Walking on Thin Ice

The first thing I did after being diagnosed with late-stage brain cancer was to sleep with my husband's brother.

Liam burst through the door, his foot crushing a discarded ultra-thin condom. I'd never seen such a deranged look on his face. Hed beaten a man to a bloody pulp, then gripped my throat, his voice trembling.

"Why would you do this? Have you lost your mind?"

I gasped for air, nearly suffocating, but a laugh still escaped my lips.

Why?

Because I was dying.

Before I faced the end, I wanted to taste that forbidden pleasure, the one that drove him so mad.

The ambulance's red lights vanished completely outside the window.

A suffocating silence hung in the room, the mingled stench of blood and lust nauseating. Liam still stood in the living room's center, his chest heaving, blood dripping from his clenched fists onto the floor. His eyes, bloodshot and furious, were fixed on me. Yet, beneath the rage, something else within them shattered.

"Why?" His voice was raspy, broken. "Why would you do this to me?"

I didn't flinch, just pulled the torn silk robe tighter around myself.

"Why?" My voice was barely a whisper. "Shouldn't that be my line, Mr. Weston?"

"Because you enjoyed sleeping with my once-best friend so much." I took a step closer, the metallic scent of his blood mingling with the lingering notes of the expensive cologne Scarlett adored. "So much that you crawled into her bed again and again, like a desperate dog."

"So, I wanted to try it, too. See just how 'good' my husband's brother was."

I watched his face drain of all color, each word a poisoned dart. "You've slept with her how many times? Well, I've slept with just as many men. Tonight was just bad luck, you walking in on me."

Liam's face went utterly white.

"The past I was a bastard. Can we just move past it?" He looked at me, his eyes bloodshot, pleading. "I know you're saying all this to provoke me. I promise I'll never see her again. We can go back to how things were when we first got married, please?"

"Go back to how things were?" I numbly glanced down at my trembling fingertips.

The doctor's words were still etched in my mind.

"You've missed the optimal treatment window."

Meaning: no cure.

So there was no "after" for me, only a countdown.

Liam knew nothing of this. Just as hed never know that Scarlett shared every intimate detail of their affair with me, day after day.

And of course, his promises were hollow.

No sooner had the words left his lips than his phone chimed with Scarlett's custom ringtonea soft, suggestive melody. Liam stiffened.

"Go on, answer it," I said, leaning against the wall and lighting a cigarette. "Put it on speaker. Let me hear what earth-shattering crisis my 'best friend' is facing this time."

Liam hesitated, then answered. Even without speakerphone, Scarlett's fragile, tearful voice was distinct. "Liam, Chase is banging on my door again... I'm so scared."

The veneer of composure and guilt Liam wore instantly crumbled, replaced by frantic worry.

"Don't be scared! Lock the door, I'm on my way!" he yelled into the phone, turning to grab his jacket without even a glance at me.

"Liam." I called his name.

He turned back, his eyes alight with undisguised urgency and impatience. "Eliza, you know Chase is a lunatic. I have to go!"

I couldn't help but laugh, and as I did, a sharp pain spread through my chest. But you just said you wouldn't see her again. You said the same thing when you abandoned me on our anniversary. When I was writhing in cramps from my period, you held her, startled, and called me to say:

"Scarlett needs me right now. It's just your period, Eliza, can't you just tough it out?"

Time and again, I believed, only to be drenched in disappointment. I was beyond sick of it.

"Call the cops," I said. "Are 911 services broken? Does it require your personal intervention, Mr. Weston?"

"Eliza!" Liam's face was a mixture of disbelief and profound disappointment. "That's Scarlett! Your best friend! Are you really going to let me abandon her? How did you get so cold-hearted?"

"Yes, I'm cold-hearted." My expression remained detached, but my clasped hands trembled slightly. "I'm also wicked, shameless, and I just slept with your brother. If you leave me alone here, aren't you afraid I'll find another Julian?"

Liam's face was a mottled canvas of white and green, his breathing ragged. Scarlett's tearful pleas on the phone continued, an urgent death knell. He stared at me for a few agonizing seconds, the conflict in his eyes finally hardening into resolve.

"I love you, but I genuinely don't have time for this drama right now." The sigh escaped him, and he snatched his jacket, heading for the door.

It slammed shut.

My phone screen lit up. A message from Scarlett.

