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Chapter 5

Author: Sunny
The mood in the reunion had turned heavy.

James shot up out of his chair.

He’d known Sienna took that call. Everything she said, he’d authorized.

The thought hit him, and his chest went tight, like he couldn’t pull enough air.

He bolted out of the room and ran toward the nightclub Zoe had mentioned.

The whole way there, his head was a wreck.

Wren.

He couldn’t accept it. The girl he’d hated for two years had been loving him the whole time.

These two years, he’d been bringing Sienna to galas and high-end dinners. But in the back of his mind, he kept going back to that little apartment and the days he and Wren had spent there.

They’d been broke, but it was a good kind of broke.

Wren had landed a job, and her first paycheck she’d spent on a whole set of paint brushes for him.

He’d been heartsick and told her not to waste money on him like that.

She didn’t see it that way.

“Waste? Working for your dream is my dream too.”

He’d held her so tight in that moment that he could barely let go.

He got to the club and went straight to the back, to the cleaning area.

A woman’s silhouette moved behind a curtain.

He yanked it open.

He had known it. He had known Wren was still alive.

These two years had just been so hard on her. She was trying to get his attention again, that was all.

This time, James had no complaints left. As long as she was alive, lies, fake poverty, fake pity, fake death, he didn’t care. He’d take all of it.

“Wren!”

The woman whipped around.

“Who the hell are you? This is the women’s room. Get out.”

He stumbled back a few steps.

“Where’s Wren?”

“The one who used to be here?”

The woman rolled her eyes at him and snapped, “Dead.”

He went still.

The last shred of hope was gone.

It felt like something had driven straight through his chest, and he couldn’t breathe.

“What are you still standing here for? You want Wren? Go to the cemetery. Heard she couldn’t even afford a plot. Got the cheapest one they had.”

His ears were ringing.

On his way out, somebody recognized him.

“You’re James Thorne, right? I’m the owner.”

The man held out a ticket to an art exhibit. “Heard some of your paintings are in it. Wren left this ticket before she passed. I never had time to go, and honestly, I’m not an art guy. Might as well give it back to its real owner.”

James took the ticket. The painting on the front was one he knew by heart.

He followed the address to the museum.

It was already night, and they were almost closing.

He dragged himself in, gallery after gallery, until he found one called Chasing the Dream.

“Artist: James Thorne.”

He read it out loud and realized that somewhere along the way, his face had gotten wet.

The paintings in that room were ones he’d worked on day and night, back when they were together.

When Wren’s grandmother got sick, he’d had to sell them off, all of them, for nothing.

And now she’d given them back to him, in her own way.

He went from one painting to the next. Then the room started to spin, and his knees gave way.

His phone rang. It was his mother.

“James, where are you? Sienna says you took off from the reunion. She’s beside herself looking for you.”

He braced himself against the wall and slid down to the floor.

“Mom. Before Wren and I broke up, did you make her life hard?”

His mother’s voice was very steady.

“Make her life hard? No.”

“That was her choice. If she’d wanted to stay and live poor with you, I wouldn’t have had a word to say.”

“Stop lying to me.” His voice cracked. “Her job. What happened to her job? Why did she suddenly lose it? Why was she on the street, ending up cleaning bathrooms? You knew. Didn’t you.”

A long silence.

“We’ll talk when you come home.”

The line cut off.

A cold wave hit him, and his chest seized. A mouthful of blood came up.

He collapsed.
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  • The Night Before His Wedding, My Ex Found Out How I Really Died   Chapter 11

    “I miss you too.”I smiled. Something glittered in the corner of my eye, maybe a tear, maybe nothing, and when I rubbed at it, it was gone.“James, what I did for you, I’ve never regretted it.”“I used everything I had to keep you alive. Not so I could watch you tear yourself apart like this.”“Otherwise, what was the point of any of it?”He pulled me in and held on tight.“I want to come find you. I can’t do this without you.”“Wren, please let me come.”I shook my head and patted his back, careful, the way I used to.“Live.”“You said you wanted to make it up to me, right?”“Stay alive. That’s the only thing I want from you. Stay alive, and I’m happy.”“I’m with you, you know. All the time.”“I can be anything around you, a speck of dust or a breeze. I’m here. You just can’t see me.”My energy was almost gone.Once I’d said it, my body started to go transparent, and then it was gone.“Wren!”He woke up with a jolt.The front of his shirt was already wet.He reached over to the empty

