After my husband racked up eight hundred grand in debt and jumped to his death.
I booked a hotel room with the creditor myself.
I never expected the man who opened the door to be my husband, Fabian Gilbert, the one who was supposed to be lying in the morgue.
He slapped me across the face, disgust flooding his eyes as he said,
"Lorna Delgado, you really disappoint me."
"I faked my death for one day, and here you are, throwing yourself at another man already."
I hit the floor and spat up a mouthful of black blood.
My best friend, Sherry Vaughn, hung on Fabian's arm.
"Fabian, this is all my fault. I'm the one who told you to fake the bankruptcy and your death."
"I just wanted to play a little joke on Lorna. I never thought she'd fail the test so easily."
The creditor sat on the couch smoking, laughing as he handed Fabian a drink.
"Man, I played my whole part in your little act. Next big deal that comes around, you'd better think of me first."
Grinning, they packed up the video camera, sneering that a gold-digger like me had it coming.
But none of them knew I'd come here today to die with him.
Before I walked through that door, I'd already swallowed a lethal dose of poison.
The moment Fabian took Sherry's hand and walked out of that room, I let out my last breath, unwilling to the end.
Your little joke, and all I had left to pay for it was my life.
——
Sherry crossed over to me in her heels, dug the toe of her shoe into my stomach, and said with fake concern,
"Lorna, you were in the wrong this time. We're best friends, but even I can't defend you on this one."
"Even if something really had happened to Fabian, you couldn't just go find a replacement the very next day."
"Was Fabian nothing but an ATM to you? Not a shred of feeling?"
I wanted to scream back that I was no gold-digger.
But the dead make no sound.
All I could do was watch Sherry lean against Fabian's shoulder and coo,
"Lorna's probably too scared you won't forgive her, so she doesn't dare get up."
Fabian's face darkened, and he shot me one last look full of disgust.
"It was one slap. Is this really necessary?"
"She just knows I'll go soft on her. Pulls this same trick every time."
"I spoiled her too much before. I should've taught her a lesson a long time ago."
He wrapped an arm around Sherry's waist as if no one else existed, unwilling to spare me even a glance.
"If she wants to play dead, let her."
"Freeze all her cards. Once she's got no money to spend, she'll crawl up and admit she was wrong."
I couldn't accept it. I wanted to face Fabian and make everything clear.
But when my soul drifted to his side, I found him leaning over to buckle Sherry's seatbelt in the passenger seat.
That seat had once been reserved for me, his wife.
But ever since Sherry came to Harborview from back home, the passenger seat had become hers.
At first, Fabian would still explain.
"Sherry gets carsick easily. Let her sit up front."
After enough times, he stopped bothering to explain at all.
Once in a while, when Fabian and I went out alone, I'd just open the passenger door and he'd frown.
"Sherry's a neat freak, and she just put a new cover on that seat. Go sit in the back."
Three of us, and I, the wife in the eyes of the law, was the one who'd become surplus.
As the car started, Sherry laid her hand on Fabian's thigh.
"Lorna really doesn't know how good she has it. Such a wonderful husband and she doesn't even treasure him."
"If I were half as lucky as her, I wouldn't so much as glance at another man."
Fabian said nothing, letting her hand roam over him.
Sherry traced her fingertips along the crease of his slacks, her face turning troubled.
"Even if Lorrie's angry with me, I can't just leave her like that. Shouldn't we go back and check on her?"
"The blood she coughed up earlier was all black. I'd hate for something to really go wrong."
Fabian pressed down on the gas, and the car shot straight for the highway.
