Her self–righteous tone made me chuckle. She had clearly put some effort into crafting this narrative. My eyes landed on the silver Bracelet around her wrist, identical to the one Janice always wore.
“Your bracelet is beautiful. It matches Janice’s. It must be a friendship bracelet, right? By the way, you got one thing wrong. Theodore forced me to marry him. I was the one who was coerced,”
She panicked, covering her wrist as her face turned red. “Ms. Schaeffer and I are just casual friends. Stop with the baseless rumor. And if you were really forced, why won’t you get divorced?”
5
Her innocent art reminded me so much of Janice They were both equally nauseating And was not exaggerating–1 genuinely felt sick.
A coughing fit overtook me, and bright red blood bloomed on my tissue. I thought, “Great Had it gotten worse?”
As I stared blankdy at the blood, I overheard the event staff whispering “Mrs Jenkins must love Mr. Jenkins very much. She’s coughing up blood from the stress of dealing with the
mistress.”
I spat out some blood and wiped my mouth. “It’s hot from stress. It’s just my brain cancer spreading.”
The studio immediately fell silent, and the organizers, fearing for my condition, quickly stopped the broadcast.
The young reporter rolled her eyes and scoffed. “You’re such a good actress. You should’ve just gone into acting. All you do is play the victim to seduce men. It’s disgusting”
Then, she stormed off in her high heels.
Since it had been a live stream, the part where I coughed up blood could not be edited out. The incident quickly started trending online.
That afternoon, Theodore responded on Twitter, stating, “I won’t divorce. My wife will always be Charlotte Bailey.”
That afternoon, the network released a statement announcing that they had fired Janice’s friend for deviating from the approved script. However, the issue did not die down. Instead, it fueled even more chaos online.
As a result, I experienced my first taste of cyberbullying.
Someone commented, “This woman is so pathetic to claim that she was forced when she clearly enjoys it.”
“How can someone be so ungrateful? Poor Mr. Jenkins…”
“She’s definitely a gold digger! What a bitch!”
Among the sea of insults, one comment stood out. “You’re not involved in their lives! You’re just a bunch of keyboard warriors.”
They were right. I was the only one who knew the truth. Back then, Theodore and I had just gotten engaged. Everything seemed perfect until my father wandered off for the first time. When I took him to the hospital, we learned that the cancer cells had spread through his brain. The doctors informed us that he would develop complete dementia, and that this type of cancer was incurable, with an 80% chance of it being hereditary.
Life had never been kind to me. Naturally, I fell into that 80%.
2/3
Aty mom took my brother and left overnight, leuing only the divorce papers behind Meanwhile, Dad alternated between confusion techny.
at
During his confused states, he did not recognize me of himself. During his lucid moments, he repeatedly asked me to break off the engageme
I paused what I was doing and said uncertainly, “te won’t mind.”
Dad sighed. “Sweetheart, I’m holding you back. When you told me that you earned your college money yourself, I knew it came from The. We were poor then, but Theo’s family wasn’t well–off either.
“His parents died early, and they lived on his grandfather’s small pension. Yet, he still gave you his earnings for college while borrowing money himself. He was willing to suffer so you wouldn’t have to. I know he loves you, but our situation…”
I nodded with tears in my eyes, but my heart would not give in. A few days later, Theodore’s grandfather suddenly collapsed and needed emergency surgery. That was when I finally accepted my fate.
I buried my face in Dad’s chest and sobbed uncontrollably. “Dad, I–I’ll do it. I promise.”
