My Husband's Cruel Game Killed Me, Now He's Begging My Ghost

The call came in while Sherry had Fabian pinned to the bed in our bedroom.

Beneath them were the blue-gray sheets I'd picked out myself.

Our wedding photo still hung on the wall.

An unfamiliar number flashed on the screen, and Sherry snatched the phone up first to answer it.

"Is this the family of Ms. Lorna Delgado?"

"This is the Union Avenue police station."

Before the voice on the other end could finish, she hung up.

Fabian turned his head to look, but Sherry simply added the number to the block list and tossed the phone onto the bed.

"Lorna's just trying to save face for herself."

"God knows where she paid someone to pretend to be the police and call you."

Fabian let out a cold snort.

"She cheapened herself, and she still has the nerve to make me come get her?"

"All these years married, and the one thing she learned is every trick in the book for fooling people."

Sherry suddenly wrapped her arms around Fabian's waist and buried her face against his chest, her voice small and pitiful.

"Fabian, honestly, I've always envied Lorna."

"She got lucky. Good family since she was a kid, a good college, a husband as good as you."

"But me, I've got nothing."

"Fabian, if you can't bear to let her go, just bring Lorna back."

His hand rose, then dropped, and finally settled on Sherry's shoulder.

"Stay here tonight. The minute she crawls back, I'll divorce her."

Sherry looked overwhelmed by his favor, her eyes shining with tears as she gazed at him.

"But what about Lorna?"

"Lorna and I are the best of friends..."

Fabian snorted again, pushing down the strange irritation stirring somewhere inside him.

"Since she likes climbing into other men's beds, she can stay gone for good."

"Isn't it money she loves?"

"Give her a hundred grand. That squares us."

Five years of youth.

More than eighteen hundred days and nights.

He was buying it all out for a hundred grand.

Even though I was already dead.

But in that instant my heart still stalled for a second.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth in a bitter smile.

Congratulations.

No divorce needed. Just widowed.

Not only did he save the hundred grand to buy out the marriage, he even saved the ten dollars for two divorce papers.

A flicker of secret glee crossed Sherry's eyes.

Her hands roamed restlessly over Fabian's body, until he caught them and held them still.

"It's late. Get some sleep first."

"I've still got business at the company to deal with."

Sherry hugged him tight from behind, her voice soft as water.

"But this room is full of Lorna's things everywhere."

"It feels a little awkward, staying here."

Fabian's steps paused.

After a moment, he said it offhandedly.

"Anything you don't like the look of, just throw it out."

"From now on you're the woman of this house."

Sherry's eyes lit up, and she pointed at the row of cabinets by the bed.

"Can these go too?"

Delighted, she dragged out the box I'd hidden at the very back.

"Fabian, these look like stuff you two kept from back when you were dating."

I drifted over to take a look.

The box held nothing but worthless little things.

An instant-ramen wrapper, a faded, warped gold-plated ring, and a thick stack of old green-train ticket stubs.

All of it kept from the days when Fabian and I were dating.

At our hardest, the two of us had only one pack of instant ramen to share.

He drank only the broth and left all the noodles for me.

To save money, every time he traveled for work he took the cheapest slow train and stood for eight hours.

With the money he saved, he bought me my first rose-gold ring.

I wore that ring for years, and even when it faded and warped I couldn't bring myself to throw it away.