"I'm truly sorry."

"But compared to you, I really do love him more."

"And he really does love me more."

If someone had told eighteen-year-old Eliza, that one day Scarlett would sleep with Liam, she would have furiously denied it. It was too absurd, how could it be?

Scarlett and I were both orphans, growing up together in the same foster care facility, leaning on each other. She worked three jobs to put me through college. I put her name on my property deed, to give her a sense of security.

And Liam? He'd secretly loved me for over a decade. Handwritten love letters, rooftop confessionseveryone knew it in high school. They were the two people who loved me most.

I still remembered our wedding day, Scarlett crying and cursing in front of all the guests: "You dog! If you dare make Eliza shed even a single tear, I swear I'll never forgive you!"

My heart had swelled with so much gratitude for their love back then. The truth, when it was finally laid bare, was far more brutal.

In my second month of pregnancy, Scarlett was beaten by her abusive husband and hospitalized. Two broken ribs, her face swollen like a balloon. I stayed by her bedside for three days, begging Liam to find her the best doctors and lawyers.

After she was discharged, Scarlett had nowhere to go. I begged Liam again to let her stay in our guest room temporarily.

"Just for a little while, until she finds her own place, okay?" I pleaded, tugging on Liam's hand.

He frowned, looking reluctant. "Scarlett and I don't really get along. I don't want to turn our home into a circus." But ultimately, he couldn't resist my persistent nagging and nodded.

It was me who pulled strings to get Scarlett's son into a good preschool. It was me, again, who asked Liam to find her a low-stress job at his company. I ran around, doing everything I could to make her life easier.

While I, with my growing belly, was helping her fight her abusive ex-husband, Scarlett and Liam were busy in a passionate affair.

The day the appeal came through, sentencing her ex-husband to five months in jail, I burst through the door, excited to share the good news.

And thats when I saw Scarlett, naked, perched on the coffee table, moaning as if at death's door. Liam was kissing her neck, their lower bodies pressed tightly together.

For a full minute, lost in their love-haze, they didn't notice me, standing there, my face chalk-white. The fool, I had invited a wolf into my home. I had believed in a sisterly bond, strong as steel, believed true love could never spoil.

Even God must have found me laughable. And so, I was punished. Punished to be betrayed by my only friend and my beloved husband. Punished to have only a few dozen hours left of my life.

Liam slammed the door and didn't come back. The next day, he sent a text.

"Urgent company matter, out of town for a few days. Rest well at home."

Urgent matter? Was it an urgent roll in the hay with Scarlett, or an urgent parent-teacher conference for her son?

Well, it was for the best.

With only a few days left, I wouldn't have to see that repulsive face. I pushed myself up, my legs weak and trembling, and began to tie up loose ends.

A coffin, it turned out, was surprisingly heavy. Or maybe it was just that I had no strength left. The funeral home director probably hadn't encountered a client so young and composed, and seemed hesitant. I simply looked down and said, "It's for myself."

Next, I found a lawyer to draft my will. Finally, the letter. My pen hovered for a long time. Images flickered through my mind: Scarlett's innocent smile as a child, Liam's fervent declarations of love in our youth. They all coalesced into two entwined bodies.

I smiled bitterly, writing only one sentence: "Please scatter my ashes in the ocean."

By the time I finished, night had fallen. My head throbbed violently, like a drill boring into my brain. The doctor had warned me: the final stage would bring pain, blindness, loss of consciousness. I almost wished it would come quickly. But one lingering desire tugged at me, a last thread of defiance.

I wanted to ride the Ferris wheel one more time.

Id only ridden it twice in my life. The first time was when I was ten. Scarlett and I collected scrap metal in the hills behind the orphanage for three months, saved up enough money, and hand-in-hand, climbed into that old, rickety Ferris wheel at the rundown amusement park. At the very top, we swore to the city laid out beneath us like a box of matches:

"Scarlett and Eliza will be best friends forever, never to be separated!"

The second time was my twentieth birthday. Liam rented out the entire Ferris wheel. As we reached the highest point, he pulled out a ring, his voice trembling with nerves: "Eliza, marry me. I'll love you, protect you, and be good to you for the rest of our lives."

How ironic.

But I still wanted to go. Because it was the only joy left in my absurd life.

