Chapter 3

Rachel noticed the medical report tightly clenched in my right hand.

She lunged forward, snatched it away, and tore it into pieces before triumphantly declaring, "I bet she's just here to play the victim, Jose. Don't let her fool you."

Then, she lowered her voice and added, "Besides, I heard Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is incurable, and she'll eventually end up paralyzed. You can't spend the rest of your life shackled to a vegetable, can you?"

Jose patted her hand and turned back to look at me. "I'll pay back every penny Madeleine spent to raise me over the years. Just think of it…"

He hesitated, then added, "Just think of it as me helping you pay for your medical bills."

I looked at the shredded pieces of the medical report scattered among the notes, then up at Jose's understanding yet slightly sympathetic expression, and suddenly found the tears I had just shed for him utterly ridiculous.

"Don't bother," I said.

That night, Jose posted a photo on his feed of his face pressed close against Rachel's. The caption read, "Love of my life".

Half of the comments below were full of confusion, with people asking when he and I had broken up, while the other half congratulated them and offered their blessings.

They mocked me for being average-looking and having mediocre grades, claiming I was never a good match for a campus heartthrob and a straight-A student like Jose anyway. Now, they remarked that Jose and Rachel were a match made in heaven.

Before I could leave a comment, Jose called, but it was Rachel's voice that came through the receiver.

"Did you see Jose's post, Vicky? I don't mean anything by this, but could you do us a favor and give it a like? If you don't, people are going to assume I'm the other woman who came between you two."

I let out a cold laugh. "Isn't that the truth, though?"

The line went quiet for a second before Jose took the phone. "It's just a simple tap on a screen, Vicky. Don't make things difficult for everyone. I figured you wouldn't care about people talking if you had the nerve to pull ridiculous stunts.

"I don't care, but Rachel's just a young lady, and you're a lady, too. Just show a little understanding and think of it as doing a final favor for me, will you?"

When I stayed silent, Jose panicked.

"I sucked it up and swallowed my pride to appease you countless times over the years, and I accepted that. But you're dying now. Is it that hard to compromise just once?"

A chill ran through my body, and I heard myself ask with a laugh. "You changed my college major to Mortuary Science on purpose. Just how badly do you want to see me dead?"

Jose seemed to realize that he had crossed a line and fell silent.

Just then, my phone buzzed with an incoming call. When I switched over, Mom's warm voice replaced Jose's as she frantically asked me what was going on.

I was stunned for a second.

It seemed like Jose had gone all out. Not only did he hurt my feelings, but he didn't bother to hide his post from Mom either.

I comforted her by telling her we'd already broken up and that it wasn't a big deal.

"But…" she said hesitantly over the line. "What about his illness…"

A sudden, jarring scene of absurdity hit me.

Even after finding out that Jose and I had broken up, Mom's instinctive reaction was to worry about his health. Yet to Jose, that unconditional love was proof of the humiliation he had suffered while living under our roof.

"Don't worry, Mom. I gave him his medical report. He knows what's going on."

I wasn't lying either. After all, I had given the medical report to Jose. Whether he saw it before Rachel tore it up was none of my business.

…

There was one good thing about Jose blowing everything up into the open. I no longer had to hide anything and could fully enjoy the happiest summer of my life.

All my friends knew about the breakup, so they invited me out to parties and promised to introduce me to new, good-looking guys.

I said yes to every invitation, and my social media feed was constantly updated with new posts.