Chapter 1
I sat in the leather chair, waiting for results that would change everything.
"I'm afraid the results are conclusive, Mrs. Whitmore," Dr. Peterson said, "Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Six months, maybe less."
My phone slipped from my trembling fingers, the screen shattering against the marble.
"Six... months?" My voice came out as barely a whisper. "Are you certain? Can we get a second opinion?"
Dr. Peterson's expression didn't change. "I've seen thousands of these cases. The numbers don't lie. The AI diagnostic system flagged multiple concerning markers. We'll need to discuss treatment options, but I have to be honest—at this stage, we're looking at palliative care."
Palliative care. The euphemism for "making you comfortable while you die."
I nodded numbly.
The drive home to our Greenwich estate felt endless.
Marcus was in the kitchen when I walked in, hunched over his laptop with construction spreadsheets scattered across the marble countertop.
"Marcus?" I set my keys down carefully, my hands still shaking. "We need to talk."
He looked up, those blue eyes that had once charmed me now narrowing with familiar irritation. "What is it, Sarah? I'm busy with the Stamford project."
"I went to see Dr. Peterson today." The words felt like glass in my throat. "There's something important—"
"What the fuck?" His voice exploded through the kitchen. "You went to see doctors without telling me? Do you know how much that costs?"
The familiar knot of anxiety tightened in my stomach. "Marcus, please. I have cancer."
I searched his face for some flicker of concern, some trace of the man I'd fallen in love with seven years ago. Instead, his expression hardened into something calculating and cold.
"Cancer?" His tone was flat, businesslike. "What kind?"
"Pancreatic. Stage four." My voice cracked on the numbers. "The doctor says I have six months..."
Marcus was quiet for a long moment, and I felt a desperate flutter of hope. Maybe this would change things. Maybe facing my mortality would remind him of what we used to have.
"Do you have any idea what treatment is going to cost?" he asked finally. "We're already stretched thin with Ethan's tuition and the business expenses."
The flutter died instantly. "Stretched thin? Marcus, my family's net worth is over forty million dollars."
"Your family's money," he snapped, standing up so fast his chair scraped against the marble. "And that's exactly the fucking problem. You think you can just waltz off to appointments, make medical decisions, spend money without consulting me? You think because your daddy's oil money pays for everything, you don't need to respect your husband?"
Before I could respond, his hand connected with my cheek in a sharp crack that echoed through the kitchen. The sting was immediate, followed by the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.
I stammered, "I... I thought you'd want to know. I'm dying, Marcus."
His face twisted with rage. "You're goddamn right you're dying! And you're not spending my money doing it! You want to play the dying wife? Fine. But you'll do it by my rules."
"Mommy, why are you crying? What's cancer?" Ethan's voice cut through the tension like a knife.
My twelve-year-old son stood in the kitchen doorway, his Phillips Exeter blazer still perfectly pressed, his book bag slung over one shoulder.
Those intelligent brown eyes—so much like my father's—took in the scene with growing confusion.
Marcus immediately shifted into his public persona, the charming contractor who'd won over Greenwich society. "Your mother is being dramatic, son. Some people like to pretend they're sick for attention."
"Ethan, mommy might be a little sick, but—" I started, reaching for my son.
"Don't fill his head with your bullshit, Sarah," Marcus cut me off, his voice carrying a warning that made my blood freeze. "Ethan, go do your homework. Your mother and I are having an adult conversation."
I watched my son's face crumple with confusion as he backed out of the kitchen. The sound of his footsteps on the stairs felt like another piece of my heart breaking.
By 10:30 PM, I was driving through the dark Greenwich streets toward Long Island Sound, my hands gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles went white.
I sat in my car for a long time, staring out at the waves crashing against the rocks forty feet below.
In my lap was a piece of paper—covered with my shaking handwriting.
[My dearest Ethan, Mommy loves you more than all the stars in the sky. I'm so sorry I can't be stronger for you. Please remember that none of this is your fault...]
"Maybe this is better," I whispered to the empty car. "Ethan won't have to watch me suffer."
But even as I said the words, they felt wrong. Was I really doing this for Ethan, or was I just too broken to fight anymore?
My phone buzzed at 11:15 PM.
For a moment, I considered ignoring it—what did anything matter now?—but habit made me glance at the screen.
The message was from Tony Morrison, the private investigator I'd hired three months ago during one of my more paranoid moments.
I'd started to suspect Marcus was hiding something, and Tony had been quietly digging into my husband's activities.
[Mrs. W - Found what you hired me to look for. St. Regis Hotel, Suite 1205. I'm sorry.]
Attached were three photos that made my blood freeze.
Marcus in a hotel hallway, his hand on a woman's lower back. Marcus kissing that same woman against a door marked 1205. And in the third photo, clear as daylight, I could see the woman's face.
Victoria.
My cousin Victoria, who'd been staying in our guest house for the past two months while she "got back on her feet" after her divorce. Victoria, who'd sat at our dinner table just last night, asking with such concern about my health.
"That bastard," I whispered, staring at the photos until they blurred. "That absolute bastard."
The fury that rose in my chest was unlike anything I'd ever felt. It burned away the despair, the self-pity, the resignation.
Here I was, preparing to kill myself over a cancer diagnosis, while my husband was fucking my cousin with money from my family's trust fund.
I looked up at the stars—the same stars I'd just written about in my suicide note—and felt something shift inside me.
"If I'm going to die," I said to the night sky, "I'm taking you down with me, Marcus."
Back in my car, I deleted the photos from my phone but not before forwarding them to a secure email account.
Then I tore up the suicide note, watching the pieces scatter in the wind like confetti.
I opened my phone's browser and began searching: "top divorce attorneys Connecticut," "forensic accountants Greenwich," "private security firms."
As I drove back through the empty Greenwich streets, I felt a strange calm settle over me.
The scared, desperate woman who'd driven to that cliff was gone. In her place was someone Marcus had never met before—someone who understood that dying gave you a certain freedom.
After all, what did a dead woman have to lose?