“If Mark comes back and sees his own
mémorial service he’s gonna lose it! Chloe,
think this through, do you want to make Mark
angry?”
I didn’t reply to the first texts, only to the last:
“He’s dead. He’s beyond being angry now.”
tossed my phone aside and started packing up
stuff.
For the past three months, I had been searching
for him in the mountain town where he was
“skiing,” and barely been home.
The bedroom was mostly as we’d left it.
I opened his closet and froze.
His clothes were gone, like half of them, and all that was left were the items he’d never wear at
11:21
Tears started to fall,
I
had spent three months looking for him, and
he’d been sneaking back here to grab his crap whenever I wasn’t around,
- 2.
I pulled up the security footage and fast- forwarded through the last month.
At the start of the month, Mark had walked in
with his arm around Jamie, leaving two hours later with a ton of clothes.
Mid–month, he’d carried Jamie into the house,
and Jamie hadn’t left till the morning.
A couple of nights ago, they’d come home under the cover of darkness, leaving early
yesterday morning.
I had been looking for him in the novt etate over
<
I had been looking for him in the next state over
when these things had happened.
I watched the screen as tears streamed down
my face, not for Mark, but for myself.
How had I fallen for such a scum bag?
I had been losing sleep, worrying about him,
while he and his “bro” were sleeping in my
house, maybe even my bed.
I clenched my fist and willed myself not to start
hyperventilating.
The phone rang.
I didn’t want to answer but it kept ringing.
I took a deep breath, got up and looked at the
caller ID.
It was Mark’s uncle, Ben Harrison. I quickly
<
884
answered. “Uncle Ben, is everything okay?”
“Mark’s not dead.”
He sent a video.
It was Mark and Jamie doing a sake bomb, their eyes glued to one another.
My breath hitched, and my fingers trembled as I spoke. “I know he’s not dead.”
The man sounded surprised, but then laughed. “Then why are you planning a funeral?”
“Everyone kept saying he was dead. I wanted to believe it. So, he gets a funeral.”
Ben was silent for a second. “So you’re saying you’re widowed?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
:
Ben Harrison was Mark’s uncle by adoption,
and I barely knew him.
He was the first person to tell me straight up
that Mark was alive. I felt like I owed him
something for that.
“If you’re free next week, you can come to the
service.”
“I will.”
Then another video came through.
Mark’s friends are showing him something on
their phone and he throws his drink. Jamie puts
her hand on his chest like she’s trying to calm
him down.
The bar was too loud for me to hear, but I could
see Mark’s face soften. He even buried his face
in Jamie’s shoulder.
<
He must have seen my mass text, and he got
pissed. And, somehow, just a few words from
Jamie had soothed him.
Whenever he got mad at me, he’d make me
spend the night thinking about what I did
wrong. Only then he would forgive me,
I closed my eyes, saved the videos, and set the
phone down.
Right then, Jamie called.
I answered, and the loud music in the
background nearly deafened me.
Jamie was shouting. “Chloe! Are you planning a
memorial service for Mark? Are you crazy?
Cancel that thing now! If he ever sees it when
he comes back, you’ll be sorry!”
Before she finished, I hung up, grabbed a
blanket, and crashed on the couch.
<
It was the first good sleep I’d had in three
months.
The next morning, I went down to the
courthouse to get Mark declared officially
deceased.
Once I got the paperwork, I went to Jamie’s
place.
Her front door was closed, and it took me
several tries on the doorbell before I heard
footsteps.
She was wearing a silk robe, leaning against the
doorframe, and there was evidence of a good
time all over her neck and collarbone.
“Oh, it’s you. What do you want?”
I glanced at her neck, then her face, which held
nothing but contempt.
“I wanted to invite you to Mark’s memorial
service. Seeing as you were his ‘best bro‘ after
alk”
Jamie rolled her eyes and sneered. “Chloe,
you’re his wife. He went missing three months
ago. Instead of looking for him, you’re just
planning a funeral?
“What if he’s not dead? Are you trying to wish
him into his grave? What kind of a wife does
that?”
I pulled the death certificate from my bag,
laughing. “He’s been under the snow for three
months. I couldn’t find him, so he’s officially
dead now.”
“That’s what everyone told me to do. To move
on.”
When I’d gotten the bad news, I’d fainted.
The next morning all of Mark’s friends were
sitting around my bed.
“Honey, the area he went missing is really
dangerous, it’s going to be hard to find anyone. Maybe you should just give up.”
“Yeah, it’s a lost cause.”
