Chapter 5
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For a split second, Serena almost laughed, thinking this had to be some cruel attempt to scare her.
After everything we'd been through, had I really gotten that childish?
Unfortunately, her shaking hands betrayed her. She knew me better than anyone. I would never joke about something like this.
Benedict's expression as he turned to leave said the same thing. He looked hollow and unfocused. That couldn't have been an act.
Just a month ago, I had still been standing right in front of her, very much alive, stubbornly insisting on putting together a dinner to make peace and forcing myself to drink liquor for someone else's sake.
How could I already be reduced to ashes?
Serena lost all her composure and chased after Benedict, grabbing his shoulder hard.
"What the hell are you two doing?" she demanded. "Where is Myles? How could something have happened to him?"
Benedict's face was already soaked with tears. He slapped her hand away viciously.
At that moment, he wasn't thinking about their families' partnership, nor did he have any intention of sparing her dignity.
"He's dead! He's been cremated for a long time already. Back then, he drank his stomach to ruin to support you. After you got married, you never stopped wearing him down, until you worked him straight into stomach cancer!"
My condition worsened at an alarming pace. By the time it was discovered, it was already late stage, which was why I chose to give up treatment without hesitation.
Toward the end, even swallowing became difficult. I coughed up blood constantly, couldn't keep anything down, and yet my body swelled all the same.
The last bit of pride I had left made me grateful for the fact that she never saw me like that. I never gave her another weakness to hold onto or another way to hurt me.
In my final moments, my hands and feet were often ice-cold. Benedict searched for countless doctors, but none of them could warm them.
In my haze, he heard me murmuring, "Serena… hold me while you sleep. It's too cold. I'll warm you up."
Back when we were still deeply in love, because she was always cold, Serena always liked slipping her freezing hands and feet against my chest. I indulged her every time, pulling her tightly into my arms, leaving no space between us.
Now, when I lay cold on a hospital bed, quietly waiting for death to claim me, she'd already found someone else to hold her.
Benedict stared at her with bloodshot eyes, the lavish decorations hanging inside the venue reflecting in them.
"Now that Myles is dead, no one can stop you anymore. Go back and complete your grand wedding, Serena. I'll be sure to watch how this ends for you, you murderer!"
Serena's legs finally gave out, and she collapsed unsteadily to the ground.
She was a murderer.
She killed her own husband with her own hands.
The stomach was sensitive to emotion, and every bit of the pain that destroyed me had come from her.
How could she not know what I had given up for her rise?
It was just that her pride never allowed anyone to use that truth against her.
Serena had built herself up through a man. She had only gotten to where she was now because of me. Without me, she was nothing.
When I was running myself into the ground, going everywhere for her sake, what she endured were exactly those whispers and sneers.
That was why, once she truly made it back, she resisted being too closely tied to me again.
How ridiculous.
The very first thing she did after making a comeback was turn the blade on the person closest to her.
What was she running from, anyway? She knew better than anyone that we were inextricably linked.
Yet because of that thin, fragile pride of hers, she kept pushing me farther and farther away, time and again driving the blade into my heart.
She glanced back at the wedding venue, and the sight of it made her chest tighten painfully.
What wedding was there left to have? The man she wanted to marry most was already dead.
Sensing that something was wrong, Casper came out looking for her. When he saw how hollow and lost she looked, his heart jolted, yet he still forced himself to pull it together and rushed over.
"Honey, the ceremony's about to start. You're about to be my wife. Let's go back inside, alright?"
She let out a short laugh.
When was the last time I had called her that? It had been so long that hearing those words now felt unbearably grating.
"Who exactly do you think you're calling your wife?" Serena snapped.
Casper froze, his mouth opening, but before he could say anything, she slapped him so hard he fell to the ground.
He gasped in shock, clutching his face.
In the next second, Serena collapsed right in front of him.
