Gone Before the First Snow

Spencer Latham crouched beside Hailey Clark and gently placed his hands on her calf. As he began massaging it, he changed the subject.

"How are you feeling today? Is your leg bothering you at all?"

He pressed so hard that his hands turned red, the veins standing out along their backs. He knew exactly where to press and how much pressure to apply.

But Hailey couldn't feel a thing.

When she didn't respond, Spencer looked up to say something, but his phone chimed several times in his pocket. He pulled it out, and a smile spread across his face as soon as he saw the name on the screen.

Whatever he'd been about to say was forgotten. He stood and headed straight for his study.

"Hailey, something's come up at work. I'll be back to finish your massage in a bit."

Hailey said nothing. She just watched him leave. Even after he'd disappeared through the doorway, she couldn't stop thinking about that unguarded smile.

There was no way a work message had made him that happy. That kind of genuine happiness could only come from someone you loved.

She knew because she'd seen Spencer smile that way more times than she could count.

Back in high school, she'd gulp down her milk and hurry downstairs every morning to find Spencer waiting with that same smile. He'd come over, take her heavy backpack, and drive her to school.

They'd both been 18 then, young and carefree, with eyes only for each other. They'd grown up together, and their love story had seemed straight out of a romance novel.

They'd dated in secret, keeping their relationship hidden from their parents and teachers. They'd made a promise to study hard, get into the same university, and finally tell everyone they were together.

They'd pushed each other to do better, and all that hard work had paid off. They'd both earned outstanding SAT scores and gotten into Alderwick University, one of the country's top universities.

It should have been the beginning of their happily ever after.

Then came the accident.

The day before they were supposed to start college, Hailey and Spencer were crossing a road when a car hurtled toward them. Hailey pushed Spencer out of its path, but she was struck.

Spencer came through unharmed. Hailey lost the use of both legs.

Then, later that same year, her parents were killed in a plane crash. It was more than she could bear, and she sank into depression.

Spencer couldn't bear to see her suffer. As soon as he graduated from college, he proposed, promising he'd never let her down.

And for three years of marriage, he'd seemed to keep his word.

Then, a few weeks earlier, Hailey had found his diary.

Spencer told her he loved her every day. But the words he'd written in his diary told a very different story.

He was miserable.

He'd only proposed because he felt he had no choice. If he hadn't, he was sure everyone would have condemned him.

Every time he came home, he felt trapped, like he could barely breathe. Every minute he spent with Hailey was torture.

If he could turn back time, he'd rather she had never saved him. He'd rather have spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair himself than live with so much guilt.

And he'd fallen for another woman behind her back. Her name was Candace Green. She was bright, passionate, and full of life, just as Hailey had been before the accident.

The very next day, Hailey received a message from Candace.

"Hailey, Spencer told me you'll never walk again. You've known him for so many years. Can't you just let him go? Do you have any idea how miserable he is because of you?

"He's so unhappy he wishes he were dead, but he can't even do that. Instead, he has to put on a smile and take care of you every single day. What kind of life is that?

"If he hadn't met me, he might've lost his mind by now. Don't you feel even the slightest bit guilty? I can't stand watching him suffer like this. I'm the one he wants to be with now.

"So please, stop holding on to him. Divorce him and let us be together, okay?"

Then Candace sent her more than a dozen photos of herself with Spencer.

Spencer was front and center in every one.

In one, he was making coffee. When he noticed Candace taking a selfie, he'd leaned into the frame with a grin and flashed a peace sign.

In another, after cracking crab legs for her, he was gently wiping butter from her fingers.

In a photo taken at the beach, he'd followed Candace's footprints in the sand and was grinning as he held out a handful of seashells.

By the time Hailey reached the last photo, her chest hurt so badly she could barely breathe. Each picture felt like another stab to the heart.

But she couldn't even cry anymore. Her eyes were dry and vacant.

Hailey never replied to a single message, but that didn't stop Candace. Every day, more photos arrived, showing Candace and Spencer together. Each one was stamped with a date and time.

On November 21, they'd taken a sunset stroll through the park.

On November 26, they'd gone to a pottery studio and made a vase together.

On December 1, they'd gone to a concert and spent hours talking about music and the future.

Every date and time lined up with one of Spencer's calls telling Hailey he had to work late.

Even yesterday, on her birthday, she'd waited at home for him all day and stayed up all night. But he never came home.

He'd been out watching fireworks with Candace instead.

Hailey stared at the photos Candace had sent and began to laugh. But soon, her laughter gave way to tears.

At 17, Spencer had been hopelessly in love with her.

At 25, he no longer loved her at all.

After spending her birthday night by the window, Hailey submitted her application to the assisted-dying center in Montrevia the following morning. The approval call had come later that day, just before Spencer returned.

Spencer was all she had left. But to him, she'd become someone he dreaded, someone he desperately wanted to escape.

So she decided to let him go. In doing so, she would finally set herself free, too.