Our Seven Days

For twenty-seven days, I sat hoping by my mother' s hospital bed, begging Olivia, the woman I' d loved for six years, to marry me.

Her excuses flowed like water-"Swamped with work," "Bad timing," "Next week, honey."

Then, a text. And a picture. Olivia, radiant in a wedding dress, arm-in-arm with Brandon, her childhood friend. The marriage certificate read: twenty-seven days ago. The very day my dying mother had entered the hospital and I' d first proposed.

The world shattered. My phone buzzed again, an apology from Olivia: she couldn' t make our courthouse wedding, Brandon wasn' t feeling well. Another lie.

That same evening, the nurse grimly told me Mom had passed away. Olivia' s deceit had poisoned her last wish.