Chapter 3

After returning from the bridal store, I felt completely drained and went to bed early.

In the middle of the night, a sudden cramping pain tore through my lower abdomen. Cold sweat soaked through my pajamas, and my vision went black.

I fumbled for my phone and called Ashton.

It rang for a long time before he answered.

"Hello?"

I could hear an airport announcement in the background.

My heart sank as I pleaded, "Ashton... My stomach hurts so badly that I can't get up... Can you come and take me to the hospital?"

Ashton fell silent for a few seconds before he said, "Shayna, I have something urgent to take care of right now. You're an adult. Can't you just take a cab to the hospital yourself?"

Something urgent, huh?

His precious Mel wanted to break up with him. Of course, that was the most urgent thing in the world to him.

My hands and feet went cold as I lay on the floor.

Like I was making one last bet, I picked up Melody's phone and typed a message.

I wrote, "I want to see you."

Then, I sent it.

Almost at the same moment, I heard Ashton shout at someone beside him through the phone. "Change my flight right now! Book the earliest flight to Ivydale! I don't care how much it costs!"

Ivydale was the city I had casually said was Melody's home to make my lie more convincing.

So, Ashton was indeed at the airport. And he was more than willing to abandon me for someone who didn't even exist.

"Ashton," I said into the phone solemnly. "What if I die today?"

His voice was cold and devoid of emotion as he snapped, "Don't threaten me with death. Someone with a personality like yours is suffocating."

He hung up.

I lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. The pain in my abdomen came rushing back, more intense than ever. I curled up like a shrimp. The pain made it hard to even stay conscious.

Clinging to the last shred of consciousness I had, I called 911.

...

"She has acute perforated appendicitis! If she'd arrived any later, she would have developed peritonitis!"

"Where's her family? There's no one to sign the surgical consent form!"

The surgery took three hours. After that, I stayed in the hospital for three days.

Ashton didn't call me once or send me a single message. Melody's phone, on the other hand, received hundreds of messages from him every day without fail.

"Mel, I'm in Ivydale. Where are you?"

"I've searched everywhere you might have gone. Why won't you see me?"

"I'm waiting for you at a cafe. I'll stay here until you show up."

I shut off the phone emotionlessly.

It was raining the day I was discharged. I handled the paperwork myself and took a cab back to the home where we had lived together for three years.

I pushed open the door. Everything was exactly as I had left it.