"It has been a year of work." Layla beamed, as she pushed her slipping glasses up the bridge of her nose. "And I am proud to present to you... Patches."
With the flourish of a seasoned magician, she swiped away the cloth covering the cage in front of her where a fluffy white rabbit with brown patches hopped around.
Celine glanced at the rabbit, her perfect mouth open in an O shape.
"Wait!" Celine gasped, the shock, excitement and anticipation mixed in her words. "Is this the same bunny?"
"Yes he is." Layla smiled.
She looked at her half-sister, her eyes bright with happiness and pride.
Patches had been brought to Layla almost two years ago, he had come crippled and frail. After an accidental drop, his hind legs had become paralysed. Leaving him unable to do anything but drag himself around.
With Layla's gentle care, knowledge of herbs and acupuncture, she had finally helped him make a full recovery in one painstaking year.
"Patches has gone through all the treatments and as you can see, he has made a full recovery." Layla announced proudly.
Noah embraced Layla warmly, his smile of satisfaction making her cheeks redden.
"I knew if anyone could get it done it would be you." He said softly. "I never stopped believing in you."
Layla shyly looked up at the man she had married just two years ago. She felt lucky to be married to a man like Noah Thorne, he was never threatened by her brilliance and he always supported her work.
"Champagne!" Celine announced and seemed to make an expensive bottle appear out of nowhere. "We have to celebrate this groundbreaking moment."
Next, champagne flutes also joined and Noah took the glass and twisted its neck.
It's opening pop was greeted with their giggles and cheers.
Layla collected her glass and felt how much her cheeks hurt from smiling so much.
She thought of all the lives this treatment could change. She, Celine and Noah would build a company that would work on creating the medicine which could then be distributed to people a cheap rates.
Spinal cord injuries would become a thing of the past and everyone, even poor people would gain access to it.
"To my brilliant wife, I never for one moment doubted you." Noah said, raising his glass at Layla. "And to the future, in which we will be swimming in money." he said with a smile that deepened his dimple.
The same dimple which had been the first thing to attract Layla's attention and one of the things she loved the most about him.
"A future where we are respected and upheld for being trailblazers." Celine added, "To us."
"To us." Layla agreed enthustiastically before taking the wine glass to her lips.
Celine watched as Layla took a swallow then her face hardened and the warmth in her eyes cooled. She dropped the glass on the table and smirked.
"You know Layla, not all of us were meant for greatness." She said, a cold edge in her voice. "It is only right that some of us give way so that the true stars can shine."
Layla blinked in confusion, her cup halfway to her lips.
She dropped her hand and looked at Celine. "What do you mean?"
"What she means is that three is a crowd." the warmth of Noah's arm disappeared as his arm which had been resting on her shoulder dropped. "Someone like you can only drag us down, we don't need you."
"Someone like me?" Layla echoed in a whisper, her stomach suddenly felt like lead had been poured in it.
"A cast off daughter, a countryside bumpkin..." Celine supplied mockingly. "Someone like you is only good for the work so that people like me can shine."
"But why?" Layla cried.
"Because I am the lady of the Sinclair family, I deserve success. Not you."
Celine's words dripped with venom.
Layla's eyes flashed in indignation. "You must be mistaken if you think that I will simply hand off my work to you so you can pass it off as yours."
She straightened up to leave and was suddenly hit with a pain so severe that she doubled over with a cough that sent blood spaying over the white tiles.
"Oops!" Celine gasped, covering her mouth with her perfectly manicured hands. "That must be the poison."
Poison?
Layla groaned and fell to the ground, rolling in a foetal position and holding her middle.
She looked up at Noah, at his cold expressionless face.
"Noah," She cried. "You swore to love me."
She would never have believed that Noah was plotting against her. He had always treated her with a gentleness, protecting her from every harm.
She did not want to believe her eyes.
"You are nothing to me." Noah sneered. "The only one that I have every loved is Celine. These past two years have been agony and when you are out of the way, Celine and I..."
"Tut Tut Tut." Celine interrupted. "Unfortunately for you Noah, I'm not as gullible and naive as the bastard daughter of the maid."
"What do you mean?" Noah frowned and stumbled as he tried to take a step forward.
"I see the poison is working on you too."
Noah's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What do you mean?" He choked, a stream of blood pouring out the side of his lips. "You love me."
"I love myself." Celine cut, "I will not put my life in the hands of someone as flighty as you, who knows if you wake up one day and just fall in love with another woman and decide to kill me?" She taunted.
"How could you do this?" Noah cried and reached a hand out to Celine.
"You are not going to get away with this." Layla coughed weakly. The poision sending paralysing pain through her body.
Celine chuckled. "What I have used is a neuro-inhibitor," she confirmed clinically. "Untraceable, fast-acting. It copies a heart attack. You'll be dead very soon. I hear it's quite painful, I made sure of that."
"When you are found, the stories will tell of the dedicated husband and wife team who worked so hard and passed away in an unfortunate fire at their lab." She said dramatically, "Perfect isn't it?"
Layla watched as Celine poured highly inflammable liquid on the ground then straighten and looked down at her.
"As illuminating as I am sure this conversation is, I have more important things to do." She said and strutted past their writhing bodies. She lit a cigarette and took a deep satisfying drag of the smoke before blowing the smoke out and smiling triumphantly.
"Bye losers, see you never."
With that she threw her cigarette on the ground and strutted out.
A fire made a hot path from the cigarette to the curtains which quickly lit up.
Layla watched helplessly as the flames licked the objects in the room. All her hard work, going up in flames.
And when the fire crept closer to her, she could only close her eyes as the heat at her her clothes, putting her in unbearable pain.
Suddenly, one of the gas burners exploded in Layla's face and in the midst of the searing, impossible pain she had a sudden thought.
Ah Wait!
This is my sixth life?
A flood of memories filled her brain, making her clutch her head and groan.
Tears of frustration steamed in her eyes at the frustration of some omnipotent being that decided to keep bringing her to life and only letting her know that she was reborn at the point of her death.
"Don't bring me back to this life if you are not going to give me a fighting chance at least." She cried aloud as if the heavenly beings were listening to her.
As the darkness pulled her closer, away from the heat. She heard a whisper from afar. A voice that lulled her to rest.
"Number seven is your winning number."