out, his fingers gently caressing my cheek, his
eyes filled with a remorse I couldn’t decipher.
“Let’s go upstairs. We can talk about the cat
later.”
There wouldn’t be a later.
“I want Liam’s cat.” My voice rose, a cough
tearing through my chest. I doubled over, my
face burning.
David rubbed my back, trying to soothe me. I
pushed his hand away.
“Don’t worry. I’ll call her and get him back. Wait
here, okay?” He pulled out his phone, then
glanced at the empty coffee table, his voice
sharp with annoyance. “Why isn’t there any
water? Is everyone dead?”
It was strange that he even cared whether I had
water.
Ho modo the coll Iwaited my body trombling
<
87
He made the call. I waited, my body trembling
with exhaustion and anticipation.
He returned, his voice firm. “I’ll get Snowball back. Stay here and wait for me.”
Seizing the opportunity, I added, “Can you also give me my share of the divorce settlement? I need the money.” I had to pay Ethan back. He wasn’t rich. He couldn’t afford to keep paying my bills. I wanted to leave this world with a clear conscience.
“You came here for a cat and for money?”
“Both,” I admitted.
His expression hardened. He went upstairs,
returning with a card which he handed to me.
“The PIN is Liam’s birthday.”
He remembered Liam’s birthday, yet he’d never
been there.
<
2:53
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I took the card, but he didn’t let go. “This isn’t a
divorce settlement.” His voice was serious.
“Chloe, wait for me. I’ll get Snowball back. We
can start over. I redecorated Liam’s room. We
can celebrate his birthday together next year,
okay?”
I wouldn’t be here for Liam’s next birthday.
Why hadn’t he agreed to celebrate with Liam
when he was alive?
It was too late.
David was always too late.
I waited, it felt like a lifetime. While the pain
consumed me, I looked around the Bailey
house, remembering the first time I’d arrived
with my mother, David a young boy with a shy
smile. We’d gotten married here. I’d worn my
<-11
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<
wedding dress, waited for him all night, but he hadn’t come. Then my mother had died, and I’d cried in our bedroom, and he’d thrown me out. I’d been consumed by grief during my
pregnancy, realizing too late that it was too far
along for an abortion. David had urged me repeatedly to terminate it. He’d hated the very
idea of this child.
But I’d refused. I’d raised Liam on my own,
taking him to doctor’s appointments, dressing him, comforting him, his every tear breaking my
heart, his every smile my only joy.
Liam knew his father didn’t love him, or me.
Trying to win his father’s affection, he’d hurt
himself, deliberately making himself sick so
David would come home. But that wasn’t what I
wanted. I just wanted Liam to be healthy. I’d
told him not to hurt himself, that nothing was
more important than him, that lying was wrong.
But he hadn’t listened. He was just a child,
Lin
ト
<
2:53
But he hadn’t listened. He was just a child,
wanting his parents to be together.
(87)
Soon, David had seen through Liam’s charade.
Even when he’d learned of Liam’s death, he’d
thought it was a joke.
In this house, I’d met David, lost my mother,
had my son, and lost him too. Maybe it really
was the end.
The memories swirled around me as I waited.
David returned at dawn, a small, white cat
cradled in his arms. He nudged the cat’s paw
against my nose. “Chloe, I brought Snowball
back.”
Was it Snowball? My vision was blurry. I
reached for the cat, then hesitated, noticing the
mismatched eyes, the black marking on its ear.
It looked similar, but… it felt wrong.
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“What is it?” David asked, letting the cat settle
in his lap. “When Liam was younger, I was
worried a pet would hurt him, and you’d be
upset. That’s why I didn’t want him to have
one.”
I lowered my hand, no longer wanting to hold
the cat. This wasn’t Snowball. Why was he
trying to trick me? Liam would be disappointed.
“David, it’s too late for this. You don’t have to
lie.”
I’d waited a lifetime in this house. And in the
end, I hadn’t even gotten Liam’s cat back.
David looked confused. “Lie about what?”
“This isn’t Snowball.” My voice was eerily calm,
certain. “Where’s Snowball?”
He had gone to Sarah’s. There was a red mark
on his cheek, his shirt collar wrinkled. They
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<
87
must have argued. He looked exhausted, but he
was still trying to appease me with this
imposter cat.
“Snowball… he fell from the balcony.”
Half an hour after David’s call.
Sarah had killed him. But there would be no
justice.
Grief and pain washed over me,
but I was numb. “I’m leaving,” I whispered.
“Where are you going?” David let the cat slip
from his arms, his hands reaching for me, his
eyes pleading. What was he asking for?
“Home,” I said. “To Liam.”
My strength gave out. The room went dark. I
collapsed, my last words a faint murmur, “To
Liam…”
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But I didn’t reach him. I fainted in David’s arms.
- 11.
