The Day I Chose Myself, He Lost Everything

Giving up on this operation is the same as signing away your future, Joyce, the doctor warned quietly. You understand whats at stake. Without a transplant, you might not even survive another few weeks.

She paused, her fingers brushing the edge of my medical file, her gaze gentle but firm. Youve waited years for a matching donor. Everything is ready. Please dont throw this away now.

I stared at my own hands skin stretched too thin over bone, veins faint and lifeless. They shook as if they didnt belong to me anymore. I had to swallow twice before my voice came out.

I dont need it, Doctor. Its fine. My life doesnt have a purpose anymore. Let someone else take it someone who still wants to keep breathing.

Joyce, listen she began urgently.

I rose before she could finish, lowering my head in a shallow bow as if politeness could soften the cruelty of my decision, and hurried out of her office.

The hallway felt endless. My knees trembled so badly I barely made it to the bench outside before collapsing onto it, my lungs burning, my whole body quaking as though winter had settled into my bones.

On any other day, I would have fought for survival. I would have clung desperately to every breath for Leander for the vows we once whispered about building a home filled with children, noisy dinners, ordinary happiness. For him, I would have endured anything.

But that life had already died.

I fixed my gaze on the glossy hospital tiles as the past dragged me backward.

Five years earlier, I had married the man I loved since we were teenagers. Everyone thought Leander and I were destiny the childhood couple who would grow old together, bound by affection and family ties. No one ever suspected there was more than romance behind my marriage.

Five years ago was also when my world shattered.

My familys company collapsed after Virelle the girl I called my sister, my closest friend stole everything. She had struggled to find work after graduation because of her background, and against my parents wishes, I insisted she join our finance department. I believed in her. Trusted her completely.

She emptied our accounts and disappeared.

My father couldnt survive the disgrace. He ended his own life.

My mother, crushed by grief, became a shadow of herself, clinging to frail breaths only because I refused to let go.

And that was when Leander became everyones hero.

He married me when I was drowning in scandal and debt. His influential family rescued mine. My mother got treatment. Our home stayed standing. I told myself he still loved me that the boy who promised never to abandon me in high school was still somewhere inside the man I married.

But a week ago, the illusion cracked.

It was our fifth wedding anniversary. We had planned a quiet celebration, but that afternoon he called and said flatly, Something came up. Cancel everything.

No apology. No warmth. Just dismissal.

Instead of staying home, pretending I was fine, I drove to the marina. The yacht had always been my refuge the smell of salt, the hush of water. I thought it might ease the hollow inside me.

It didnt.

As I stepped onto the deck, voices drifted toward me.

Virelles voice, cautious and soft. Is it really okay for you to be here today? Isnt this the day you married Joyce?

Leander replied without hesitation. So what? You know I only married her because everyone expected it my parents included. Her family used to be generous to us when they had money. And after you walked out on me five years ago, she was the only option.

Virelle sounded remorseful, almost crying. I never meant for things to go so wrong. I was stupid, trusting those men. I thought I was helping the company because I owed her too.

Thats exactly why she wanted you dead, Leander snapped. Instead of forgiving you, she tried to destroy you. Youre the one who paid the price. Dont worry. She wont be around forever. When shes gone, well finally have our life with our son.

I stumbled back, clamping my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. The deck blurred. My heart pounded so violently I thought I might collapse right there.

Virelle hadnt disappeared.

He had hidden her.

I escaped before they noticed me, carrying a truth that hollowed me out from the inside.

Joyce?

The nurses call dragged me out of the memory. Her face was pale. Your mother somethings wrong. Please come now.

Terror ripped through me as I sprinted after her.

The room was chaos alarms blaring, doctors shouting, hands pressing against my mothers fragile body. I froze at the doorway, whispering her name over and over like a prayer.

Then the monitors went silent.

The doctor turned toward me slowly. Im so sorry. Weve done all we can.

My legs folded beneath me. I collapsed beside the bed, gripping my mothers cold fingers, sobbing until my chest hurt.

Please dont leave me too. I cant do this alone

She was gone.

The last reason I had to fight was gone.

My illness no longer felt like a curse it felt like release.

I took out my phone with shaking hands and dialed Leanders number. The call connected.

But his voice didnt answer.

A woman laughed softly into the line, breathless. Mmm Leander dont slow down

I ended the call at once, my fingers trembling so violently the phone nearly slipped from my grip. The echo of that womans voice stayed lodged in my head like a cruel melody. I didnt need to see her face to recognize it.

