His Death Day, Her Wedding Day

From the back cover

The phone felt heavy in my hand, a cold, dead weight.

It had been a year since I last heard her voice, a year of silence that felt like a lifetime.

My doctor' s words echoed in my head: "Glioblastoma, stage four. I' m sorry, Ethan. We' re talking months, maybe less."

I called her, my thumb hovering over the button.

"Happy wedding day," I said, pushing the words out. "And the second thing… you once promised that you' d carry my coffin after I die."

The line went dead.

A week after that promise, Olivia had left me. "I never loved you, Ethan," she had said, her face a mask of indifference.

Her words broke me more than the illness ever could.

That' s why I was in Zurich, in a sterile room, scheduled to end my life tomorrow.

But then I saw her, by the lake, skipping stones, just like we used to.

As I took a step towards her, a man came up, wrapping his arm around her waist. Liam Stone.

"Olivia' s fiancé," he said, extending a hand. "We' re actually getting married tomorrow."

My death day would be her wedding day. The universe had a sick sense of humor.

I fled, only to stumble into the path of an oncoming tram. Olivia saved me, pulling me back.

But as she pulled me up, her sleeve rode up, and I saw it: a silver bracelet, engraved with "L.S."

She had been with him while we were still together. My life, my love, my everything, was a lie.

"I' m dying," I told her, hoarse. "I have a brain tumor."

Her facade cracked. Then, she asked me for a favor. "I need you to take the photos, Ethan. Just for the ceremony."

I agreed, on one condition: "I want a photo. Just one. Of you and me. Together."

She agreed, then immediately abandoned me for Liam.

At the wedding, she used my origami stars, our special date on her new wedding ring.

"It never meant anything, Ethan," she said, her eyes cold. "It was never real."

I was numb. I left, heading back to the clinic, my fate sealed.

Then, a text from Liam: We could use an extra hand with some last-minute wedding preparations.

He was trying to buy my compliance, to turn my final day into a transaction.

Fine, I replied.

I didn' t know why I agreed. Maybe I needed to burn the image of her happiness into my brain so I could finally let go.