1. Six Months to Live

1. Six Months to Live

The words hung in the air long after Dr. Jeff had finished speaking.

“End-stage Cardiomyopathy,” he said again, softer this time, as though saying it gently could make it hurt less. “At this stage, Tania, we’re looking at six months. Maybe less.”

Tania sat still, her hands folded in her lap, her wedding ring catching the fluorescent light.

Six months.

Wasn’t she only twenty-four? Wasn’t she supposed to have decades left, not months?

“Is there really nothing we can do?” she finally asked.

“There’s a transplant list. But with your blood type, and given how fast your heart is deteriorating.” Dr. Jeff paused, choosing his words carefully. “I won’t lie to you. It’s a long shot.”

Tania nodded slowly. She had expected bad news since the day she first fainted in the kitchen, but nothing could have prepared her for this.

Her phone buzzed before she could process it. She glanced down. Central Hospital, Neurology Ward.

She picked it up immediately. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Wilson, this is Dr. Bennett from Neurology. Your uncle’s condition has progressed. We need to move forward with the treatment plan we discussed, but I’m afraid the cost has gone up. We’ll need the deposit by tomorrow morning or we risk losing his spot in the program.”

Tania closed her eyes.

Her uncle. The man who raised her since she was five, who sold his own shop just so she could finish high school, who never once made her feel like a burden, he was fading into a stranger inside his own mind, and now even his treatment was slipping out of reach.

“I’ll get the money,” she said, though she had no idea how.

She thanked Dr. Jeff and left the hospital in a daze. The elevator ride down felt longer than usual, every floor a reminder of how much she stood to lose: her uncle, her own life, and a marriage that had already died long before her heart started failing.

There was only one place all roads led back to.

Caleb.

Three months ago, she had refused to sign the divorce papers he’d shoved in her face without warning. Now, gripping her phone with trembling fingers, she was the one about to beg for it.

She dialed his number. It rang four times before he picked up.

“What.” His voice was flat, distant, like she was an inconvenience interrupting something far more important.

“I need to see you. Tonight.”

Silence stretched on the other end. She could hear muffled voices, glasses clinking. He was somewhere with people, somewhere she wasn’t invited.

“Fine,” he said at last. “I’ll be home in an hour.”

An hour. It had been over two weeks since Caleb had set foot in the house they were supposed to share. Two weeks of an empty bed, empty hallways, and a marriage that existed only on paper.

When she heard the front door finally open near midnight, her heart, the same heart that was slowly killing her, pounded harder than it should.

Caleb walked in, loosening his tie, his expression unreadable. He barely looked at her.

“Well? What was so urgent?”

Tania took a breath. “I’ll sign the papers. The divorce papers. I’ll sign them tomorrow.”

Something flickered across his face, too fast for her to name it, before his jaw hardened again.

“What do you want in exchange?” he asked, cold and knowing. “You don’t suddenly change your mind for nothing, Tania.”

She hated that he was right. She hated more that she had to ask.

“My uncle needs money for his treatment. I need—”

“No.”

The word cut her off before she could even name a figure.

“Caleb, please, it’s an emergency, I wouldn’t ask if—”

“I said no.” His eyes were hard, unreadable, a wall she couldn’t climb no matter how many times she tried. “Sign the papers if you want. But you won’t get a single cent from me.”

He turned and walked toward the stairs, leaving her standing in the hallway with her request, and her dignity, shattered at her feet.

Two years ago, this man had run into a burning hall to pull her out of the flames. Now he couldn’t even look at her without contempt.

What had she done to deserve this?

Tania pressed a hand to her chest, willing her heart to hold on a little longer, for her uncle’s sake, if not her own.

 

• • •

 

The steps of the city hall were colder than Tania remembered.

She stood there in a plain white dress, clutching the folder of divorce papers to her chest, watching couples come and go, some laughing, some crying happy tears, none of them aware that a few feet away, a marriage was about to end.

Two years ago, almost to this exact date, she had married Caleb in a private ceremony behind this very building. She could still remember the way he’d looked at her that day, like she was something worth protecting.

What had changed him so completely?

A car pulled up to the curb, and a familiar figure stepped out.

“Tania?”

She turned. “Gabe?”