Virelle.

While my hands were wrapped around my mothers lifeless fingers, hers had been wrapped around my husband. While sympathy cards piled up on my table, they were buried in pleasure.

I carried my mothers urn to the cemetery by myself. No one walked beside me. Leander wasnt there. His parents didnt show. Not a single member of his powerful family spared me a glance. I stood alone in the gray drizzle, lowering her ashes into the ground with shaking arms, tears blinding me until the world dissolved into mud and shadow.

It felt like I was burying my last breath.

The grief crushed me from the inside. Between heartbreak, exhaustion, and betrayal, my body finally gave in. I collapsed right there among the headstones.

When I woke, the ceiling lights of the hospital burned into my eyes once again.

Two days passed in that sterile room. Not a single call from Leander. Not even a hollow text asking whether I was still breathing.

And yet, as I stared at the blank white tiles overhead, memories attacked me mercilessly.

I first met Leander in high school, the day I fainted during class when my anemia flared. Before the teacher could react, he was already there, lifting me carefully and carrying me to the infirmary like I was made of glass.

I could still hear his voice, soft with fear as he held my hand on that narrow bed.

You scared me, Joyce, he whispered. Dont ever do that again. Ill look after you. Always.

That moment became the foundation of everything our romance, the vows we made under starry skies, the futures we planned. He chased me with relentless sincerity, the schools golden boy choosing a quiet bookworm whose entire world revolved around him and Virelle.

Virelle.

How blind I had been.

I welcomed her into our lives. I brushed aside rumors, laughed off side-glances, defended them when classmates whispered. I told myself I was lucky my best friend and my boyfriend getting along so well.

I never imagined that behind those smiles, they were carving me open, year after year, until there was almost nothing left.

I blinked hard, forcing back the tears as something fiercer than sorrow surfaced inside me.

Enough.

I reached for my phone and dialed my attorney.

Im filing for divorce, I said calmly.

There was a stunned silence. Then he replied carefully, Joyce you remember the prenup, dont you? If you go through with this, Leander can sever financial ties. No support. No help for your mothers care. Nothing.

Shes gone, I interrupted, my throat tightening. And I wont be here much longer either. Just prepare the papers. Ill make him sign.

I ended the call without waiting for his response, tossing the phone aside as my heart thundered painfully in my chest.

A soft chime followed.

An email from Leander hed forgotten to log out of his account on my device.

With a sinking feeling, I opened it.

An ultrasound image filled the screen. A tiny life growing inside another woman.

Not mine. Never mine.

Attached were flight tickets to the Persian Sea the very place I had begged him to visit for years. Hed always brushed me off, saying he was too busy, that it wasnt worth the trouble.

Yet everything was booked now: luxury hotel, private excursions, two tickets.

For Virelle.

My vision swam as tears cascaded uncontrollably. How long had I been their private joke?

I didnt notice the door opening until Leander called my name.

Joyce!

I looked up. He stood there breathing hard, eyes wide in a poorly rehearsed panic.

II didnt know you were back here. I was worried

I laughed, the sound jagged and broken. Worried? Or did you simply forget I existed because you stopped loving me a long time ago?

He stiffened, then forced tenderness onto his face.

Im sorry, okay? I love you. Ive just been overwhelmed with work. You shouldnt exhaust yourself. Lets focus on your surgery thats all that matters right now.

My stomach twisted. Or is this about guilt because youre sleeping with someone else?

For a split second, his eyes betrayed him before he masked it with a smile.

Youre imagining things. Let me get you discharged. Well go home.

Too drained to resist, I followed him to the car, watching raindrops race down the window while my reflection stared back at me like a stranger.

Then his phone rang.

He answered instantly.

Through the speaker, a trembling female voice sobbed, Leander my stomach hurts. Somethings wrong. Please come. I think the baby

Virelle.

He braked violently and pulled over.

Get out, he said flatly.

I stared at him in disbelief. What did you say?

I cant take you home. I have urgent business. Call yourself a cab.

Are you serious? Its pouring rain and I just left the hospital

GET OUT! he roared, shoving my arm.

I fell onto the roadside as the door slammed behind me. Rain soaked me within seconds, cold and merciless, as his car sped away.

I sat there in the mud, hugging myself, shaking uncontrollably.

The man who once swore to carry me through every hardship couldnt even spare me a ride.

And in that storm, I finally understood I wasnt his wife anymore.

I was nothing at all.

