- 5.
A clap of thunder shattered the silence
outside the window.
Johnny glanced outside, irritably setting down
his drink and rubbing his slightly queasy
chest.
Ethan emerged from the bathroom, noticing
Johnny’s pallor. He leaned in, jokingly teasing,
“What’s wrong? Need me to track her down?”
Johnny said he didn’t, but his eyes stayed
glued to Ethan’s phone.
Ethan suppressed a smile, pulled up a news
<
story, and held his phone in front of Johnny.
“There was just an explosion in the East City
slums. Doesn’t Neena live there?”
Johnny’s heart pounded. He glanced at the
phone screen, then stood and walked to the
window.
“It couldn’t be her house.”
Ethan said nothing, zooming in on the screen.
In the bottom left corner of a photo, he
spotted Neena’s electric scooter.
Startled, he was about to tell Johnny when he
heard, “Deposit ten thousand into Neena’s
account.”
Johnny stood by the floor–to–ceiling window,
smoking, his brow furrowed in a knot he
couldn’t untie.
Ethan, seeing this, thought better of it;
scooters like that were everywhere, it wasn’t
necessarily Neena’s, so he wouldn’t add to
Johnny’s distress.
“Look, I know you’re sentimental, but don’t
put so much pressure on yourself. After all,
you broke up because she lied to you.”
Ethan walked over and showed him a
smartwatch website.
“Your favorite brand just released a full gold
and diamond model. Want to play with it?”
Johnny took the phone, biting his cigarette.
Seeing the watch, he smiled.
<
He swiped his card, ordering one for five
million and giving Ethan a million as a bonus.
I watched from above, feeling nothing but
irony.
I’d given my all, begging on my knees, just for
him to give me five thousand for Lily’s
surgery.
That was Lily’s life–saving money.
Even if he didn’t remember my kindness.
Even if he resented me, hated me.
Lily had genuinely loved him, treated him like
a brother.
When he was living at our place, my frail,
L
undernourished sister often gave Johnny the
chicken legs I left for her.
Lily had loved and cared for Johnny so much.
Why didn’t he believe me? Why didn’t he save
Lily?
Now Lily was gone, and I was gone too. He
sent ten thousand dollars to my account,
what was the point?
I didn’t understand. We’d been together for
two years, given everything to each other, and
gone through so much hardship.
Why couldn’t he believe me once? Why was
he so sure I was lying?
He was so powerful; with one phone call, he
L
could have learned I wasn’t lying about my
missing kidney.
But he didn’t.
I had truly believed we would grow old
together.
Even after I discovered he had faked his
death, that he wasn’t sick at all.
I never blamed him.
I was grateful he had been in my life, given
me those happy moments.
Now, it all seemed so ironic.