The amusement park was crowded on the weekend. I stood in the long queue, my head splitting, my vision beginning to blur. I squeezed my hand tightly, waiting for the wave of dizziness to pass.

Then, I saw them.

Liam, Scarlett, and her son, Leo.

Scarlett brushed a strand of hair from Liam's forehead, a picture of domestic bliss. They looked like any ordinary family of three on a weekend outing, taking their child to the park.

I stood there, my blood instantly frozen. I thought my heart was dead, that nothing could hurt me anymore. But seeing that tender scene, I broke.

Her child was growing up happily. My child was a bloody mess on a hospital floor. That night, sticky blood had spread beneath me, and the doctor had regretfully announced:

"I'm sorry, your uterus ruptured. We couldn't save the baby."

It was after I discovered their affair that I went mad, throwing all of Scarlett's things out. Liam, rushing to protect her, accidentally pushed me in the chaos.

Just that one push.

My baby was gone.

Later, I asked Scarlett why she did this to me. She just looked at me, smiling gently as she always had.

"Eliza, don't blame Liam. He's just soft-hearted, he felt sorry for Leo and me."

"But honestly, Liam is so much better in bed than Chase, and much more... forceful. He never did that to you, did he? He always said you were like a dead fish, so boring."

"He said he'd put Leo's name on the deed for the school-district apartment. It'll be our home. You can't have children anyway, so there's no point in you holding onto it."

"Oh, and remember when you had those terrible cramps and went to the hospital? Liam was going to go, but I told him I was scared, and he said you wouldn't die from a little pain"

Breathing became difficult. An invisible hand squeezed my heart, the pain so intense I doubled over. The line moved slowly forward. They were getting closer, close enough to hear Leo's joyful laughter.

Finally, it was their turn. Liam carefully placed Leo into a gondola, then helped Scarlett in. The door closed, and they began to ascend. I dragged my heavy steps, entering the gondola right behind theirs.

As we reached the highest point, I saw it in the gondola ahead. Liam leaned down and kissed Scarlett. A soft, tender kiss. Leo, sitting between them, clapped his little hands, giggling happily.

In that moment, all sound vanished. My pale, distorted face was reflected in the glass. The pain in my brain reached its peak. I clutched my head, screaming, but it brought no relief.

Let this be it.

At the highest point of the Ferris wheel, where my love began and my friendship was buried. My life, too, reached its end.

Fireworks exploded, their joyous cracks drowning out the wail of an ambulance. Liam, holding Scarletts and Leos hands, walked towards the exit, a strange restlessness in his heart. Scarlett looked at him, concerned. "Is Eliza faking sick again to get you to come back? Maybe you should go be with her."

"No, we promised Leo we'd celebrate his birthday." Liam suppressed the unsettling feeling, driving to buy Leo his favorite Ultraman cake. When the candles were blown out, Scarlett gently asked, "What did our little darling wish for?"

"I wish that bad woman would hurry up and die."

No sooner had the words left his lips than Liam sharply smacked the boys backside, sternly saying, "Don't say such things!" Leo burst into tears, and Scarlett protectively pulled the child into her arms.

"What was that for? Kids say the darndest things," she said. "Besides, wasn't it Eliza who was unreasonable, throwing out all our things and scaring Leo?"

The memory of that day was too painful; the feeling of indirectly causing his own childs death was not easy to bear. Liam irritably went out to the balcony to smoke. Scarlett walked over and leaned into his embrace, playfully. "You promised Leo that school-district apartment. You can't let Eliza's little tantrums mess up Leo's big future."

The man was silent for a moment, then conceded. "I know."

That night, Liam, as usual, held Scarlett as he fell asleep, but an unreasoning dread clung to him. He sent many messages. But his wife didn't reply to a single one. Had she gone to find another man to provoke him again?

At four in the morning, Liams head throbbed, unbearable. He decided to go home. He thought, maybe I should buy some flowers to appease her. Eliza loved lilies, he wondered if he could even find them at this hour. Liam was distractedly pondering this when his phone suddenly rang urgently.

"Who is it?" Scarlett frowned, opening her eyes.

Liam pressed the answer button. In the darkness, the voice on the other end was grave and clear.

"Hello, is this Mr. Weston? Your wife, Eliza Weston, passed away half an hour ago after surgery failed to save her. Please come to the hospital as soon as possible to identify the body."