When my eyes finally fluttered open, I was no longer lying on cold gravel beneath the rain. I was back in my own bedroom at the estate, wrapped in silk sheets that felt foreign against my skin. For a moment I couldnt understand where I was.

All I could remember was the storm water soaking into my clothes, my limbs trembling uncontrollably, the asphalt numbing my bones as Leanders taillights vanished into the dark.

Madam, please dont move too much, the maid murmured, carefully tucking the blanket back over my shoulders.

Despite the dull ache in my chest, I forced myself upright. How did I get here? I croaked. Who brought me back?

A foolish spark lit inside me a fragile hope that maybe Leander had returned, that remorse had finally dragged him back to me.

But the maid shook her head softly. It wasnt the master. A man I didnt recognize carried you in. He said he was only passing by. He left this for you.

She placed a small slip of paper in my palm. My fingers quivered as I unfolded it and stared at the unfamiliar phone number.

A stranger. I didnt hesitate. I dialed immediately. After a short ring, a man answered, his voice calm and deep.

Yes?

Who are you? I asked, my throat dry. Why did you help me?

There was a brief silence on the other end, and then a name from my past wrapped around my heart.

Joyce its Caelum.

Everything inside me stilled.

Caelum my childhood companion, the boy who used to wait for me under the old oak tree, who had always offered his hand whenever I tripped. Before Leander, before ruin, Caelum had been my safest place. And now he was Leanders fiercest rival.

Memories rushed back warm afternoons, scraped knees, laughter that once felt endless. And then the years when Leander came into my life and tore that bond apart.

Caelum My voice was barely a whisper.

I heard what happened, he replied quietly. He sounded controlled, but I sensed the fury beneath it not aimed at me, never me, but at Leander. So tell me something, Joyce. Will you marry me?

On any normal day I would have thought he was joking. I would have laughed it off, told him to stop being ridiculous. But today, when my body was broken and my heart already dead, his words felt like a rope thrown to someone drowning.

Alright, I said, startling even myself. Come for me in five days.

Then I ended the call.

The room felt unbearably quiet. My fingers clenched into my palms.

Five days. I only needed five days to erase every trace of this marriage.

That night, I began packing. I pulled clothes from drawers, gathered books, stuffed little keepsakes into suitcases the fragments of a life I had hidden away inside this grand, empty estate.

With every folded shirt and snapped zipper, I felt like I was taking something back from Leander.

Then I came to the relics photographs, souvenirs, the wedding album, the love letters he once wrote. I stacked them beside the fireplace and burned them one by one, watching his smile disintegrate into cinders, his vows curling into smoke.

When my wedding ring lay in my palm, my hand trembled. It was the last shackle. I closed my fist around it until the metal bit into my skin, then turned toward the trash.

The door flew open.

Leander stood there.

What are you doing? His gaze swept over the half-filled suitcases, the drifting ash, the ring clenched in my hand.

Nothing important, I replied coldly. Im throwing this away.

His expression twisted. Have you lost your mind? Thats our ring. You cant just throw it out.

I dont want it anymore, I said, my voice sharp. I want a divorce.

His eyes widened. Divorce? Are you crazy? Do you think Id agree to that? Where would you even go? What about your mother? Your surgery? Youre penniless without me.

And who caused that? I shot back, rage flooding my veins. Virelle. You swore youd help me find her and now look at you!

He stiffened, then grabbed my arm in desperation. Im sorry, alright? Is this about the hospital? About our anniversary? Dont be like this, Joyce. His voice softened into pleading. Ill make it up to you. I swear.

Your promises are empty, I whispered.

Then another voice broke the air.

Is this because of me?

Leander froze. I turned toward the doorway.

Virelle stood there, pale and shaking, tears streaking down her cheeks. Im sorry, she murmured. I shouldnt have

A cold laugh tore from my throat. You actually brought her here? I stared at Leander, disgust twisting my face. You dragged your lover into my home?

She isnt my lover, he insisted quickly. I told you Id find her. She came to apologize

But I had already snapped.

Years of grief and fury exploded. I surged forward and shoved Virelle hard.

You destroyed everything! I screamed. My father is dead because of you. My mother wasted away because of you. And now you dare stand here and cry?!

She staggered into the dresser. My hand lashed out instinctively, the slap echoing through the room. Virelle stumbled again, her knee striking the bedframe as she collapsed, clutching her abdomen.

Leander! she cried weakly.

