Chapter 5: The Final Days
By the fourth year, Linda could barely speak.
She was skin and bones. Her hair had mostly fallen out. She needed help with everything — eating, drinking, even breathing sometimes. Ryan was devastated. He spent hours sitting by her bed, holding her hand and crying.
I stayed by her side too.
But for very different reasons.
One night, when Ryan had gone out to buy groceries, I sat alone with Linda. She was awake, but barely. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused.
I leaned in close to her ear.
“You’re almost gone now,” I whispered. “Your organs are failing. Your body is shutting down. And it’s all because of me.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
I gently wiped it away with my thumb.
“You should have left me and my baby alone,” I said softly. “But you didn’t. So now you get to spend your last days in pain, scared, and completely at my mercy.”
Her lips moved slightly. She was trying to speak.
I leaned closer.
“What was that?” I asked.
She gathered the last of her strength and whispered one word:
“…Evil…”
I smiled.
“You made me this way, Linda,” I said. “You took everything from me. So I took everything from you.”
She stared at me with wide, terrified eyes.
Then her body relaxed.
She was gone.
I sat there for a few more minutes, holding her hand. Then I stood up, wiped my eyes (even though I wasn’t crying), and called Ryan.
When he answered, I made my voice sound broken.
“Ryan,” I said, my voice shaking. “You need to come home. It’s your mother… I think she’s gone.”
He rushed back.
And just like that, the performance began again.
At the funeral, everyone praised me.
They said I was an angel. They said I had sacrificed four years of my life to take care of Linda. Ryan held my hand and thanked me in front of everyone for being such a devoted wife and daughter-in-law.
I stood there in black, crying on cue, accepting their condolences with grace.
No one suspected a thing.
And that night, for the first time in four years, I slept deeply and peacefully.
May you like
Because the woman who had destroyed my child was finally gone.
And I had made sure she suffered every single day until the end.
