A Second Chance At Love

One month. That was all the time left to decide whether I wanted to willingly end my life or allow cancer to do its job. I swallowed thickly as I walked through the glass doors of my husband’s office, eyes stinging with fresh tears that refused to fall. “Tristan?” I breathed and glanced into each office, knowing fully well he was at the far end of the company, it was late though, and I was not thinking straight. As I drew closer to his office, a sob bubbled in my throat but was quickly cut off by the sound of giggling — a familiar feminine voice that made my skin crawl. Who could that be? At what? Two am on a Tuesday morning? “She’s so stupid! She thinks she has cancer!” more giggling. “I cannot believe I even know someone as dumb as that!” My breath hitched. “Let it be baby, soon, we’ll get that doctor to inject her with something so she finally leaves us alone,” Tristan’s voice made my knees buckle and I held the wall for support. “But it’s taking forever, baby” The voice, which I had now registered forced bile to rise in my throat, I swallowed thickly as my hands trembled. “I think we should just run her over with a car or something, I am tired of being her shoulder to cry on,” I gave up opening the door and peeked through the blinders. “No,” Tristan whispered as he peppered my best friend’s face with kisses, “I don’t want you to get your hands dirty, baby. I will handle it.” I stumbled back, completely blinded by the tears that now leaked out of my eyes and stained my cheeks. My best friend and husband… They were cheating on me and worse, lying to me. For the past four years, I have spent thousands of dollars on treatment that I did not need. I gave up everything, my company, my business to him. I trusted him when everyone thought I was mad to trust a two-bit good-for-nothing drunkard, and this was how he chose to repay me. An ear-piercing scream rang through the office and it took me a few seconds to register that it came from me. “Baby? What are you —” “Don’t touch me!” I shrieked and glared at Tristan. “Don’t you dare touch me or I promise you, Tristan, I will do something that you won’t live long enough to regret!” “What are you on about, love?” His voice was as sweet as ever and my stomach churned at the thought that he had lied to me, many times like this. All he had to do was offer his killer smile and drown me in his ocean-blue eyes, then I would fall, losing my words helplessly because my opponent was the one man I trusted more than myself. “When did you plan to tell me that you were sleeping with my best friend?” I choked out “Sweetie pie, I have no clue what you are—” “Oh just tell her the truth Tristan,” I almost hid in the wall when she stepped out. Silvia’s soft brown orbs hardened and narrowed at me, “In fact, we can end her now,” My breath hitched. End me? “We can get rid of her now, look at me, Tristan,” She urged and my jaw slacked and my heart turned and twisted in my chest. “Y-You want to kill me?” “Since cancer won’t do it, someone has to right—” “You were my best friend! And you were my husband!” I roared. “You were all I had—” I lunged at her and tugged on her hair. Tristan yanked me off her in minutes and I collided with the wall. “You never had anything!” The dark-haired man snapped and grabbed me by the arm, his blue orbs darkened and goosebumps ran over my skin, “You never had me or Silvia. You’ve always been alone and apparently, you are going to die that way.” Before I could respond, I felt a tight grip on my hair and I was slammed into the wall over and over again. A grunt escaped my lips and I barely had enough time to catch my breath or scream for help. Tristan's strong hands traveled to my neck and tightened around it. It was when we locked eyes, I realized what he was doing. Tristan… Tristan was trying to kill me. I kicked and spat on his face, the man’s face twisted in disgust and I took off in the opposite direction, as every fiber of my being trembled. My husband was about to kill me. The man I had given four years of my life, fought for and lost everything too. The betrayal clouded my thoughts and made my limbs heavy. I took a swift turn but his footsteps clouded my senses and slipped face-first into the ground. I screeched when I felt his cold hands wrap around my legs. “Let me go, Tristan! Stop! Please!” I begged and kicked. The sturdy man simply pulled me toward him and we locked eyes. “I honestly wanted to do this the easy way, but you left me with no choice…” His voice came out raspy and grim, and I swallowed. This was not the man I had loved for years, the one I threw my family away from and left my career behind to be with. This was a monster. A greed-driven monster who had betrayed me with my best friend to keep my wealth. As the thoughts swirled in my head, I glanced at the exit, which was not too far, and back at the man who was seconds away from unaliving me. “Just—” He began but I kicked him across the face with my heels and scrambled to my feet. I won’t be caught dying in the hands of a cheater: Just when I thought I had escaped, the exit was a few steps away. A force pushed me down the stairs and I rolled down to the bottom and crumbled in the blood that was now oozing from my brown hair. I forced my eyes to open and struggled to breathe. My husband, the man I had fought the world for, stood at the top of the stairs, a baseball bat in hand and a s**t-eating grin on his face. I slowly closed my eyes, sure that my fate was sealed until the sound of a horn jerked me back to reality and I locked eyes with the deepest green orbs I had seen in my life.