Jason stared at the words on his phone screen, the message Emily had sent him.

[I’ve been diagnosed with the same bone cancer my dad had.]

His ears began to ring.

He suddenly remembered that day at Sophia’s house. She had taken his phone, smiling, and said, “Emily’s asking for money again? I’ll just send her a payment for you.”

But after that… nothing. He hadn’t even really read what Emily had said.

Could it be true? Did she really have bone cancer? Yet Sophia had done a background check and found nothing.

And his parents had always told him Emily was a con artist who went after rich men.

He hadn’t believed it at first, but what were the odds that right after they got married, her dad needed a huge surgery?

Jason felt like his head was about to split open. He didn’t know who to believe anymore.

But he knew one thing for sure: he couldn’t lose Emily.

His fingers shaking, Jason scrolled up.

A wall of red, payment alerts, one after another.

She told him her father had died. He had sent her 888 dollars.

Every time she was in pain, every time she broke down, every time she reached out, all she got in return were those stupid Venmo notifications.

And most of the time, it was Sophia who had sent them.

If… if Emily wasn’t a liar, then Sophia had been using his phone, his account, to hurt the woman he loved.

Jason started trembling. A huge, cold wave of panic spread from deep inside him, radiating to his fingers and toes.

“Mr. Mitchell?” Chris’s voice was cautious on the other end of the line.

Jason was already falling apart inside. “Check the records at Fairhaven General. And look into Sophia. Now!”

His voice was hoarse, broken.

He was so scared.

He ran out of the gala. Sophia called after him, but he didn’t look back.

His car flew toward the old part of town. He ran at least five red lights.

He reached the run-down neighborhood, ran up the stairs, and kicked the door open.

The house was clean. Just a faint smell of dust.

The bedroom door was closed.

Now that he was here, he hesitated, afraid to go in.

His heart was beating so fast, faster than he thought possible.

Something terrible had happened, and he couldn’t fix it.

Jason pushed open the door. Emily was curled up on the bed, like she was asleep.

Her face was pale. There was a faint, peaceful smile on her lips.

“Emily?” he whispered.

His hand shook as he touched her face.

It was ice cold.

Jason’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees beside the bed.

He couldn’t believe it.

He took her hand. Her fingers were thin and stiff, completely cold.

Neatly folded beside her on the bed was a stack of yellowed envelopes.

The love letters he had written when he was twenty.

She had kept them all, perfectly preserved.

Next to the letters were two empty pill bottles. Sleeping pills and painkillers.

Her phone screen was still on. Open to their chat.

[If I died, would you be sad?]

Below that, a payment alert. Sent from his account by Sophia.

Below that, her question about the amputation.

No reply. Just a grayed out “payment returned.”

Jason looked at all of it. His world seemed to shatter in an instant.

Everything from the past few years had been a lie.

But one thing was real.

His Emily was dead.

“NO!”

He let out a sound that wasn’t human. He slammed his forehead against the edge of the bed, over and over.

He still couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t accept it.

It all felt so fake, like a nightmare. Maybe he would wake up tomorrow and they would still be fighting. They would never really leave each other.

But reality doesn’t care what you want.

Jason sat there by the bed, his mind blank for five minutes. The tears came before any thoughts could form.

A huge, crushing pain took over his body, numbing everything.

He had been so wrong, unforgivably wrong. And he couldn’t fix it.

She had never lied to him. Emily had never lied to him once.

Her father really had been sick.

The baby had been real. They could have had a real family.

The cancer was real. Her dying was real.

And when she needed him most, he had pushed her away, again and again, with those mocking payment alerts, with his cold words, with another woman.

He hadn’t even given her an answer in the end.

“I would be sad. Emily, I would be so sad.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m a monster.”

He knelt there, holding her cold body, babbling incoherently. “What am I supposed to do without you?”

Then he called 911 like a madman, screaming for help.

The ambulance came. The paramedics checked her. They shook their heads at him.

“NO!” Jason lunged at the doctor, grabbing his coat. “She’s not dead! Save her! I don’t care what it costs! Tell me she’s not dead!”

A sedative needle was pushed into his arm.

Jason fought wildly as he watched the white sheet cover her face.

Two tears ran down his cheeks.

That horrible white sheet would be the nightmare that haunted him forever.