When she pulled her hands away, crimson stained her fingers.

My breath stopped.

Leander roared my name and rushed to her side, gathering her into his arms. Shes bleeding!

Then he turned on me, eyes blazing with hatred, and shoved me so violently I crashed to the floor.

You attacked a pregnant woman?! he shouted. Have you lost your mind? Shes carrying my child and you dared lay a hand on her?!

The basement smelled of mold and stale water, the dampness sticking to my skin like decay. Hunger clawed at my insides, my mouth dry and cracked, every vein throbbing from the dialysis sessions I had missed.

My body was failing me.

I curled up on the freezing concrete, arms locked around my knees, whispering nonsense to myself just to break the suffocating silence.

Then I heard movement. Footsteps. Voices drifting from above.

Sir, I beg you, the maid said shakily. Madam hasnt eaten in days. She needs dialysis. If this continues, she wont survive.

Leander replied without hesitation, his tone cold and merciless. I dont care. She dared lay a hand on Virelle and the baby. I brought Virelle here only to apologize, and she attacked her. That woman is rotten to the core. Let her stay down there and rot.

The maid tried again, her voice quivering. But sir, her treatmentif she misses it

Ive had enough, Leander snapped. No more doctors. No more sympathy. Let her suffer. If she dies, then so be it. She deserves it. And dont ever let her ask about her mother again. After what shes done, she has no right to call herself someones daughter.

A hollow laugh shook out of me. My mother. He still thought she was alive. He didnt even know I had made the hospital promise never to tell him when she passed. He had never cared enough to find out.

Time blurred. I dont know how many hours passed maybe even days. Eventually my strength vanished, and darkness swallowed me.

When I came to, the voice I heard wasnt his.

Please, Virelle whispered outside the door. Let her out. Shell die if you keep her there.

Keys jingled. The lock creaked. Light flooded the room as the maid gently shook my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Virelle standing there, tears streaking her face.

Im so sorry, she sobbed. For the money. For running away. For Leander. For everything. I never wanted this to happen to you.

I will never forgive you, I croaked.

She flinched, but Leander cut in sharply, anger seeping into every word. Have you lost your mind, Joyce? Shes apologizing to you! If it werent for her, youd still be locked in that basement. And after what you did to her unborn child, you think you deserve mercy? She nearly lost it!

Virelle touched his arm gently. Leander, please. Take her to the hospital. She really needs help.

He drove without speaking. Virelle sat beside him, one hand protectively over her belly while he squeezed it every now and then. He never once looked my way.

The moment we arrived, nurses rushed me inside, sticking needles into my arms, murmuring about how close I was to collapsing again. Their voices felt distant, like echoes underwater.

Later, I lay propped against pillows, my body stabilized but my soul in ruins. The television murmured softly in the background until a familiar voice sliced through the haze.

I only ran because I was scared, Virelle said on the screen, sitting before a row of reporters. Her eyes were red, hands trembling as camera flashes exploded around her. Joyce hated me after the incident with the money. She said she wanted me gone, that shed kill me if I ever came back. Thats why I hid. I was terrified.

Journalists scribbled furiously. Virelle dabbed at her tears, her performance flawless.

And yet, she added softly, I still returned. Because I wanted to apologize. Shes my best friend. I dont want her ruined because of me. I love her like my own sister, no matter what. Ill repay everything.

A bitter sound escaped my throat. That was it. I had reached my limit.

By evening, I was discharged. I steadied myself and stepped outside straight into madness.

Joyce! Did you really attack Virelle?

Did you threaten her unborn child?

Why wont you forgive her when shes admitted everything?

Microphones shoved at my face, cameras blinding me, the noise crashing into my skull. I raised my arms weakly, overwhelmed.

Then Virelle pushed through the crowd.

Stop! she cried, wrapping her arms around me. Shes my closest friend. Dont treat her like this. She doesnt deserve it.

The reporters softened instantly. She shielded me like a hero, whispering, Its okay, Im here.

Back at the estate, she hovered over me with exaggerated care.

Im sorry, she murmured, trailing after me. Please forgive me, Joyce. Lets start over.

I dont want anything anymore, I replied dully. I just want to leave.

Her expression collapsed. She reached for me, but I stepped away.

Then she suddenly bent forward, gasping.

My stomach it hurts

Blood soaked the fabric of her dress.

Leander rushed in. Virelle! He caught her as she sagged against him, panic flooding his face.

In a faint, trembling voice she whispered, I think Im losing the baby