic one, not me!

"These two," she pointed towards Mr. Hosley and Jaqueline and continued, "they are trying to break us up and today you just made them successful!" 

Alec looked unaffected by the new developments. He didn't say anything. He broke the eye contact and turned his face away from Beth. She knew she was right. Jaqueline and Hosley had indeed broken them. She caught them smiling, clearly enjoying the whole fiasco. When she looked at Alec again, she felt nauseous.
He was pathetic and she was done with him. " You are a selfish man Alec Mason, and I am done with you and everything between us. We are done!"

She turned around and knew this was the last moments of their relationship. With one last glance, she pushed the door open. Mustering up her courage for one last time, she walked out of his life.

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Okay, that was long one and so intense (hopefully I got the emotions right).

Sorry for the late update, it took so much time to get the things right in this chapter. I don't how it turned out but I hope you all enjoyed. Let me know about any typos.

Thank you all for waiting up and for all the lovely comments you all had written for previous chapter. Tell me what you feel about this chapter and vote for it.

So some of you actually figured it all out and I had promised them, I would dedicate this chapter. So it is dedicated to @Mirika_94 and @quirky202. Thank you both for supporting this story. I hope you both enjoyed this too. 

Thank you again.

See you soon people. Cheerio.

Love,
Alice.

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