Fifteen Days to Goodbye

"I've explained this a hundred times. Elias has cancer. He has a year left, at most. All he wants is to leave his family a child. He saved my life once, Dorian. I have to help him fulfill that wish!"Dorian Halberg had heard some version of that speech almost every day for the past month.The first time Marielle Rousseau suggested carrying another man's baby, he'd refused without hesitation. She hadn't accepted his answer. What began as a tentative request had become an argument she felt entitled to win, as though refusing made him some kind of monster.How did saving a life entitle someone to a child?After a month of fighting, Dorian was exhausted. Looking at the woman he'd loved for five years, he asked in a hoarse voice, "Marielle, we're getting married in two weeks. You want to have another man's baby right before our wedding. What does that make me?"She looked startled by how defeated he sounded. For once, her expression softened."I know it's hard to accept, but I'm the o

Marielle didn't come home that night. Dorian didn't call to ask where she was.He already knew. Elias had posted photographs on social media.After leaving the hospital, they'd gone straight to the Bruckner house to announce the pregnancy. In one picture, Elias's grandmother held Marielle's hand while Marielle rested her other hand on her stomach, smiling warmly.In five years together, Marielle had visited Dorian's parents only once, after accepting his proposal. Their homes were less than half an hour apart, but she always said she felt awkward around other people's parents. Even that one visit had been polite rather than affectionate.She'd never looked at the Halbergs the way she looked at Elias's family.Dorian closed the app.The next day, he gathered a few close friends and told them the wedding was canceled.Marielle had never wanted a ceremony. To her, weddings were pointless formalities. At Dorian's insistence, she'd agreed to a small celebration with their closest fri

Marielle didn't come home for an entire week.Dorian still knew where she was. Elias posted practically every moment of their trip online: hot springs, the ocean, sunrise photographs with Marielle pressed close beside him.In those pictures, Dorian saw a Marielle he barely recognized, one who could act like any woman in love. Just never with him.He stopped studying the pictures. Whenever a new post appeared, he glanced at it and kept scrolling.He had enough to do.It took days to sort through everything they'd accumulated. He also visited his parents, Richard and Joanne, and told them he was joining a restricted research program. He warned them that they might not be able to contact him for long periods.Richard stared at him. "But you're getting married soon. Are you planning to live apart from Marielle?"Joanne took his hand. "Think carefully, sweetheart. It took so long for you two to get here. What if she refuses to let you go? What happens to the wedding?"Dorian underst

Marielle had just seen Elias into his car when she heard those last words.Dorian realized she hadn't heard the rest of his conversation."A friend of mine is moving away," he said.She accepted the explanation without another question.Four days before his departure, Marielle brought home her wedding pictures with Elias.She was on a video call with him, holding a framed photograph up to the camera with a dazzling smile."Elias, I picked up our wedding pictures! The photographer said we looked incredible together."Dorian happened to enter the room for some water.Marielle saw him and stiffened. Before she could explain, he glanced at the photograph and said, "It turned out well."He meant it.He'd paid a premium for that photographer because he'd wanted the most beautiful pictures of Marielle imaginable. She looked exactly as he'd pictured her in her wedding dress.The only difference was the man standing beside her.Strangely, he felt nothing. The day he'd received the p

Marielle stayed at the hospital until Elias's condition stabilized.On the way to the wedding venue, she texted Dorian to ask whether everything was ready and told him she was almost there.He didn't respond.She was about to send another message when she noticed the date of their previous exchange.Fifteen days ago.She scrolled up through the conversation. Nearly every message had come from Dorian. He'd asked what she wanted for dinner, requested her opinion on decorations, sent possible wedding arrangements.Her replies were always brief: "Whatever." "Fine." "You decide."Yet he had kept writing every day.Then, fifteen days ago, the messages stopped.Why hadn't he contacted her once since then?Marielle remembered his expression when she'd first proposed artificial insemination: pain so intense she'd never seen anything like it on his face in twenty years. He'd opposed that one decision more fiercely than anything she'd ever asked of him.For a while, though, he'd behave