CHAPTER TWO:THIS IS HOW I DIED

It happened twenty-one days later. Three weeks after he slid that ring onto my finger and promised me the kind of love that was supposed to outlast everything.

We were at a charity gala, the kind with bad canapés and people who smelled like mint. I was laughing with Marcus by the silent auction tables.

Marcus. The boy who once pushed me on the swings until I swore I’d fly.The boy that has always had my back,ever since we were young.My best friend. My brother in every way that mattered.

“Aurora, remember that internship you hooked me up with?” Marcus’s grin was electric, his voice bubbling over. “They offered me a partner stack. Me. A partner!”

I screamed and hugged him. “Marcus! No way! I’m so proud of you!”

And then.

“Who’s this?”

Adrian’s voice slid between us, smooth and wrong.

I turned around and there he was, holding two champagne glasses, but something was wrong with his face. His smile looked painted on. Fake.

“You remember Marcus,” I said quickly, taking one of the glasses. My hand shook, and I hated that he noticed. “We grew up together.”

Adrian’s eyes cut into him like glass. “The childhood friend.”

Something inside me shifted, but I forced a laugh. “Yes. He just made a partner track. Isn’t that incredible?”

Adrian extended his hand. “Congratulations.”

His fingers locked around Marcus’s like a vice. The handshake lasted a second too long. Maybe two.Marcus’s smile fell a little before Adrian finally let go. But his other hand was already around my waist, pulling me close, warm and heavy.

Marcus looked nervous. “Uh… thanks,” he said.

The room spun with laughter and music, but all I could feel was the slow, deliberate motion of his thumb tracing circles into my hip. Possessive. Warning.

Marcus excused himself to find the bathroom, and Adrian’s smile dropped like a mask sliding off.

“You two looked… comfortable.”

I stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.” He sipped his champagne, eyes still following Marcus like a hunter stalking prey. “Too close. That’s all.”

My laugh was thin, nervous. “He’s my best friend.”

“I know.” His jaw twitched, and the fake smile returned, razor sharp. “Am sorry babe, forget what I said.”

But I couldn’t forget.

That night, lying in bed, the chandelier still flickering in my head, I felt the echo of his hand on my waist. His eyes on Marcus. The steel in his smile. That was the first crack.

Small enough to ignore, but impossible to unsee.

Over the next weeks, the questions started.

At first, they sounded like love. Like interest.

“Where’d you go for lunch, babe?”

“Who was that on the phone earlier?”

“Why were you twenty minutes late?”

But little by little, the questions turned sharp. Accusations wearing masks.

At night, I’d wake to find him bathed in blue light. My phone in his hands. His thumb scrolled like he was searching for something.

“Checking the time,” he’d say when I caught him.

“My battery died,so I was trying to use yours.”

“Couldn’t sleep.”

But I knew what mindless scrolling looked like. This wasn’t it. This was digging. Hunting. Waiting to find proof that didn’t exist.

And still I told myself it would pass. Wedding planning was stressful. He had some work issues he wouldn't talk about. Once everything settled, we'd go back to being us. Back to being the couple everyone said was perfect.

The lie we tell ourselves.

It was on a Thursday night, when everything ended.

I spent hours making his favorite dinner, fettuccine with truffle oil. I even stopped for white roses, the ones he’d surprised me with on our second anniversary. I wanted to remind him of us. To remind him of love.

But when I set it on the table, he barely touched it. Just pushed the pasta around like it offended him. His face was gray, hollow. His eyes were too bright, like he’d been crying or drinking or both.

“Baby,” I said softly. “You’re not eating.”

He looked up, and for a second, I didn’t recognize him. The warmth was gone. The man who held me when I broke down was gone. His eyes were hard, haunted.

“They’re trying to destroy me, Aurora.” His voice cracked like old wood. “All of them. They want to watch me burn.”

My stomach dropped. “Who’s trying to destroy you?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

I will babe, talk to me. Maybe we could even... I don't know, we could talk to someone? A therapist or"

His chair scraped back. "You think I'm losing it?" His eyes were too wide, too bright. "What are they telling you about me? What lies are you believing?"

"No one is telling me anything! I'm worried because I love you Adrain, and I feel like I'm loosing you!"

He laughed then this awful, bitter sound that made my skin crawl. "Love. Right. That's what you call it."

“Ice slid down my spine. “What does that mean?”

