My Last Wish Was to Marry You

The look on Ian’s face made Rowan lose the nerve to wait for his answer. She scrambled to her feet, put the ring box away, and laughed as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Fooled you! I was only kidding!”

Ian frowned slightly. He took off his jacket and sat down on the sofa, casting her a cool, distant glance.

“Did your parents put you up to this? Are they that afraid I won’t marry you?”

His sharp words stung, but Rowan only smiled without confirming or denying it.

“What if I really was proposing? Would you marry me?”

Ian’s expression darkened, but he said nothing.

Neither of them brought it up again. Rowan took the cake out of the fridge, cut herself a slice, and ate it slowly.

She bought the cake to celebrate a successful proposal. Now she could only eat it alone.

She knew he might turn her down when she decided to propose. Even so, it hurt when it happened.

They had been together for five years, and every day she hoped Ian would ask her to marry him.

She waited and waited.

Instead, she learned she had brain cancer and less than six months to live.

The tumor was on a nerve. Surgery would leave her in a vegetative state. Put simply, there was no cure.

Rowan wasn’t a pessimist, so the news didn’t devastate her. She only regretted that there were still things she hadn’t done.

For one, she hadn’t made Ian fall in love with her.

Rowan and Ian were childhood friends who grew up together.

Ian’s parents died when he was ten. The Ford and Shaw families were longtime friends and business partners, so Rowan’s parents took him in and raised him like their own son.

He protected and doted on her throughout their childhood.

Over the years, she fell in love with him almost inevitably.

But he fell in love with someone else.

The only reason they were together now was an accident.

Ian had just broken up with his first love and gotten very drunk. Rowan only meant to look after him, but somehow they ended up in bed together.

The next morning, her parents opened the door and found them like that.

After that, his sense of responsibility kept him from leaving her.

Early the next morning, Ian got up for work as usual.

Rowan hugged him from behind, reluctant to let him go.

“Ian, could you stay home with me today?”

Rowan had always used little tricks to get what she wanted. They always worked on Ian when they were children, but he was less willing to play along now that they were grown.

He pried her hands away without even looking back.

As Rowan watched him leave, she remembered he hadn’t eaten breakfast.

She hurried to get dressed, made him a simple sandwich and coffee, then drove to the office to bring them to him.

Ian worked at the company the Ford and Shaw families ran together. The receptionists knew Rowan and let her through after a quick greeting.

But someone stopped her outside the CEO’s office.

“The CEO is in a meeting. Come back later.”

Rowan turned and saw the last face she wanted to see.