Too Late for Regret (Annalise and Roger) novel Chapter 142

Tiffany’s POV

I’m in too much pain to be able to rest. I was awake for everything, as they cut my clothes off me to get the acid off. I can’t remember everything that happened once I got here, but they were ready for me the moment I arrived. They sprang into action as soon as the EMTs unloaded me from the ambulance. I was rinsed off several times with different things. I knew my face had taken the bulk of the damage. I’ve been given pain medication, according to the nurses, but it’s not working.

I could still feel the residual heat from the burns. One of the nurses said this was due to the acid damage. The burning was caused by moisture being absorbed from my skin. The chemical burns have a thermal burn on top of them due to the extensive damage. The acid may no longer be there, but the heat generated by the burns is a secondary, and very painful, reaction.

My life is over. Some of the nurses were visibly shocked at seeing me. If they were shocked by my appearance, how bad was it? With the police officer at my door, they learned very quickly that I wasn’t the victim, but that was a lie. I was the victim. I’m the one suffering, not Ana. They were going to charge me again, but haven’t I suffered enough?

I’m trying to focus on my breathing, and not all the looky–loos who keep glancing into my room. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my face is ruined. My beautiful blond hair is missing several sections. It was still coming out in clumps, but they refused to get me a mirror. They knew it would set me off.

My parents haven’t shown up yet, and I suspect Charlie was telling the truth about my parents being arrested. Otherwise, they would be here, checking on me and seeing what they could do. If Ana weren’t such an uptight b***h, it would have never come down to this. She couldn’t just let me have a win. She had to strike back at me, so I had to strike back at her, too. I wish I had known this was going to happen. If I had, I would have never gone there. I would have gone straight to the airport and waited for my flight.

Although since they knew we were coming, they could still have had us picked up. Unless Samantha was the one who told Charlie what was going on. How else would they have been prepared to show us the three of them leaving together? Somebody sure as hell told, and if it’s the last thing I do, they’re going to be dealt with. I just need to find out who narked. I huffed out a breath and noticed movement at the door. Reid and Seth stood there, looking at me, but they didn’t say a word.

“What? Come to gloat? I didn’t deserve to be the one who was burned; it was always supposed to be Ana. I’m sure she’s laughing about how this played out, isn’t she?” I snarled out. I already know that my face will never be the same again.

“We’re not here to gloat, Tiffany. We’ve known you your whole life. We just came to check on you. Despite everything, Ana was worried about you, but this isn’t her fault. It’s yours. We all asked you to cap that bottle, and you refused, and ended up hurting yourself. Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Yet you still think you’re justified in what you did. You’ve done nothing but bully Ana since she was young. You need to take some time to think about what you’ve done because this was all on you, Tiffany,” Seth answered.

“That’s a lie. I was assaulted, Seth. You saw what happened to me; don’t try to change what happened. I was hit in the hand by a knife, which is how I dropped the bottle. It was an accident that should never have happened. It wasn’t Ana who got hurt now, was it? It was me, and my face is permanently disfigured because of it. I didn’t deserve that. I should have been warned about what was going to happen, so I could have made a better decision,” I replied.

“You were warned, Tiffany. Several times. How could it be on any of us? You flatly refused to cap that bottle, and you were only stopped when you lifted it to toss the contents at Ana. She’s pregnant. I wouldn’t have let you harm her or her baby. The fact that you act like you would have stopped when you were warned is a complete fabrication. Charlie and Ana both had a gun trained on you. How much more of a warning did you need?” Seth responded. “Tiffany, tell us what Ana did to you that was so bad you were willing to try to destroy her. In your misguided attempt, you ended up destroying your own life. You’re going to prison, Tiffany. Look at yourself, it wasn’t worth it. You’ve destroyed your looks, and for what? Because you let jealousy control you. You could have focused on yourself, like Ana did. You made her life a living hell, and yet she still managed to create a successful business. She did that in the midst of what you were doing to her. She could have retaliated against you. She could have told us what you were doing, and we would have dealt with you. Instead, she put us all ahead of herself. She knew exactly what would happen when it came out. She protected your family, even more than her own. Because if this had come out sooner, I assure that your father’s company would be bankrupt by now,” Reid calmly advised.

I couldn’t smirk, as my face hurt, but I wanted to so bad. But as much as I hurt, I still felt confident in the fact that she would be as miserable as me, at how this turned out. Her home has been defiled. She will always have the memories of what happened there today. She’ll have to move again, but I already know that I’ll be in her head for the rest of her life. I still won, no matter what he said. I watched Ana slip between her father and her brother to face me.

“No, I won’t be thinking about you again until the next trial. I did get nightmares back, but only because of your latest assault. Charlie has been a big help in helping me through it. They’ve stopped, but I have to assume that today was stressful enough that I might have one tonight. Dad is right -you brought this whole thing on yourself. I’m going to go on with my life and not think of you again once this is done. I’m going to enjoy raising our children with my loving husband by my side. You don’t even realize the extent of what you’ve done, Tiffany. You ruined your own life, and for what? You never answered Dad’s question as to why you targeted me like you did. But I will give you one more opportunity to speak to me directly, After this, you won’t get another chance to speak freely without it being on record,” Ana told me.

“I already told you in court. You needed to be taken down a peg. Plus, you were never good enough to marry my brother. That’s why,” I replied.

“That’s not the truth now, is it, Tiffany? I avoided you in school. I wasn’t a threat, and I didn’t act conceited in school. That was how you acted, not me. Your lies might work on your mother, but they don’t work on me. I also want to point out that I didn’t come up with the arranged married with Holden, that was your mother. She wanted to take advantage of my crush in order to get her hands on my inheritance. So try again, Tiffany. What was it? You wanted to be their daughter, didn’t you? Despite your parents spoiling you immensely, you wanted more. You wanted to be me, didn’t you? That’s the real reason why you always tried to make me look bad in front of my parents. Why anytime my mother bought me something, you pouted and whined until you got one too. It’s just us here now, Tiffany, you can go ahead and admit it,” Ana advised.

She wants to know the reason why, but I’m not going to answer her. I would rather her be in the dark forever than admit I was jealous of her. I’m not going to embarrass myself in front of her.