He Married Her On The Day We Were Supposed To Wed Chapter 04

He Married Her On The Day We Were Supposed To Wed Chapter 04

Life seemed to slip back into its old routine.

I continued living in the home Ryan had bought for us, working during the day and caring for my mother at the hospital every night.

He was busy with his new wife and rarely contacted me.

His silence was a relief.

After work, I picked up a container of my mother’s favorite chicken noodle soup and brought it to the hospital.

When I entered her room, I found two young women sitting around her bed.

I rushed toward them in alarm. When they turned around, I saw Megan and Lila.

Even my voice was trembling.

“Megan, why did you bring her here?”

My mother smiled at me and explained, “Megan thought I might be lonely, so she brought her friend to keep me company.”

“This is my first time meeting Lila, but I already adore her. She’s such a sweet, beautiful young woman, yet her husband is cheating on her with someone else. What a bastard.”

“Listen to me, Lila. Women who knowingly go after married men always get what’s coming to them.”

Lila rose unhurriedly and walked over to me.

She gave me a sidelong glance with a smile that never reached her eyes. Then she turned to my mother, her expression gentle and cruel at the same time.

“You’re absolutely right, Mrs. Carter. Women who go after married men always get what’s coming to them.”

“So when is your daughter going to get hers? Oh, wait. I suppose she already has. It just landed on you instead. Terminal stomach cancer? I guess that’s good enough for me.”

My mother’s face went deathly pale. Forcing her weakened body upright, she glared at Lila.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

Megan indignantly whipped out Ryan and Lila’s marriage certificate and flung it at my mother’s face.

“Lila isn’t lying. Elise really is the other woman!”

“Look at the certificate. Lila and Ryan are legally married. Elise knows Ryan has a wife, yet she still refuses to move out of his house and keeps letting him pay your medical bills. That money is coming out of their shared finances now, and Lila has every right to demand that it stop and ask for every dollar back!”

The date printed on the marriage certificate was February 14, Valentine’s Day, which was also my birthday.

My mother stared at the date before suddenly coughing up a mouthful of blood.

“Mom!”

Sobbing, I reached for the emergency call button, but Megan and Lila joined forces to stop me.

Lila sneered.

“Your mother said it herself. Women who sleep with married men deserve to be punished. If she doesn’t get what she deserves today, you’ll never learn your lesson. You’ll just keep trying to steal my husband!”

“She might as well die. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Why should Ryan have to support a shameless mother and daughter like the two of you?”

I begged Megan to help my mother, but all I got in return was a contemptuous laugh.

“Best friends? I would never be friends with a filthy homewrecker. Lila is my best friend.”

“You’ve always had to outshine me. You were prettier, got better grades, and even found a better boyfriend. That fake, self-righteous act of yours has always made me sick. Who ever asked for your charity? Everything happening today is exactly what you deserve!”

I stumbled backward as a deafening ringing filled my ears.

Everything I had done to help her had looked like charity in her eyes.

I had believed we were friends, but she had always seen us as enemies.

Before I could say another word, the two of them pinned me to the floor. All I could do was watch as my mother convulsed violently on the bed.

The green ECG trace on the monitor spiked wildly before slowly flattening into a straight line.

My mother was gone.

I fought free of them like a woman possessed, grabbed the knife my mother usually used to peel apples for me, and lunged at them.

I wanted them to pay for my mother’s death with their lives.

“Elise, have you lost your mind?”

Ryan burst through the door and saw only the final, misleading fragment of what had happened.

With an enraged roar, he charged toward me and threw himself in front of Lila, using his own body as a shield.

A split second before the blade pierced Ryan’s chest, I twisted my wrist sharply.

The knife plunged straight into my own chest, spraying blood across Ryan’s face.

Ryan caught me and held me tightly, crying out in anguish.

“Elise!”