Chapter 2

2 Waiting for death to arrive was, truth be told, pure agony.

I watched helplessly as the weight melted off my body and my hair fell out in clumps. I stopped looking in the mirror because the reflection staring back looked like a terrifying ghost.

In a strange way, I became grateful that Austin wasn't coming home. If he saw me looking like this, he would only despise me more.

The day I died happened to be our wedding anniversary.

Emaciated and barely clinging to consciousness, I gathered the courage to open his social media, wanting to send him one final message.

Instead, I saw a new post he had just shared. It was a photo of him with his arm around Melanie, celebrating her birthday.

The caption read: "My sweet angel, I will never lose you again."

They looked radiantly happy in the photo. With Melanie's slightly swollen belly, they looked like a complete, loving family, while I was nothing more than an irrelevant stranger.

I quietly deleted the words I had typed in the chat box. Looking at the small cake and flowers I had ordered, a calm smile spread across my face.

I had been the only one fighting for this marriage all along. I had simply been too stubborn to admit it.

I scooped a large spoonful of cake into my mouth. It didn't taste sweet at all, and without warning, tears rolled down my cheeks.

I didn't bother wiping them away, letting them blur my vision entirely.

Why did the cake taste so salty today? It was probably soaked in too many of my tears.

After forcing down the last bite, I tried to stand up to walk away.

Suddenly, the room spun violently. A mouthful of dark blood splattered onto the floor, and every ounce of strength drained from my limbs.

I collapsed onto the cold floor and closed my eyes forever.

When the local authorities finally managed to get through to Austin, he was sitting in a movie theater with his beloved Melanie.

They were sharing popcorn under the dim theater lights, leaning in for a kiss, when his phone rudely interrupted them.

Furious, Austin answered with sheer irritation.

"Can't whatever you need wait, or can't you talk to my wife? Don't you know I'm busy?"

The social worker on the other end was taken aback, but remembering the rumors about their strained marriage, she spoke in a grave tone.

"Mr. Brooks, we regret to inform you that your wife passed away at home a few days ago. Could you please let us know when you can come to claim her body and arrange the funeral?"

To the worker's shock, Austin showed no trace of grief. Instead, he scoffed with utter disgust.

"Don't you people have anything better to do than help her stage an act? I've seen through her cheap tricks a thousand times. Just because I won't come home, she gets people to harass me? Tell her that the more she pulls this crap, the more I hate her!"

The worker tried to explain further, but Austin swiftly hung up. He wrapped his arm back around Melanie and leaned in close.

Standing in our dead, silent house, the social worker glared at the disconnected phone and cursed under her breath.

"What a piece of trash! Leaving his own wife to rot while he takes care of some other woman! What a bastard."

She was right. Even I didn't understand what kind of spell he had cast on me to make me love him so desperately for so long.

Even knowing he loved someone else, I had willingly married him just to be by his side.

In the end, none of it had been worth it.