He Faked his Cancer to be with his mistress

On our fifth Anniversary party, Harris fainted and got admitted to the City's Hospital.

Cancer. Stage IV. The words were a death sentence written in sterile font.

I wanted to scream, to tear the IV lines from his bruised skin and run back to the night of the party, back when we were dancing .

Instead, I just sat before Dr. Steve who had just declared Harris's report, clutching Harris's cold hand, feeling the terrifyingly steady beat of a heart that was now being counted down.

I struggled to find words to whisper some comforting words to Harris .

Instead, he held my hands, gentle and firm and said,"It's alright, Darcy. You will be just fine without me."

"Don't be afraid of anything that may happen. Even if I am about to die, I will always be with you."

Even when he was dying, he made sure to comfort me, which bled my heart.

The next few weeks, he tried to appear normal, smiling and cracking jokes just to not make me sad. But, the smiles never reached his eyes.

I didn't expose his feigned happiness. But, every time he forced a smile before me, my heart hollowed out.

For three weeks, I was a ghost in our home. I spent my nights crying silently in the shower so he wouldn't hear.

I spent my days researching treatments, draining my savings for "miracle" consultations.

Then came the afternoon I went to his office early to surprise him with the appointment letter with Dr. Wilson, a world famous surgeon.

The rumours were he could bring back the dead from their sickbed.

Harris had been trying to contact him for weeks now. But, everytime he declined him bluntly, only this time when I tried to contact him personally, his assistant reached out to me and said Dr. Wilson was interested in this case.

Finally, he had a chance to be saved. I cried tears of joy. I wanted to share this good news with Harris as soon as possible.

But, My hands, almost pushed open the door, , a Lively and joyous laughter echoed through my ears. "Is the paperwork ready?"

I slightly opened it ajar and peered inside.

I froze on the spot.

Clara was sitting on Harris's lap, clutching to his shoulder like she owned him.

"Everything," Harris' voice sounded, confident and excited.

"By the time 'cancer' takes me, Harris Hudson will be dead, life insurance will be processed, and you and I will be halfway across the world with a clean slate."

Clara. Harris' first love. The one he told me was a 'closed chapter' years ago.

Something broke into my heart"And your wife?" Clara whispered against his lips. "What if she finds out you and Doctor Steve have been lying about your disease, making a small tumor look like a cancer?"

I froze at my place. The cancer, the treatment, it was all a lie orchestrated by Harris to elope with Clara?

The realization hit me hard. My legs trembled and I found it difficult to steady myself on the cold marble floor of his office.

I held the door knob only to steady myself. My heart still shimmering inside my chest. Meanwhile, Harris smirked,

"She’s too blinded in grief to see the truth beneath her blindfold of love and devotion. She hasn't questioned signing a single document that transferred all our joint assets back to me."

"She kept thinking she was just signing as my nominee for my medical bills."

"She's been worried sick about you, desperate to do anything just to get Dr. Wilson treating you like he is ever gonna check her mails. Do you really feel nothing for her?" Clara asked, her hands moving seductively on Harris's shoulder, a stark contrast to her feign concern towards me.

Harris grabbed her hands, his eyes darkening as he said, "I don't care what she feels or does. She’s just a placeholder until I could get back to you."

"She has cut off ties with her parents to marry me. They will not accept her anymore. Even if one day she finds out, she is harmless."

He was holding her waist, pulling her flush against him. He passionately kissed on her lips lingering heat that he hadn't shown me in years

Hearing that the cancer was faked and watching them being so affectionate with each other hurt me more than he actually had cancer.

I remembered once I had held his hands inside his office, he had shunned me immediately, almost causing me to fall. And, despite apologizing, he commanded, "Don't misbehave here. It's my working place."

Ever since that day, I never crossed my boundary. Though everyone knew I was his wife, I always stood two feet away from him when his employees were near.

But, seeing him shamelessly making out with another woman without a slightest fear of being caught, bled my heart.

I wasn’t just a grieving wife.

I was a prop. A puppet. A joke.

I didn't scream. I didn't burst in. I simply turned away, my hand still gripping the appointment letter with Dr. Wilson I had hardly managed to get, something that Harris didn't even need.

The first thing I did after coming out of his office was throwing out the appointment letter into a trash can. Then, I dialed the number of my lawyer.

"Prepare the divorce agreement. I'm divorcing Harris Hudson"

"Wh-What? Are you sure, Mrs. Hudson?" My lawyer was stunned, "Your marriage didn't come easy. You cut all your ties with your parents because of him. Now that he is dying, do you really want to divorce him?"

"My decision is final. Prepare all the documents as soon as possible along with the documents of Hudson group's shares in my name."

"Since he is dying, what will he do with his empire then? Let them sink together." I said, my voice cold and distant.

My lawyer was taken aback. He hasn't seen this side of me, "That... makes sense, Mrs. Hudson."

“Mrs. Hudson, I will draft the divorce agreement and property division agreement and send them to your address as soon as possible. Once he signs them, everything will be in effect.”

After I hung up the call, I dialed another number, a number I hadn't dialed in the past five years.

"You were right about Harris Hudson. He is shit of a man."

There was a long pause on the other side when a voice finally echoed through my ears, calm and composed, "So, you lost your bet?"

"I accept my defeat, Dad. I'm coming back to accept your arrangement for me." I replied, my voice trembling.

"Make me the heiress of your Mafia world or wed me to gain territory. My only condition is, I will begin my new life on the ashes of Harris Hudson's."

“You need some time to sort out your feelings for him and your marriage. I'll book your return flight in two weeks; a driver will pick you up from your villa and take you to the airport.”

“Thank you, Dad.”

Harris thought he could fake his death to deceive me, steal my eternal love for him, and steal our shared assets.

But two weeks later, I will give him an unfo

rgettable gift, making him understand what he has lost.