Dying for His True Happiness

In New York, everyone knew Grady Allen lived for me, Emely Harrison. He was my shadow, my protector, my world, and our future seemed inevitable.

But as I lay dying from ALS, I overheard him whisper, "Emely, my duty to you is done. If there is a next life, I pray I can be with Kandy." My world shattered. His lifelong devotion wasn't love, but guilt for Kandy Paul, a woman who had taken her own life after he' d left her.

Reborn, I found Grady with amnesia, deeply in love with Kandy. To give him the happiness he truly desired, I concealed my own early-onset ALS diagnosis and broke off our engagement, telling his parents, "I won't chain him to a dying woman out of a sense of duty he doesn't even remember."

Despite my efforts, Kandy' s insecurity led her to frame me, accusing me of throwing her engagement ring and setting fire to the mansion. Grady, believing her, threw me into a muddy pit and later choked me, snarling, "You're not even as good as a dog. At least a dog is loyal."

During a kidnapping, I saved Kandy, nearly dying myself, only to wake in a hospital to learn Grady had spared no expense for her, while I lay abandoned.

Why did he choose her, even when his body instinctively reached for me? Why did he believe her lies? I had given him everything, even my life, to set him free.

Now, I would truly be free. I married my brother, Jeremiah, who had always loved me, and left Grady behind, whispering, "Be happy, Grady. We're even now. I'll never see you again."

Chapter 1

In New York, everyone knew Grady Allen lived for me, Emely Harrison.

It was a story the city loved to tell. From the moment my parents died and the Allens took me in, Grady was my shadow, my protector, my world.

He was the one who held my hand through every nightmare, the one who fought boys who looked at me wrong, the one who promised to marry me when we were just kids building forts out of blankets.

As we grew up, that childhood promise solidified into a diamond ring and a future everyone saw as inevitable. He was the powerful heir to the Allen Corporation, and I was his everything.

That devotion never wavered, not even when I was diagnosed with ALS.

In my first life, he spent years by my bedside, a constant, unwavering presence. He researched every experimental treatment, fired doctors who gave up hope, and held my hand as my body betrayed me, one muscle at a time.

I died believing I was the luckiest woman in the world, to be loved so completely.

But in my final moments, as the world faded to black, I heard him whisper.

He was holding my hand, his voice thick with a grief that wasn't for me.

"Emely, my duty to you is done," he murmured, his breath a ghost against my ear. "I've paid my debt. If there is a next life, I pray I can be with Kandy. I'll make it up to her."

The shock was a physical blow, even to my dying body.

My mind, slow and foggy from the medication, struggled to piece it together.

Kandy. Kandy Paul.

I remembered then. A period of a few months, years ago, when Grady had disappeared after a car accident. He'd lost his memory.

When we found him, he was with a woman, a musician named Kandy. He was in love with her.

But his memory returned, and with it, his life as my fiancé. He came back to me.

Kandy, I learned later, had taken her own life.

All this time, I thought Grady's devotion was love. It wasn't. It was guilt. A lifelong penance for the woman who died because of him.

His love for me was a cage built from responsibility. His heart belonged to a ghost.

Darkness took me, his final, desperate wish echoing in my ears.

Then, light.

I blinked, my lungs filling with air, my limbs strong and steady beneath me. I was sitting in a plush armchair in the Allens' study.

Across from me, Mr. and Mrs. Allen were speaking to their head of security.

"Are you sure the doctor can't just... jog his memory? A more aggressive approach?" Mrs. Allen asked, her voice laced with worry.

"Ma'am, the doctor said any attempt to force his memory back could cause permanent brain damage," the security chief replied. "We have to be patient."

It was the exact conversation I'd heard the day they found Grady, the day my previous life's tragedy was set in motion.

I was back.

The old me would have been frantic with joy, desperate to see him, to have him back.

But the woman who had died hearing her life was a lie felt nothing but a calm, chilling clarity.

Grady was alive. He had amnesia. And somewhere out there, Kandy Paul was still alive, too.

This was his wish. A chance to do it right. A chance to be with the woman he truly loved.

I would not stand in his way again.

My first act in this new life was to stop them.

"Don't," I said, my voice quiet but firm.

Mr. and Mrs. Allen turned to me, surprised.

"Emely, sweetheart, we have to do something," Mrs. Allen said gently.

"No," I insisted. "Don't force him. Let him be for now."

I needed to make sure this time, the outcome was different. For all of us.

The next day, I went for a full physical. The results came back as a bitter confirmation. Early-onset ALS. The monster was still there, waiting in my blood.

With the medical report tucked in my purse, I went to the Allens. I found them in the sunroom, their faces etched with worry. I didn't waste any time.

"I want to call off the engagement."

The words hung in the air, heavy and shocking.

Mrs. Allen gasped, her hand flying to her chest. "Emely, what are you saying? You and Grady..."

"It's because of me, isn't it?" Mr. Allen asked, his voice grave. "Because he has amnesia, because he's with that a woman right now?"

"Yes," I said, my voice even. "But not in the way you think."

I laid the medical report on the table between us. "I have ALS. In the best-case scenario, I have a few years. Grady has his whole life ahead of him."

I looked them both in the eye, my guardians, the people who had loved me like their own daughter.

"He's forgotten me. Right now, he's in love with someone else. I won't be a burden to him. I won't chain him to a dying woman out of a sense of duty he doesn't even remember."

This wasn't a lie. It was the truest thing I had ever said. In my last life, I was his burden. A beautiful, tragic obligation.

"That's nonsense!" Mrs. Allen cried, tears welling in her eyes. "Grady loves you more than life itself! The moment he remembers, he'll come right back to you! He would never see you as a burden!"

Her words were a painful echo of a life I no longer wanted.

I took out my phone and played a video. It was from the private investigator I'd hired the moment I was reborn.

The footage was grainy, taken from a distance. It showed Grady sitting by a lake. A young woman with bright, hopeful eyes, Kandy Paul, came and sat next to him.

Grady's face, which had always been reserved and stoic for the world, transformed. He looked at her with a tenderness, a raw-edged adoration I had never seen. Not once, in a lifetime of him being by my side.

He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. He smiled a real, unguarded smile.

The video ended. The sunroom was silent, thick with the weight of unspoken truths. Mr. and Mrs. Allen stared at the blank screen, their faces pale.

"He loves her," I said softly. "It's not just the amnesia. That's a love that comes from the soul. The kind you can't force or fake."

I folded my hands in my lap, my decision a solid, heavy thing inside me.

"Please," I said. "Let him go. Let me go. It's the best thing for everyone."

Mr. Allen finally looked up, his eyes filled with a deep sadness. "What will you do, Emely?"

"My brother is making arrangements," I said, the thought of Jeremiah a small point of warmth in the cold. "I'm going abroad for treatment. To try and buy myself some more time."

I looked out the window, at the life I was about to leave behind.

"I want to live," I said, more to myself than to them. "For as long as I can."