Chapter 2

Her words hit like a physical shockwave. For a second, I thought I had misheard.

Just seconds ago, she was whining about how hard her life had been, and now she already had wedding invitations printed?

Seeing my silence, Linda quickly offered an excuse.

"Don't overthink it. Derek isn’t getting any younger, and he’s still technically a bachelor. People in our circle talk. We agreed to hold a formal ceremony just for appearances, so nobody gossips."

She hadn't even finished speaking when I reached out and took the invitation from her hand.

"Sure. I’ll be there on time."

Without another word, I turned on my heel and walked toward my old bedroom to grab my things.

Behind me, Derek's voice drifted into the hallway.

"The wedding dress is ready. Want me to go with you for the final fitting tomorrow?"

"I've been waiting for this day forever," Linda whispered back, giggling softly into his chest.

I pushed open the door to my room, only to see that our wedding portrait on the nightstand had been replaced by a framed studio photo of the four of them.

Even the suits and shirts hanging in the closet were all Derek's designer labels.

I looked around the empty space and suddenly realized: this place wasn't my home anymore. There were no belongings of mine left to pack.

My fingers trembling, I pulled a small prescription bottle from my pocket and dry-swallowed two white pills.

None of them knew that back overseas, I had worked endless graveyard shifts in massive industrial tech facilities.

Prolonged radiation exposure from specialized machinery had triggered aggressive terminal brain cancer.

The oncologist told me I had one month left, at best.

The moment I heard the diagnosis, I booked the first flight back home.

For the final chapter of my life, all I wanted was to be surrounded by family.

Yet when I walked through the door holding the signed paperwork to transfer all my assets to Linda, all I found was Derek rushing her to the maternity ward.

When the nurse called out for the father of the child to sign the consent forms, my cousin jumped up and signed his name without hesitation.

When I confronted them, my own parents defended him without blinking.

"Austin, you were gone for three years! Your father and I are getting old. We just wanted a grandchild before we died!"

"Derek is your first cousin. You share the same family blood! Can’t you just turn a blind eye and love the boy as your own?"

"Besides, Derek is a senior director at a publicly traded tech firm, pulling in over two hundred grand a year!”

“That’s a hundred times better than groveling before foreign executives like you do. He stepped up to take care of your wife, and you don’t even have the decency to be grateful?"

Growing up, Derek had always been the golden child, the standard my parents measured me against. And even now, they looked down on me compared to him.

In that quiet moment, everything cleared up for me.

Life's cruelest jokes were nothing more than this.

Later, on my specialist’s recommendation, I reached out to a private human cryopreservation research facility.

They offered state-of-the-art cryogenic pods that could preserve a human body in stasis until medical science discovered a cure for advanced brain cancer.

The doctor told me that plenty of ultra-wealthy elites chose this path to buy a chance at a second life.

With enough money, the impossible became achievable.

So, I took the entire fortune I had initially earmarked for Linda and purchased a fifty-year preservation contract in an advanced stasis pod.

Next week was my scheduled entry date.

Late that night, as I drifted in and out of a feverish sleep, heavy breathing and stifled moans came from right outside my cracked bedroom door.

Derek’s raspy voice followed.

"You really want to do this right here? What if Austin wakes up and catches us?"

Linda’s voice was breathless, dripping with naked lust.

"Who cares? Once that idiot falls asleep, he’s out cold like a dead pig. He won't notice a thing. If it weren't for you, I would've lost my mind these past three years..."

The sickening sounds washed over me. I pulled the comforter tight over my head and clenched my eyes shut.

My mind involuntarily flashed back to the day Linda and I stood before the priest, her eyes bright and steady as she swore to love me, and only me, until death did us part.

Turns out, eternal vows were just empty noise to pass the time.