The Day I stopped Loving You

Lisa's POV

The fiftieth floor of LONERIA INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER was a world apart from the suffering it concealed. Private suites disguised as luxury penthouses overlooked the glittering city skyline through floor-to-ceiling windows. Expensive artworks hung on cream-colored walls, and the faint scent of fresh lilies tried and failed to mask the sterile bite of disinfectant and impending death.

I lay motionless on the oversized hospital bed, an oxygen cannula tucked beneath my nose, while machines beeped out the weakening rhythm of my heart. Transparent tubes snaked under the blanket, feeding medications that had long since stopped working. The hereditary cancer that had ravaged my family had finally won. My body no longer obeyed me. I couldn’t lift a finger, couldn’t open my eyes, couldn’t even whisper. Only my hearing remained cruelly sharp, forcing me to witness everything.

Outside the suite, nurses moved like ghosts, their voices hushed. The doctors had already told my family I wouldn’t survive the night. I knew it too.

Then came the soft click of the door followed by two sets of familiar footsteps entering. One confident and heavy, the other lighter, accompanied by the sharp tap of expensive high heels on marble.

Richard. My husband and Claire. …My best friend.

A wave of bittersweet sorrow washed over me. Even now, on the edge of death, I pitied them for the grief I thought they would feel losing a family member. They didn’t know I could still hear.

Claire’s soft, mocking laugh broke the silence first.

“So… this is really the end for her.”

Richard smiled, cold and relieved. “It took eight fucking years, but yes. Finally.” My heart clenched so hard I thought it might stop right then.

Claire traced a finger down his chest. “Poor Lisa. She really believed she had the perfect husband. All those nights you sat by her bed holding her hand, whispering how much you loved her… while slipping the poison into her IV. You were brilliant.”

The words sliced through me sharper than any scalpel. My heart clenched painfully, but my body remained frozen. So it was my so-called husband all along. 

Richard gave a low chuckle, the sound devoid of warmth. “She believed everything I wanted her to believe.” “It wasn’t even that hard, the doctors kept blaming the progression of her ‘hereditary’ cancer. I just helped it along, small doses at first, then stronger once her body was weak enough. The best part? Her own mother thanked me for being such a devoted husband. She signed over more shares to me every time she got worse.” Claire laughed softly. “We’ve been planning this since before you even married her. I told you to pick the richest, most trusting heiress, and you chose perfectly.”

A broken sound tried to rise in my throat but died there. Hot tears burned behind my closed eyelids, yet even they refused to fall. My body had betrayed me one final time.

Richard’s hand slid under Claire’s skirt, but his voice stayed casual, almost proud. “The board is already prepared to vote me in as permanent chairman the moment she flatlines. All the offshore accounts are ready. Her patents, her family’s research data, everything transfers to me. To us. She built an empire thinking she was securing our future. Instead, she funded her own slow execution.”

Claire leaned in, kissing the side of his neck. “Eight years of watching her deteriorate while we fucked in every hotel in the city… It was the sweetest foreplay. Every time she thanked you for staying by her side, I came so hard knowing we were killing her, her mom is so cooperative.”

Richard’s grip tightened on Claire’s thigh. “She never suspected a thing. Fragile, trusting little Lisa. Always so grateful for the smallest affection. Pathetic, really.”

Every word carved into me like acid. The years of pain, the endless hospital stays, the way I had defended him to everyone, none of it was illness, It was murder. Slow, calculated, intimate murder by the two people I trusted most.

Claire’s voice turned breathy as Richard’s fingers moved between her legs. “I’m so wet just thinking about it. She’s dying right there, and we’re about to own everything she ever loved.”

Richard’s response was a hungry growl. “Then let’s celebrate.”

The swift sex that followed was raw and frantic, but shorter than their usual indulgence. He shoved her skirt up, freed his bulging cock, and pulled her onto his lap in one motion. Claire sank down onto him with a loud moan, riding him hard and fast, her nails digging into his shoulders.

“Fuck….yes,” she panted. “Harder. Cum inside me while your wife is lying almost lifeless.”

Richard thrust up into her roughly, gripping her hips, his face twisted in pleasure and triumph. Their bodies slapped together obscenely for a few intense minutes until Claire shuddered violently, crying out as she came. Richard followed right after, groaning her name as he spilled inside her.

They stayed locked together, breathing hard, exchanging lazy kisses.

“She’ll be gone before morning,” Claire whispered, satisfied.

“Everything is ours now,” Richard replied, voice thick with victory.

I lay there, silent and shattered, as their words and moans burned themselves into my soul. The betrayal was worse than death itself.

“Everything belongs to us now,” Richard replied, voice laced with triumph.

Every word, every moan, every slap of skin against skin etched itself into my dying heart. Questions burned through my mind, How long? How could you? but my lips refused to part. Even the tears I so desperately needed would not fall.

Instead, I buried the searing hatred deep inside, letting it fuel what little life remained.

Richard Hale… Claire…

If there is any justice in this world… if fate can hear the silent screams of a dying woman…

Let this betrayal be repaid a thousandfold.

May you both taste the same despair you forced upon me.

May you lose everything you stole from me.

And if there is another life… I swear… I will never love you again.

The vows echoed endlessly in my mind. Not a single word left my lips, yet the hatred engraved itself upon my soul, refusing to die even as the last traces of warmth slipped from my body.

Little did I know, Fate had been listening.

*****

Darkness swallowed everything. Then…

“Gasp!”

I bolted upright in bed, chest heaving as if dragged from drowning depths. No oxygen tube, No searing pain, No machines, Just the thunder of her own healthy heartbeat.

I stared at my hands smooth, youthful, unmarked by needles or age. Panic surged as I scrambled out of bed and stumbled to the full-length mirror.

The girl staring back at me looks seventeen, Long black hair, glowing skin, eyes wide with the innocence I had lost long ago.

“No…” my voice cracked. “This can’t be real…”

I rushed to the calendar on the wall…September 12th, The year I was seventeen, two days before I met Richard, two days before everything shattered.

My shaky legs buckled, I collapsed to the floor as memories flooded back: Richard’s cold smile, Claire’s mocking laughter, their bodies moving together on that sofa while she lay dying.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, real tears but this time, it was tears of shock, relief, and burning gratitude.

A bitter, determined laugh escaped my lips.

“Fate… you really gave me another chance.”

Wiping the tears away, When I lifted my head again, the softness in my eyes had vanished, replaced by a glacial resolve that could freeze fire itself.

“This time,” I whispered, fists clenched so tightly, my nails bit into my palms, “I won’t waste it.”

“I won’t love Richard Hale.”

“I won’t trust Claire.”

“I won’t surrender my family’s empire.”

“And I will never become that pathetic, broken woman again.”

Outside my window, the morning sun rose over a city that had no idea what was coming.

For everyone else, it was an ordin

ary day but for Me?, It was the first day of their destruction.