On my wedding day, my fiancée asked me at the last minute to go to the front desk for the rings.
By the time I came back, doctors in white coats were carrying my mother into an ambulance, her whole body soaked in blood.
I dropped the rings and ran.
That was how I learned she'd fallen down the stairs. They tried to save her. It wasn't enough.
The wedding was called off. I cried through the whole night.
After the funeral, I went to find my fiancée. Outside the private room, I heard the people inside talking. "Barnaby Delgado, so Cedric Gilbert's mother died because of a prank you pulled? What actually happened?"
"I just messed with her a little. Told her Cedric had been in a car accident. She went tearing out of there, and next thing you know she'd fallen down the stairs and gone brain-dead."
"How did you even come up with a prank like that!"
"Leah Harding knew about it too. To help me pull it off, she made a point of sending Cedric to fetch the rings, and then I went and scared his mother."
Leah sighed. "No one is ever to bring this up again. Whatever I owe him, I'll pay it back!"
Standing outside the door, I felt the blood freeze in my veins, my eyes going wide in disbelief.
So my mother's death wasn't an accident. Barnaby's prank had killed her.
And the woman who loved me had been part of it, willing to bury his secret for him.
With that much hate between us, there was no way I could ever want her again.
...
1
"Okay, I know I was wrong! I'll never pull a prank like that again."
Barnaby said the words, but the smugness on his face was impossible to hide.
I thought his friends would call him out for what he'd done. Instead they laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Come on, man! You're a certified prank master."
"Don't take it so hard. It's not like it was all your fault."
"How were you supposed to know the old bag had no brains? You made one little joke and she goes rushing out without a second thought."
"Right! Maybe her time was just up. She was fated to die at her son's wedding."
Barnaby clapped his hands together and made a face like they finally got it.
"See, see, Leah, you hear that? It really isn't my fault!"
"Not my problem the old woman had no sense! I joke around with you guys all the time too, don't I?"
"Has anyone ever been scared to death by one of my jokes? No, right!"
The people across from him nodded, laughing, all agreeing that my mother was simply fated to die.
I clenched my fists so hard they ached, the rage in my chest refusing to fade.
And Leah, far from cursing Barnaby out, shook her head and let out a helpless, doting little laugh.
Then someone suddenly called out, "Damn! You've got a fresh hickey on your neck."
"Ha, come on, tell us. What were you up to last night?"
Leah's best friend leaned in with a grin, interrogating him about the mark on his neck.
Barnaby just smiled, like he'd pulled off something glorious.
"Take a guess."
They looked at each other, and once they read the pride on his face, the whole room erupted.
"No way, that hickey's your doing?"
"Do you even have to ask? Cedric's been busy handling his mother's funeral this whole time. Where's he going to find the time or the mood to sleep with Leah?"
"So poor lonely Leah, who can't get enough, went to Barnaby to get her fix."
Barnaby immediately gave the guy a thumbs-up.
And my heart, in that moment, held more than rage. There was a bottomless bleakness in it too.
How fitting.
After my mother was gone, I'd worried I was neglecting Leah.
So the moment the funeral was over, I hurried straight here to find her.
I never imagined she'd never held me in her heart at all. My mother had died because of them, and now they were pouring salt into the wound.
"Damn! This Cedric guy is a real tragedy."
"If he ever finds out Barnaby's prank killed his mother, and that Leah slept with Barnaby and cheated on him, you think he'd sue you?"
Barnaby only smirked. "Does he have proof?"
"Without proof, what can he do to me?"
