Chapter 3

Alaina POV

The silence of our grand, empty house seemed to mock me. It was too quiet, too vast for just one person. A sudden ring pierced the oppressive stillness, making me jump. Gregory. His name flashed on the screen, a chilling reminder of the web of lies I was still caught in.

"Alaina? Are you home?" His voice, smooth and tender, was a cruel paradox. It used to be my anchor, my only salvation in the stormy sea of my supposed illness. Now, it was a siren's call, luring me to my doom.

"Yes, Gregory," I said, my voice deliberately weak, a perfect portrayal of the fragile wife he expected.

"Good. Did you take your medication? You know how important it is. Don't skip it, don't try to hide them." His tone was gentle, but the underlying command was clear. He was asserting his control, even from a distance.

My eyes drifted to the bedside table, to the amber bottle labeled "Cancer-Fighting Miracle Drug." For five years, I had swallowed those pills, believing they were my lifeline. Now, they were a bitter symbol of my self-deception, of the cruel performance he had orchestrated.

A tremor ran through me. I squeezed my eyes shut, pushing back the wave of disgust. "Gregory," I whispered, letting my voice crack, "will I ever truly get better? Five years... I'm so tired of the treatments, of feeling like this."

The receiver crackled slightly, a momentary pause. Then, his voice snapped back, laced with a sudden, desperate panic. "Alaina! Don't scare me like that. You can't give up. I... I can't live without you. You're strong. Remember? Five years ago, they said you only had three years left. Look at you now. You defied them all."

His desperation was almost convincing. Almost. He was terrified of losing his puppet, his carefully constructed illusion.

He softened his tone, pulling back from the edge of panic. "I'm already looking into new therapies, Alaina. Experimental ones from Switzerland. You'll beat this. I promise. I'm the best surgeon in Boston, remember? I'll be with you every step of the way."

His words, a litany of empty promises and self-aggrandizement, twisted my gut. He wasn't trying to save me; he was trying to keep me. To keep me in this gilded cage, dependent and grateful. My throat tightened, a silent sob catching in my chest. I fought it back. He didn't deserve my tears.

"Okay," I said, my voice barely a whisper, devoid of any genuine emotion. "Okay, Gregory."

I hung up, the click echoing in the empty room. My gaze fell upon an old wooden box tucked under the bed, almost forgotten. It held the relics of our past, tokens of a love I once believed in.

Inside were three hundred love letters, meticulously preserved. His handwriting, tracing the evolution of our relationship – from the awkward scrawls of a teenage boy to the confident strokes of a mature man. Each letter, a declaration. "My Alaina... my forever... this life, and every other, I promise to be yours... I will never betray you."

And then, the last letter. The most cherished, the most painful. It was his romantic promise, signed and sealed just before our wedding. A clause, he'd called it, a testament to his eternal devotion. It stated, in flowing script, that if he ever fundamentally betrayed me, this letter would serve as a contract, granting me an immediate divorce and all the freedom I desired. "I'll stake my life on it, Alaina," he'd written. "Consider this my unshakeable bond."

He'd long forgotten those sweet nothings, those heartfelt vows. But I hadn't. I could recite every word, recall the warmth of his hand as he wrote them. The memories, once precious, now felt like shards of glass, tearing at my insides.

Gregory, the boy who once climbed my window just to bring me flowers, the man who held my hand through every fear, the husband who promised me forever... that image collided with the monster who had just confessed to orchestrating five years of medical torture. The juxtaposition was a cruel, agonizing dance in my mind. It was a knife, carving my heart into tiny, irreparable pieces.

My tears had long dried up, replaced by a dull, throbbing ache. My hands, still shaking, reached for the old ornate scissors on my desk. One by one, I picked up the letters, each a testament to a love that never truly existed. One by one, I cut them into confetti. The paper fluttered to the ground, a silent snowfall of shattered dreams, each scrap a piece of our broken love story. All except one. The last letter. The contract. His signed promise.

This document, once a symbol of eternal love, was now a blueprint for my freedom. He had signed his own divorce papers years ago. He just didn't know it.