My Deathbed Wish: His True Love

e's

Outside my window, an orange glow danced against the darkness. I threw on a

bonfire raged. And standing before it,

into the fire. Thing

his first year of college. The pressed gardenia, my favorite flower, from the corsage he' d given me for our senior prom. And, my breath caught

ash and smoke. It was a funeral pyre for the life we were supposed to have. I felt a pain

ere was no malice in his eyes,

ce stripped of all emotion. "It makes her uncomfor

was a ghost i

semblance of a smile. "I understand. You' re right. We

ince I was a child, and began to pull things from my closet. The photo albums filled with pictures of us. The oversized university sweats

esitating, tossed them into the heart of the inferno. The plastic on the album

face while a profound, bone-deep cold settled within me. This

s mother and I had planted along the driveway were ripped out, replaced with rows of sterile, manicured rose bushes that Bianca admired. The cozy sunroom, where Jack a

s where Jack had proposed to me, on a starry summer night, promising a forever th

afternoon when Bianca found me. She saunte

" she asked, gestu

a newly acquired piece of jewelry. It was a ring, a simple

eath

and back and forth. "He' s going to propose. Offic

a ring for a future that would never come. He must have found the old notebook and, with no memory

ze. "It' s lovely, Bianca," I said, my

soured by my calm acceptance. A

er voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "I saw your old sketchbooks. He made my ring from your

ianca?" I asked, my

ulating look in her eyes. "I want you

grabbed my wrist, using my own hand to shove herself backward. She stumbled, let out a piercing shriek, and

ce and fall hard onto the stone pathway. Sharp pain shot up m

ian

his face a mask of terror. Without a second' s hesitation, he vaulted in

e pool, his movements frantic.

g," she sobbed, holding up her bare hand. "It' s gone! She... she was tr

"I can' t stay here anymore. She hates me. Everyone ha

he' d shown Bianca vanished, replaced by a gaze so cold it felt like frost

, scrambling to my feet, the pa

aped hands, the dirt on my clothes, and then at Bianc

n and walked towards me,

"You can' t stand to see me happy with someone else, so you torme

e harder than a

I whispered, my voice tr

estured to the murky pool. "That ring meant e

two of the burly estate body

in," he

lous heave, threw me into the freezing, disgusting water. The shock of the cold stole my breath. I flaile

the man said, his face impassive.

e sun set, and the garden lights flickered on, casting long, distorted shadows. The cold seeped into my bones, a deep, agonizing ache. My fin

when my numb fingers finally closed a

thes and hair dripping with foul-smelling water. I walked on

, and he looked at me with cold, impatient eyes. I he

n't ta

"you will stay away from Bianca. If you so much as look

alked to the open window, and flicked

him, uncom

ter all," he said coolly, turning back to me. "

the door i

the closed door. The ring wasn' t the point. My hours of freezing

is house. And he was the one who