As I Die, He’s Still Clinging to Her

My husband is a cancer specialist who has saved countless lives. But I, in the late stage of cancer and dying, am unknown to him. When I made my last call to him for help, he coldly hung up on me to accompany his first love for a prenatal checkup, telling me not to make a fuss. After my death, I donated my body and reappeared at the cancer dissection conference he hosted. He finally regretted it. ***** The moment the test report appeared in my hand, the light in my eyes finally went out. Late-stage liver cancer, these four words hit me like a heavy blow. I knew that from that moment on, my life was on a countdown. No matter how strong my heart was, I still shrank back in the face of the real choice of life and death. I trembled as I took out my phone from my bag and called my husband, Narain, who had been out of touch for more than ten days. As I expected, the call was rejected three times. But I didn't give up, and until that moment, I was still fantasizing that he would come back to see me one last time. That was the final account of me and our relationship. When I called for the fourth time, he finally answered, his voice dripping with impatience. "Cartere! What's wrong with you? Don't you know I'm busy? Annie is pregnant, and I'm at the hospital with her for a checkup. Can you stop calling?" Annie, his first love, was also the woman who had always been a part of our relationship. I smiled bitterly, feeling helpless. As expected, he was by her side, but I didn't want to make a fuss, just some sadness. "Can you come back and accompany me? I have late-stage cancer, and I don't have much time left. Can you come back and be with me, please?" As soon as the words left my mouth, Narain on the other end of the phone seemed to find it all some big joke and sneered. "You are really full of tricks. I just haven't been home for more than ten days, and you started to pretend to be dead. Don't you know that Annie needs company now? Why are you so jealous?" I tightly grasped the hem of my skirt, knowing he would not easily believe me, but I didn't expect him to abandon me so resolutely over something this serious. I took a deep breath and repeated, "I say again, I'm about to die. I'm not asking you to be kind to me. For the sake of our marriage, can't you come see me one last time?" Annie suddenly spoke sweetly. "Narain, am I disturbing you? Why don't you go home? I should be able to..." I rolled my eyes fiercely. Through the phone screen, I could almost picture Annie tearfully looking at Narain, playing the victim once again. As expected, Narain saw his beloved woman's grievance and immediately shouted at me angrily, "Are you done? I said I won't go to see you! Aren't you sick? Well, then go die! When you die, remember to contribute your body to us for experiments! Realize the last bit of value for people like you!" After that, he hung up the phone fiercely. My heart ached as if stabbed by thousands of knives, and I was stimulated by his words, and my brain was dizzy, barely holding on to the wall to not fall down. If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, who would believe that this was what a couple of years could come to? The last shred of my will to live disappeared with that call, leaving me staring at the pure white ceiling of the hospital. 'What does death feel like? Maybe it's a relief. At least, I wouldn't have to watch my husband love another woman pitifully anymore.' The process of waiting for death was not easy. Watching myself become thinner and thinner, my hair falling out in large amounts, I began to avoid mirrors because I looked like a female ghost, so terrifying. I suddenly started to feel relieved that Narain no longer came home. If he saw me like that, he would only hate me more. The day I died was also our wedding anniversary. At that moment, I, already completely haggard, mustered up the courage to open his w******p, wanting to send him a final message. But I accidentally found that he had updated his posts, a photo of him hugging Annie at her birthday, with the caption: My dear angel, now I will never lose you again. The two people in the photo were beaming with happiness, and with Annie's slightly swollen belly, it seemed that they were a family of three, while I was just a stranger. I deleted the message in the chat box. Looking at the fresh flower cake I had prepared on the table, I suddenly laughed in relief. 'This relationship has always been me insisting, obsessing.' I took a big spoonful of cake into my mouth, and for some reason, my tears fell. I didn't wipe them away, letting them blur my vision. 'Why is today's cake so salty?' I thought it was just too many tears. After eating the last bite, I stood up and wanted to leave. But suddenly, I felt dizzy, spat out a mouthful of blood, and my strength left me completely. Falling to the ground, I closed my eyes forever. When the community staff called Narain, he was still watching a movie with Annie. Narain was naturally furious, and his tone was very irritable when he answered, "Can't you communicate with my wife if you have something to do? Don't you know I'm busy outside?" The community staff, startled by his response, knowing about our troubled relationship, frowned and said seriously, "Mr. Wilson, I'm sorry to inform you that your wife, unfortunately, passed away at home a few days ago. When do you get time to come back and deal with her funeral?" However, contrary to his expectation, Narain was not sad about my death, but even disgusted and shook his head. "You guys are really idle, even going so far as to stage this. I've seen plenty of people like you, making up dramas to manipulate me. Now that you see I’m not coming home, you think you can force me into it? Tell her, the more she does this, the more I hate her!" The staff wanted to say something more, but he hung up the phone neatly and turned to be affectionate with Annie. "What f**k! Ignore his own wife while taking care of another woman! What kind of scum? I really don't get what's so great about him!" And that was true. I didn’t understand the kind of magic he had that made me obsess over him for a lifetime. Even knowing that there was another woman in his heart, I still married him, serving as a mere backdrop in his life. Perhaps, from the beginning to the very end, everything was not worth it. Narain, in his attempt to make up for the pain of being separated from his first love for so many years, had always stayed by her side. No matter where he went, Narain had to take Annie with him, even when attending to patients at the hospital. Almost every patient who saw this scene praised him. "Dr. Wilson is really blessed to have such a beautiful wife and is about to be a father." And I, the real Mrs. Wilson, had long since become a ghost in the world.