Ayim
My family has always seen me as a lunatic.
The day I catch Tiffany Egan cheating on me, I jump from the fifth floor with her in my arms. She survives, while I become a coma patient.
From then on, that man makes a point of getting intimate with her right beside me every night, all to get back at me.
In the first year, whenever Tiffany mentions me, her voice will catch with resentment. She says dying together would've been letting me off too easily.
In the second year, she bites down on him in the heat of the moment and says she wants to set the three of us on fire and let us all burn to death.
By the third year, they barely talk about me anymore. They spend most of their time calculating her ovulation cycle and picking a date for their wedding.
The day they finally get married, I wake up. Under the harsh sunlight, Tiffany, visibly pregnant, rises onto her toes to accept a kiss from my best friend, Dominic Green.
I lift my thin, frail hands and clap along with my old friends. The applause is so out of place that it startles everyone.
My older sister, Sophia Young, is the first to rush over and block my way.
She warns me coldly, "Don't start going crazy again, Zachary. Tiffany and Dominic registered their marriage years ago. If it weren't for you, they wouldn't have had to wait until today for their wedding."
Dominic is Mom's prized student. She has always favored him.
"Zachary, just think of Tiffany as having died three years ago when you jumped with her. Please, let them be happy."
My eyes pass over Tiffany's anguished face, and I slowly nod. But the moment Dominic speaks, my empty stomach clenches on instinct. I grab the knife from the cake beside me.
Three years of suffering is more than enough. I want something sweet for a change.
I'm ready to let them go this time, but unfortunately, they don't believe I'm sane.