After He Faked His Death, I Chose to Live

Six years after Anthony Henson died in a car accident because of me, I was still unmarried at thirty.

My elders were anxious. My friends urged me to move on. Even in my dreams, he begged me to keep going.

So I agreed to a blind date. On Memorial Day, I went to say goodbye to him one last time.

But the moment I stepped out of the cemetery, a post popped up on my feed.

Sixth anniversary! My husband just bought me another luxury condo!

I stared at the photo, trembling from head to toe, my scalp prickling with ice.

In the picture, the man I had buried with my own hands was pressing his cheek tenderly against the top of another woman's head.

I followed the address and knocked on the door. The instant our eyes met, I froze where I stood.

The woman was Victoria Mason. The same secretary Anthony Henson had fired six years ago for having an affair with him.

——

Victoria's face flickered with panic.

"Nora Whitfield..."

She tried to slam the door shut, but I braced my hand against it.

Just then, voices drifted from the elevator lobby. Anthony's friends, talking among themselves.

"Anthony's been married six whole years, and that girl is still drowning in grief over his death. She's thirty now and hasn't married anyone."

"I heard she finally agreed to a blind date a while back. Guess she's ready to let go."

"I'm just saying, what Anthony pulled was brutal. Back then, the only reason he sped onto that overpass was because Victoria sent him an explicit photo and he lost his mind. But he let Nora believe he'd been rushing to celebrate her birthday."

"She tried to kill herself more than once because of the guilt."

"Well, at least she agreed to the blind date. She'll probably be married soon enough."

"Keep it down. Don't let Anthony hear..."

They rounded the corner and met my eyes. Every voice died at once.

John Dickerson, Anthony's oldest friend, couldn't hold my gaze.

"Nora, what are you doing here..."

From inside the apartment came a voice I knew better than my own heartbeat.

"Babe, are John and the guys here yet?"

That familiar voice punched through me. My breath seized. My heart nearly stopped.

I spun around. Anthony Henson stood there, holding a bouquet of neatly trimmed flowers, whole and alive and untouched by death.

When he saw me, his body went rigid. Something shattered behind his eyes.

I looked past him to the banner stretched across the living room wall. A bitter smile twisted my lips, and I read it aloud, word by word.

"'To my beloved wife. Happy sixth anniversary.'"

"You've been doing just fine, haven't you, Anthony."

Anthony pulled Victoria behind him on instinct, shielding her. His expression tightened with something close to shame.

Everyone else stood frozen. The silence was suffocating.

Six years ago, Anthony had raced onto an overpass in a downpour to make it to my birthday before midnight. His car went off the bridge and into the ocean.

By the time I got there, he was nothing but an urn.

The guilt consumed me. The grief ate me alive. Over and over, I told myself: if I hadn't made such a fuss about his affair, he never would have been out there trying to make it up to me.

The day he was buried, I clung to his headstone and cried until I blacked out.

In the years that followed, I missed him so badly I couldn't sleep. I'd go to the cemetery alone and sit there until dawn.

At my lowest, I tried to end my life right there at his grave. A groundskeeper found me in time. That was the only reason I survived.

Never, not once, did I imagine that all of it had been a scheme. That he'd shed his old life like a snake sheds its skin and walked away clean.

I picked up a framed photo from the table. Two people standing shoulder to shoulder beneath the northern lights. My eyes burned so fiercely the pain lanced straight through my chest.

"Nice wedding photos. Iceland?"

Back when Anthony and I were engaged, Victoria had been his secretary, involved in every detail of the planning.

Once, while I was agonizing over where to shoot our wedding photos, she had offered a careful suggestion.