The Don’s Secret Wife Chapter 09

The Don’s Secret Wife Chapter 09

I looked down at him, unsure what he was about to do.

After all the pain of being alive, I’ll admit I was grateful for one thing.

He saved my mom.

The day Ruby shoved her into the wall, the bleeding in her skull nearly killed her. Joseph brought in the best neurosurgeons money could buy, and somehow, she pulled through.

When she found out I was gone, she wept until she couldn’t breathe. She threw Joseph out of her

hospital room.

He left with swollen eyes and a blank check she refused to touch.

Watching her grieve, watching her look like she wanted to follow me, was the only thing that still

hurt.

Mom, let me go. Take the money. Please, just live.

Joseph stopped in front of a blank headstone. He pulled out a switchblade and dragged the blade against the marble, trying to carve the words by hand.

He was talking to himself, to me. “Ina, I know you never liked anyone touching your things. I’m doing this one myself.”

But no matter how hard he pressed, the blade wouldn’t mark the stone.

Because I was standing in the way.

I wouldn’t let him carve the words beloved wife.

I didn’t want to be his wife anymore. Not even in death.

He tried again and again. Nothing.

Tears broke loose. His voice shook. “Ina… is this you? Are you punishing me? You won’t even let me call myself your husband?”

No answer. Just wind moving through the trees.

“…Okay. I understand.”

His voice dropped to almost nothing. “After everything I did to you, I owe you at least this.”

A chill ran through me, through whatever was left of me.

Joseph picked up the knife.

He turned the blade toward his own heart.

And drove it in.

A terrible, wet sound.

Blood bloomed across his shirt.

His face twisted, but he didn’t stop. He pushed the handle deeper.

His voice was barely there. “Ina… I’m sorry… I’m coming to you…”

His eyes went glassy. He slumped beside my urn, face turned toward the sky, seeing nothing.

I looked at him, and I didn’t know what I felt.

Maybe this was the only way it could ever end.

A breeze pushed the clouds open, and sunlight spilled across the city.

Warmth spread through me, real warmth, for the first time in longer than I could remember. My edges softened. I felt myself breaking apart, scattering into light.

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

If there’s anything after this, I only ask for one thing: to walk right past him and never know his

name.