Chapter 2: Shattered Illusions
1321 Words
May's POV🥀
Chloe didn’t move. She sat there, her bare skin pressed under my sheets. Her body Trangled with my husband, like a queen claiming her throne. Intertwined on the bed where I once dreamed of forever. My sacred matrimonial bed.
She didn't even bother to cover herself up. Her lips curled into something cold, something cruel.
No shame. No apology.
My heart bound so hard that it hurts. My fingers twisted at my side. My body scream for me to do something–Anything. But l couldn't move.
Daniel barely glanced at me. His hand casually wrapped around Chloe's waist and thigh.
"What are you doing here" Daniel asked, like what l just saw wasn't the problem. Like I was the intruder. Like I had ruined their perfect moment. His face a mask of something I couldn't name.
"How… how could you?" I whispered.
I tried to move, to scream, to claw at the betrayal burning my insides, but my knees buckled.
Still, I managed to grab a lamp from the side table and hurl it weakly in their direction. It missed by a mile, clattering uselessly to the floor.
Chloe smiled lazily, pulling the sheet tighter around her naked body.
"May," Chloe said sweetly, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "You shouldn't be here, you should be at the hospital, resting."
She sat up lazily completely unbothered by my presence.
I felt sick. My best friend sleeping with my husband out of all the men in the world, like it's nothing.
I took a step back, shaking. “You—both of you—how long?”
Daniel rose slowly from the bed, no guilt in his eyes. “ Way before the diagnosis,” he said flatly. “You were always so… soft. So easy. We thought you wouldn’t find out.”
Chloe laughed bitterly. “Honestly, we were going to wait until you were gone. But since you’re here, let’s be honest.”
“Honest?” I whispered.
He stood, walking toward me like a predator. “We used you, May. Your inheritance, your name, your sweet little trust fund. You were just convenient.”
My chest tighten, l coughed violently. Doubling over as blood splattered unto the floor.
"Damn, that's disgusting. You look like s**t. Though, to be fair you have looked like s**t for months now." Daniel said.
Chloe sighed,dramatically."Ugh! That's just disgusting. You better clean that up."
I staggered back, clutching my chest. I looked at them hoping to see regret, remorse or any sign that would tell me that this was some sick mistake. But there was none.
They just stared at me, bored.
My husband chuckled darkly.
"You weren't supposed to see this yet," he said. "But… maybe it’s better this way."
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Just a broken, ragged breath.
"Why?" I finally whispered. "Why are you doing this?"
Chloe laughed — a brittle, mocking sound. "Oh, honey. You really thought he loved you?"
"I trusted you with my life. I loved you," I gasped, the words tasting like blood and broken promises.
Daniel finally looked me in the eye — and what I saw there wasn’t love. It wasn’t even pity.
"You're pathetic," my husband said coldly. "You were never anything but a burden. We stayed for the money. For the sympathy."
My vision blurred, my body trembled...not really from anger, but from the sickness that has been eating me away for months.
"All my savings?" he sneered. "Gone. Hospital bills? Not my problem anymore. You're dying anyway."
"You drained my account. You used me," I gasped. The room was spinning now.
Daniel smirked." Yeah. And? What are you gonna do about it?" Pause "Oh come on, May. Don't act like you didn't see this coming. Remember your money is my money. Just see it as a compensation for all I have done for you."
"All this while...you have been sleeping with me and my friend. Pretending to be my perfect husband.You are a Devil."
"Don't be ridiculous, May." He snaps "You were just my ATM, and what I use to ease out my stress. Nothing more."
Chloe grinned, "I guess you wouldn't be around much longer."
Daniel sigh,"what a shame."
My body convulsed as another round of coughing wracked through my chest, sending more blood spilling on my lips.
"May, I just want you to see this in a good way. I love Daniel. I have loved him way before you even got married to him. You are dying and he will be lonely. I have promised to be his companion were you rest in peace. I assure you, I will take good care of him, with all my heart.I’ll be here to comfort him. Forever."
"You were my friend, why... why did you do this to me?"
Chloe's laughter filled the room. Cold. Amused. Heartless.
She rose from the bed, wrapping the blanket loosely around herself. Her smile was venomous.
Chloe crouched in front of me, her face mere inches from me, a smirk playing on her lip's. " It hurts, doesn't it?" She whispered mockingly. " Months of slow, painful decay and you never even saw it coming."
My blood ran cold.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, fear clawing up my spine.
They laughed. Both of them.
"May," Daniel said with a lazy smirk, "there was never any cancer."
"We poisoned you," Chloe said sweetly.
"A little drop in your coffee each morning. Just enough to rot you from the inside out, like sharing a lovers’ secret." she whispered.
"Yeah," Daniel said, grinning mockingly. "Our little gift to you, May. Our little love letter to you."
"You were always so easy to fool," Chloe sneered. "Poor, sweet May."
They laughed at me — like I was a joke, something small and pathetic. They made sure I heard it, felt it, wore it like a second skin. Every smirk, every whisper, every cruel glance — it carved itself into me, deeper than any knife ever could.
Tears welled in my eye, but I refuse to let them fall. I wouldn't give them that satisfaction. I wanted to claw their eyes out. But my body betrayed me — too weak, too broken. I was shaking uncontrollably as rage took a final hold on me.
I lunged toward her, fury igniting through my veins, but my body betrayed me — too weak, too slow. Daniel shoved me, over.
"Stay away from her, or l will deal with you personally."
Tears streamed down my face.
“No! They can't get away with this!” I screamed, lunging at her again, desperation tearing through my battered body. Rage burned like acid in my veins—blinding, savage. I wanted to rip the betrayal from her face, to wipe that smug smile off her lips with my bare hands.
But then—he grabbed me.
My husband.
And shoved me. Hard.
I flew backward, the world tilting violently. My head cracked against the edge of the table with a brutal, sickening thud—the sound of bone meeting wood echoing in my skull like a gunshot.
Agony exploded behind my eyes. Blinding, white-hot. My knees buckled. I crumpled to the ground.
The pain was everywhere. My body screamed. My limbs wouldn’t move. My mouth opened, but no sound came out.
The room spun. The floor rose to meet me, cold and unforgiving. My heartbeat slowed, thudding painfully in my ears.
Red blurred into black. My vision collapsed.
But I still saw them.
Still heard them.
Laughing.
No horror. No guilt. Just smug, twisted triumph.
I felt it...the cruel cold. The void. As the darkness dragged me under, I saw their faces—monsters in human skin.
The last thing I heard was their laughter, their faces — not horrified, not regretful.
Smiling. Triumphant.
My eye closed, as I took my final breath.
DARKNESS!
- Writer
