The Kindest Cruelty

I watched Susie, ablaze with anger for Chester, and for a moment, I could not even tell who she was married to.

Three years of marriage, and she would rather take another man's word over mine.

My heart felt like it was being ripped to shreds, piece by piece.

"If you must thank someone for our marriage, thank Chester. Seriously, if you didn't look a bit like him, would I have said yes to your proposal?"

I felt my face drain of color.

When Susie and I tied the knot, the whole capital's most influential people buzzed about how she was head over heels for me. I was the prince charming in her love story, they said.

I had dreamt up that perfect little family scene a million times: Susie, me, and our future kid, all smiles and happiness.

However, it finally hit me like a ton of bricks. To Susie, I was just a stand-in. Chester was the guy she had always been crazy about. She had just been biting back her feelings because he had gone and married her sister.

That gut punch, that raw, scalding pain of betrayal, was worse than any physical wound.

"Susie, my stomach's killing me... Can we take a break?"

Chester, all curled up in Susie's arms, looked up with pain written all over his face.

Susie's worry was instant. She whisked Chester out of the sauna, leaving me there, a wreck on the floor.

Heartbreak had a way of making a person long for oblivion. Once I saw Susie for who she truly was, the final spark of resistance within me died.

The sauna was cranking up the heat, and I felt like I was being slow-cooked.

I was choking, suffocating from the heat.

It felt like my brain was about to burst, sending a jolt through my body.

If Susie had not dragged me out of the hospital, I might have recovered by then. I did not deserve the agony. I had to get out.

With every ounce of strength, I pushed against the floor, dragging myself across the burning tiles to the door, banging on it with hands slick with blood.

"Somebody help... I think I'm having a stroke! Please, get me to a hospital..."

Every time my hand slapped the burning iron door, it hissed and puffed out smoke like a mini dragon. It was not until my hand was a blistered mess that someone on the other side finally snapped, saying, "Cut it out! Ms. Rogers took Mr. Tucker upstairs to chill. If you bug them, you're toast!

"She patched you up and tossed you in the sauna to dial down the pain and keep the bleeding in check. Don't even think about jumping the line for surgery!"