that person, then you and I can no longer be friends. What sane person would want to send their daughter off into the lion’s den?”
The person choked back her words after hearing my mother’s rant.
After another few months, I heard about Shane’s situation from mutual friends.
“He’s quite unlucky. He had just finished holding his father’s funeral when he himself found out he had end- stage cancer too.
“I think he’s undergoing chemotherapy already, but it doesn’t seem to be going great.
“I heard his mother sold the apartment so they would have enough money for his treatments. When I ran into him in the hospital last time, I could barely recognize him. He was bald, and he was so thin you could see his protruding bones.
“If you ran into him, Miley, I bet you wouldn’t be able to recognize him either.”
I thought back to the last time I saw him. It was when he came to give me some stuff.
Beside him was a suitcase that was packed to the brim. He stood looking at me with his back against the sun.
He took a step forward, wanted to grab hold of my hand, but stopped himself at the last minute..
“These past months, I revisited a lot of the places we’d gone together, but there are still many places that I haven’t managed to go to.”
Then, in a very faint voice, he continued, “I don’t know if I’ll still have the chance…
“You always liked to buy some local specialties when you visited places, so I bought you some from each place too.
11
I did not accept his things.
“That was before. Now, I only want to look ahead.”
He slowly lowered his head and said nothing further.
Half a year later, I saw a black–and–white photo of him along with his death announcement ort my social media.
In the photo, he looked like a total stranger. Because of all the weight he lost, his cheeks were completely sunken
- in.
At his wake, his elderly mother was the only family member there.
1/2
+25 BONUS
Chapter 10
I flipped my phone over and raised my head to look at the couple on the stage. In the midst of cheers, my blushing brother kissed his bride.
A news story popped up on my screen.
“The unidentified female body discovered a few months ago has been confirmed to be of Ms. Sleight from Ardington.
“When the death occurred, Ms. Sleight was nine months pregnant. She had been trying to get an illegal procedure done in an unlicensed clinic when complications arose due to her anesthesia.
“The suspect running this unlicensed clinic has admitted that his accomplice tried to save Ms. Sleight but to no avail. They then threw her body into the river to prevent anyone from finding out.”
I was going to enlarge the photo of this “Ms. Sleight” on my screen when something suddenly fell from the sky and nearly toppled my phone out of my hand.
I blinked in confusion when I saw that I had somehow managed to catch the bouquet. The blushing bride standing on the stage gave me a shy smile.
“Miley, it’ll be your turn for some happiness next.”
Sunlight streamed past the trees and onto the pebble path in the garden, making the pebbles shimmer. It felt like my happiness was indeed starting to take shape.
The End.
Continue Reading