  • The Night Before His Wedding, My Ex Found Out How I Really Died   Chapter 10

    That was the gift I’d prepared for him before the breakup.I never got the chance to give it to James.When I left, I put the box there, with one small, last hope: that one day he’d see it.If the landlord cleared it out and threw it away, that was fine too.James choked on a sob and wiped the album clean.He sat down hard on the floor, hugged it against his chest, and kept talking, half to himself.“Wren, you fool.”His fingertips moved over the cover.“Honestly, when I organized that reunion, I had this thought that if you came, maybe I’d get to look at you one more time.”“I miss you so much. Every day, every minute, every second of it.”“I don’t know why I’m this pathetic. You walked out on me so cleanly, and I still can’t let you go.”“Wren, I love you so much.”My soul was floating next to him, and suddenly something in my chest stabbed.I winced and sucked in a sharp breath.So even when you were dead, it could still hurt.I tried to touch his face, but my hand passed through ai

  • The Night Before His Wedding, My Ex Found Out How I Really Died   Chapter 9

    Those two sentences finished him.He’d been hating me, hard, that whole time.When he was unconscious, I had snuck in to see him.He was murmuring my name in his sleep.“Wren, don’t go. Wren.”“You’re so cruel. You’re just so cruel.”I stood next to him in sterile scrubs and watched his face. His brows were knotted tight, and there was a sheen of sweat at his temple.It was like a hand reached into my chest and tore something open.I told him in my head: James, if I can keep you alive this time, then we’re even.He got up slowly and walked with no direction.Sienna was panicking. She ran after him and threw her arms around him, but he shoved her off.She did it again, and he shoved her off again.Until he turned and roared, “Get away from me!”She froze. Tears dropped like a string of beads coming apart.The next day, he fired her from the company.Sienna clung to her office chair and wouldn’t let go. Security dragged her out by force.She was screaming, crying, clawing at the door, sp

  • The Night Before His Wedding, My Ex Found Out How I Really Died   Chapter 8

    I stood next to James and shook my head, but he couldn’t see it.The wind in the leaves was the only answer I could give him.“Let it go, James.”“If there’s a next life, it’d be better if we didn’t meet again.”“This one was too hard, too bitter.”I was talking to myself. If there really is another life, I’d rather be the wind around you, or a cloud, just there quietly. That would be enough.He left.He wandered the street with no purpose. A car came barreling toward him, and he didn’t move.“Watch where you’re going, you idiot!”The driver yelled out the window, but James didn’t even register him. He walked straight to a little cart on the corner selling caramel apples.I loved caramel apples.Because I always felt life was bitter, and when something tasted bitter, I would eat something sweet.He stood at the cart, staring at the rows of them on sticks, and said softly, “Wren loved strawberry.”“Ten strawberry caramel apples, please.”The vendor wrapped up ten.“Not enough. Ten’s not

  • The Night Before His Wedding, My Ex Found Out How I Really Died   Chapter 7

    Sienna’s eyes welled up instantly.“James, I know Wren dying has hit you hard. But we still have to move forward, don’t we? How can you just throw away our engagement like that?”Her voice was rough, and her whole expression was careful, breakable.He let out a small laugh.A laugh at her acting, and a laugh at how blind he’d been.“What you did, I can’t pretend I don’t know.”She froze.Her lips moved, but nothing came out.These two years, James had punished himself.My leaving had broken something in him. He worked like he’d lost his mind, as if he were trying to spite me, as if he were trying to say: Look, Wren. I have money now too. I’m not the James you looked down on anymore.Even when he hated me, it broke my heart.But Sienna paraded around with his money and spent it on display.That was when I realized she didn’t actually love him.But I’d given up my right to weigh in on his love life a long time ago.Sienna burst into tears and ran out.And James finally let go of the last

  • The Night Before His Wedding, My Ex Found Out How I Really Died   Chapter 6

    When James came to, he was home, in his own big, soft bed.Half-conscious, he heard his mother talking to somebody.“I said he shouldn’t find out the girl was dead. Look at him. What is this? It’s undignified.”“I know, I didn’t expect it either. Someone brought her up at the reunion yesterday.”That was Sienna.“Mrs. Thorne, don’t worry. I’ll get him through this. I promise.”“Oh, and one more thing.” She paused. “Mrs. Thorne, James knows the bone marrow donor was Wren.”His mother sighed.“Don’t take it to heart. If you hadn’t told Wren about his illness when you did, she wouldn’t have had the chance to donate at all.”“You’re the one who pushed the match through with NMDP back then. We should be thanking you. James has no reason to be upset with you over this.”“He should be clear on this. You saved his life.”James lay there, eyes shut, not moving.His body had started to shake.For two years, he’d been grateful to Sienna. She’d stayed, she’d taken care of him, and even though ther

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