Noise. Someone pounding on a door, shouting
my name. I struggled to wake up, but my
thoughts were muddled, the sounds distant and
fragmented. A man yelling, something
shattering.
A doctor’s collar being twisted.
“She’s my wife! She’s sick! Why didn’t you tell
me?”
I saw him. Our family doctor. Ethan stood
beside him, his face impassive. “She’s your
wife, and she’s dying. And you’re just finding
out about her cancer now?”
“Mr. Bailey, please calm down,” the doctor
pleaded, struggling to maintain his composure.
“I called you months ago. You said Mrs. Bailey’s
く
He’d known all along.
I exhaled slowly, the oxygen mask muffling my breath. Each breath was a struggle, precious.
David approached. In my final moments, I saw that proud man lower his head before me. He reached for my hand, then hesitated, afraid to hurt me. His hand hovered in the air, like a child who’d broken a beloved toy, desperate to fix it but unsure how.
He covered his face. I heard his muffled sobs echoing in the room.
So loud. Couldn’t he just leave me alone? But I couldn’t speak, couldn’t tell him to go away.
Ethan approached, his white coat a blur in my fading vision. “You’re disturbing her.”
“Get out!” David choked out, his voice raw with grief.
<
2:53
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He cried Tor a long time. I almost тeit annoyea. I’d thought I was the one with the most tears to
shed. But he was crying too, for me.
“He only regrets it now that she’s dying. Where
was he all these years? She was his wife. Did
he ever care?” Ethan’s voice was sharp,
accusatory. “You were always suspicious of us,
even after you married her. Did you ever
consider that all she wanted was to be your
wife?”
“I feel sorry for Chloe.”
“I didn’t know she was sick. I really didn’t know.”
Hospitals were full of dying people. People who couldn’t eat, who lived on pills, who coughed up blood, who endured unimaginable pain. Did David know any of this? He’d thought I was overreacting to Liam’s death, throwing a
tantrum. He’d thought I’d come crawling back.
<
2:53
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They argued beside my bed, oblivious to my fading presence.
David gently tucked my hand under the covers, his back to Ethan. “You’re a doctor. Can you
save her?”
“She doesn’t want to live. No one can save her.”
At this point, Ethan was telling the truth.
“Get out,” David repeated.
The room fell silent. My hand felt weightless, disconnected. It lifted, brushing against David’s cheek. He kissed my palm, his tears falling on my skin.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?”
“Because Liam was gone. You stopped caring about your health?”
<
2:53
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“What was I supposed to do? You only cared
about that child. Did you ever have any room in
your heart for me?” He pressed my limp hand
against his cheek. “I was wrong. How could I be
jealous of Liam? Of Ethan?”
“We’re husband and wife.”
“Chloe.”
“Wake up and yell at me, hit me. I deserve it.”
He was calling my name. I could hear him.
I wanted to pull away. I saw Liam beckoning to me, his small voice calling, “Mommy, it’s so dark. I’m scared.”
I wanted to run to him.
But David’s hand held me back.
Even now, he wouldn’t let me go.
- 12.
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A needle pierced my skin, a sharp jolt of pain making me flinch. The medication flowed into my veins, the pain momentarily receding, but the deeper ache remained, untouched by drugs.
Someone fussed around me. Doctors, nurses, their voices a frantic murmur.
The beeping of the heart monitor grew fainter. I saw Liam again, sitting in a field of soft grass, his small body curled up, his face tilted up, his dimples deep as he smiled.
“Mommy,” he called.
I wanted to hold him, but someone else was calling my name too. The scene shifted, distorted. David’s face appeared before me, his voice calling my name, but I wanted to go with Liam, to tell him to stop, that leaving like this
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But he wouldn’t stop. He’d found the best doctors, the best treatments. But it was no use.
I had no will to live, my consciousness drifting towards Liam.
But in reality, David’s hand gripped mine,
refusing to let me go.
The heart monitor beeped erratically.
He’d brought me back.
He said he was my savior, that my life belonged
to him now, that I had to live.
I spent a week in the hospital, David constantly by my side.
But I knew I wasn’t going to make it.
And in my final moments, the person I least
wanted to see appeared.
<
2:54
Christmas Eve.
87
Sarah stood beside my bed, her eyes taking in my frail form, my pale face, the evidence of my illness. She must have felt triumphant.
But she just said, “Serves you right.”
Then she added, “Serves David right. He used
me, played with my feelings, made me believe
he loved me, and then he tells me he never did,
even took back the cat he gave me. How could
he?”
Her words, disjointed, accusatory, pierced the stillness of my heart. In the end, none of us got what we wanted.
“Chloe, you must be wondering why he hated your son.” She leaned closer, her voice a
venomous whisper. “Because he thought Liam was Ethan’s. I told him. I forged the paternity
tant
And ha halinvad mall Cha laughed.