“Forget it.” His smile was wrong. Cruel. Nothing like the man who once cried into my hair and promised me forever.

I stood so fast my chair screeched against the tile. “You know what? I’m going to bed. Come find me when you are ready to talk like the man I know”

I left him pacing, glass in hand, ice clinking. Back and forth across the living room like a caged animal.

I climbed into bed and waited. Waited for his apology, for his arms around me.

But he never came.

It was the crash that woke me. Drawers yanked open. Something hitting the floor. Heavy footsteps.

The clock glowed red: 2:49 a.m.

“Adrian?” My voice cracked as I sat up.

He stood by the windows, city lights burning behind him. For a second, he looked like a stranger. Someone dangerous.

“I know you’re awake.” His voice was flat. Empty.

“What are you doing?”

He turned slowly. In his hand dangled a locket.

My breath caught. Marcus’s locket. The tarnished, heart-shaped one he’d given me when we were nine. Inside was a tiny photo of us, gap-toothed kids, arms slung around each other. I’d forgotten it even existed.

“Explain this.” His voice was sharp, cold.

“It’s nothing,” I whispered. “Kid stuff. I even forgot I had it”

“You forgot?.” His eyes darkened. He stepped closer. “You forgot you kept another man’s picture close to your heart?”

“Adrian, we were eight years old.”

“DON’T LIE TO ME!”

The roar shook the walls. My whole body flinched.

“Adrian, please. You’re scaring me.”

“Good.” His voice dropped to a whisper, more terrifying than the shout. “Now you know how I feel. Watching you. Knowing who you really are.”

“Who I really am? Adrian, I love you. Only you.”

“Only me?Really?” His face twisted, jaw tight, eyes burning.

He took a step towards me,and I felt the heat of his anger. "Then why do you always spend time with him?Why do you always glow differently whenever you are around him?You love him..you love him right?Answer me Aurora!"

“I… I don’t! Adrian, I swear!” My chest tightened, tears spilling down my face. “He’s just a friend,a brother, that’s all!you are the only man I love”

“BROTHER?” The word cracked like a gunshot. “Brothers don’t give sisters lockets! Brothers don’t look at sisters the way he looks at you!”

I shook my head, sobbing. “You’re wrong. You’re drowning in jealousy and it’s eating you alive. Please, listen to me.”

SHUT UP!

Those words hit me like a punch to my chest.

While I was trying to explain myself,trying to get my Adrian back,his hand disappeared into the pocket of his silk robe - the one I'd bought him for his birthday, the one he wore every morning while we planned our wedding over coffee and talked about baby names.

His hand comes back with a gun.

Small. Silver. Shiny. It looks wrong in his soft hands.

The world shrank to the black circle of that barrel, aimed at my chest.

“Oh my God….a gun?” My voice cracked. “Adrian, Please…dont.”

“You broke me.” His voice shattered. “I gave you everything,my soul,my love,my heart. And you choose him over us.”

“No! Please… don’t!” I yelled, tears blinding me. “I..l chose you! I keep choosing you every single day! Remember the time you almost beat a man to death simply because he looked at me the wrong way? Remember the time you canceled all your appointments just because I had a headache?

I stepped closer, hands shaking, tears burning my eyes. “The promises… Adrian! You said we’d grow old together! You said I was the one! We can’t end like this… not like this! Please… please don’t do this.I beg of you.”

His hand trembled. His eyes flickered. For one second,one heartbeat,I saw my Adrian again.

Then he was gone.

“You should have been faithful,” he whispered. “You should have loved only me.”

“Adrian, I do! Please”

“Goodbye, Aurora.”

“A…."

Bang

The gun went off.

The bullet tore into me, white-hot, cracking my ribs, stealing the air from my lungs. I collapsed, blood flooding my mouth,choking me.

Through the blur, I saw him. My fiancé. The man who once swore he’d love me until death.

And he wasn’t horrified.

He wasn’t calling for help.

He was watching me die with satisfaction in his eyes.

“You did this to yourself,” he said gently. Almost kindly. “If you had been faithful, none of this would’ve happened.”

Darkness closed in. My blood soaked the floor. My voice turned to nothing.

But one thought burned in me, hotter than the pain, sharper than the bullet lodged in my chest.

If I live through this, I will find him.

And I will make him pay.

Even if it’s the last thing I ever do.