He Ignored My Poison, I Let Him Grieve

Chapter 3

The bright, warm sun beat down that day and the hired nurse wheeled me out of the research institute.

I sat in my wheelchair, drinking in the sunlight I hadn’t felt on my skin in so long.

My soul felt light and calm for the first time in months, but my body burned as if I’d been thrown into a fire, every inch throbbing with searing pain.

Because of the poison coursing through my veins, I hadn’t dared let the sun touch me directly for over six months.

I still remember the day I’d first found out about this, when I’d panicked and rushed to tell Rogers the news.

It was right after Amira had finished her first independent research project, and Rogers was over the moon for her. He’d asked the girl what reward she wanted.

Amira closed my medical file and flashed him a sly, sweet grin. "I want you to come with me to the Maldives for sunbathing, Professor!"

Rogers agreed without a single moment of hesitation. Then he turned to me, his face cool and detached, and said, "Sarah, what is it you wanted to tell me?"

I pressed my dry, chapped lips together and spoke slowly, "Rogers, I... I can’t go out in the sun anymore. It hurts just to be exposed to it now."

Rogers let out a sharp, mocking snort. "Can’t go out in the sun? Sarah, can you swear you’re not deliberately targeting Amira? She just said she wants to go sunbathing, and suddenly you can’t even stand sunlight? What game are you playing here?"

I froze, my hands twisting uselessly in my lap.

What could I do? Getting sick wasn’t something I’d asked for, wasn’t something I’d planned.

But Rogers was convinced I was just being unreasonably jealous. He said I had a dirty, petty mind, that I couldn’t even stand letting a talented young female student stay by his side.

No matter how many times I tried to explain, he never believed a word I said.

It would have been so simple, too. If he’d just paid me the tiniest bit of attention, if he’d run one full check-up on me, the whole truth would have come out.

But he never did.

He was too busy. Busy with his career, busy with Amira, and too busy just going through the motions of pretending to care about me.

Now, though?

I didn’t need him to make time for me anymore. I’d walk through my last days on my own two feet, all by myself.

To keep from bothering the ever-busy Rogers ever again after I was gone, I packed every last thing that belonged to me in the house into cardboard boxes. Our wedding photos, the love letter he’d written me when he asked me out back in college, our matching couple outfits, all the weird little trinkets we’d picked up on our trips...

Every time the nurse lifted one of these little memories out to move it, the bitter ache in my chest grew heavier. I’d forgotten that we once had this much happiness between us.

"Burn it all," I said.

The sunlight I’d soaked in just a little while earlier had made the poison spread through my body faster than ever. My voice came out soft as a feather, barely louder than a breath.

Crackle went the roaring flames, and I burned every trace of me that Rogers would ever be able to find in this world.

Once everything was done, I was just about to leave when I walked straight into Rogers coming home.

Rogers was always a stickler for cleanliness, obsessed with looking perfectly put-together every second of the day.

But right now, he’d buttoned his coat wrong, and scuffed muddy rings stained the toes of his leather shoes.

His eyes were bloodshot red, but the second he spotted me, he blew out a huge sigh of relief.

That relief vanished in an instant, replaced by blazing, uncontrollable rage.

"How dare you leave the institute without permission? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to come out alone when you’re poisoned with a slow-acting toxin? Sarah, how much longer are you going to keep throwing this silly fit?"

Even now, after everything, Rogers still thought I was just throwing a temper tantrum to get attention.

I didn’t have much time left.

Did I really not even get to control my own body and my own life in these last few days?

I let my eyelids drift down. I wordlessly gestured for the nurse to hand him the signed divorce papers I’d already filled out.

"I’m not throwing a fit. I’ve just finally thought this through."

Rogers' brow furrowed deeper, his impatience swelling by the second.

He scanned the nearly empty room, and a cold, shocking realization dawned on him.

"Where is all your stuff? Where are our wedding photos? Sarah, you’re actually being serious about this! Don’t you forget that your poison isn’t cured yet. Let me spell this out for you... I pushed back a mountain of important work just to clear my schedule for next month.

"This is the only chance you’re getting. Are you really sure you want to pick this fight with me over a divorce right now?"

I stared straight into his blazing, furious eyes and nodded calmly. "Yes."

Rogers had always stubbornly insisted I was just being unreasonable, that I was green-eyed and petty for no reason.

But you can’t fake how a person acts when they’re with someone they care about.

Every single time Rogers was with Amira, his whole face lit up, crinkling at the corners with a smile he never showed me anymore.

At first, I kept telling myself it was nothing. She was just his student, after all.

But after a while, that changed.

Time after time, Rogers delayed my treatment just to take care of something for Amira.

And that’s when I knew...

Rogers hadn’t been mine for a long, long time.

"Fine! Fine! I’ll sign! I’ll just wait to watch you come crawling back to me, begging me to take you back and cure you!"