Chapter 3

Ethan let out a harsh, sarcastic scoff. "Chloe, are you serious? Making up a lie like this just to drag me away from Jessica?"

"I told you, once these ten days are over, I'm completely done with her. Stop playing these pathetic mind games. It's making me sick."

Before I could get a word out, Jessica's soft voice drifted through the receiver. "Ethan, come here, look at this!"

A second later, the call went dead.

Staring at the pitch-black screen, I let out a self-deprecating laugh.

He didn't believe me. And he had no idea that I already knew everything.

Five years of love, reduced to this toxic mess. It was almost poetic.

For the first time, I felt genuinely relieved that my time was running out.

The cancer flared up through the night, the pain keeping me awake.

Suddenly, my phone screen lit up.

It was a video sent from Jessica's account.

It showed a side of Ethan I had never seen before.

In the clip, Ethan was flushed red from alcohol.

He was clinging desperately to Jessica, crying into her shoulder. "Please, just wait for me. Just wait for me, okay?"

"Don't say yes to anyone else. I'm begging you."

He sounded so low, so utterly humiliated by his own desperation.

My fingers curled tight into the bedsheets, knuckles turning white.

I couldn't tell if the burning in my chest was disgust or jealousy.

I typed a reply: He hasn't broken up with me yet. You're repulsive, Jessica.

I didn't sleep a single wink that night.

The next morning, Hailey gasped when she saw my bloodless face. "What happened to you? You look awful! I'm getting the doctor!"

I caught her wrist weakly. "Don't bother. It won't make a difference."

After all, I only had four days left.

Hailey's eyes welled with tears. She bundled me into a wheelchair and pushed me out into the courtyard to get some sun.

While she stepped away to grab lunch, my phone rang again. It was Ethan.

His voice boomed through the speaker, laced with fury. "Chloe, sending threats to Jessica? Have you completely lost your mind?"

"Didn't I tell you that the second these ten days are up, I'm cutting ties with her completely? You couldn't even give me ten damn days?!"

I really didn't have ten days left.

My voice came out as a fragile whisper. "Ethan, I didn't threaten her. She sent me a video to rub it in my face."

"Her chat log with you is completely clean—there's no video! If you're going to claim she sent something to disgust you, then spit it out! What was in it?"

Every single frame of that video was burned into my mind.

Yet with the words sitting on the tip of my tongue, I suddenly couldn't bring myself to say them.

Ethan let out an angry, incredulous laugh. "Threatening Jessica on one hand, and having Hailey blow up my phone claiming your condition is getting worse on the other. Bravo, Chloe. Really, well done."

"Let me make this crystal clear: even if you literally dropped dead today, I wouldn't cut this trip short by a single second. Stop the sneaky manipulation!"

Hailey walked back just in time to hear every single word through the speaker.

She stood frozen in shock for a long time before hanging her head in deep guilt. "I... I just wanted him to come see you. I didn't mean to make him think you were lying..."

I forced my lips into a faint smile. "It's okay. Can you take me back inside?"

Hailey nodded. As she pushed the chair, she couldn't help but murmur, "You feel lighter again."

Only then did I notice how hollow my frame had become. The hospital gown that had fit me properly just days ago now hung off my shoulders like a loose sack.