He looked exactly as she remembered from college, warm eyes, an easy smile, except now there was concern etched into his face as he took in her appearance.

“I just got back into town,” he said, closing the distance between them. “I heard you were here, but I didn’t expect—” His eyes dropped to the folder in her hands. “Is everything alright?”

“I’m fine,” she lied.

Before Gabe could respond, a black car screeched to a stop behind his, and Caleb stepped out, his expression darkening the moment he saw them standing so close together.

“Well, isn’t this convenient,” Caleb said, his voice like ice. “Is this why you suddenly wanted the divorce, Tania? Found yourself a replacement already?”

“It’s not what you think—”

His phone rang, cutting her off. He answered it with visible irritation, but whatever the caller said made his entire posture change.

“She’s here? Since when?” A pause. “I’m coming now.”

He hung up and, without another word to Tania, turned and got back into his car.

She stood frozen for half a second before her legs moved on their own, chasing after the car pulling away from the curb.

“Tania, wait!” Gabe called after her, but she didn’t stop.

She followed him all the way to his office building, her heart, fragile, failing, hammering against her ribs from the exertion. When she finally reached his office door, she pushed it open without knocking.

And there he was.

Caleb, sitting on the edge of his desk, cradling a baby girl in his arms, his features soft in a way Tania hadn’t seen directed at her in longer than she could remember.

A woman stood beside him, elegant, composed, watching the scene with a satisfied little smile.

Sophia.

Tania’s gaze fell to the baby’s face, and something inside her cracked wide open.

Their daughter would have been almost this age.

She had held her for only three days before she stopped breathing, three days that Caleb had spent locked away in grief so consuming he couldn’t even look at Tania without seeing the child they’d lost.

And now here he was, doting on another woman’s baby like it cost him nothing.

“Tania.” Caleb finally noticed her, straightening. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” Her voice cracked. “What are you doing, Caleb?”

Sophia stepped forward, feigning concern. “Tania, I know this must be difficult to see, but—”

“Don’t.” Tania didn’t even look at her. Her eyes stayed locked on Caleb. “We lost our daughter, and you couldn’t even hold me while I cried. But you can hold her baby like this?”

Caleb’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing.

His silence was answer enough.

Before she could stop herself, her palm connected with his cheek, the sound sharp in the quiet office.

“I hope she was worth it,” Tania whispered, before turning and walking out, leaving the folder of divorce papers behind on his desk.

She didn’t go home that night. She couldn’t bear the silence of that house, the memory of a nursery that had never been used. Instead, she drove straight to the hospital, to the one person whose love for her had never once wavered.

Her uncle.

But when she arrived at his ward, the nurse on duty gave her a look that made her stomach drop.

“Mrs. Wilson, we need to talk about your uncle’s condition. It’s more serious than we initially thought.”

Tania pressed a hand against the wall to steady herself. Between her own failing heart, her uncle slipping further away, and a husband who looked at her like a stranger he despised, she didn’t know how much more she could carry.

She needed to find Caleb again, not for herself, but because without his money, her uncle didn’t stand a chance.

 

• • •

 

Gabe found her the next evening trying, and failing, to flag down a taxi in the rain.

“Let me guess,” he said, pulling up beside her in his car, window rolled down. “You’d rather get drenched than accept a ride from me.”

“I’m fine, Gabe.”

“You keep saying that.” His eyes softened. “You don’t have to keep saying that with me, Tania.”

She almost let herself believe him. Almost. But she waved off another attempt and kept walking, because if she let herself lean on Gabe, even a little, she was terrified of what it might cost him.

Caleb’s jealousy wasn’t something to gamble a friend’s safety on.

That night, the city’s biggest social event of the year was underway: the Wilson Foundation Gala, the kind of event Caleb never missed, and the kind of event Tania knew, with sickening certainty, would be her best chance to corner him.

She waited outside the hotel entrance in the cold, watching town cars pull up one after another, delivering the city’s wealthiest in silk and diamonds.

Then his car arrived.

And Sophia stepped out beside him, her hand tucked into the crook of his arm like she belonged there.

Tania’s chest tightened, but she forced herself forward anyway. She didn’t have the luxury of pride tonight.

“Caleb.”

He stiffened at the sound of her voice, turning slowly. His eyes swept over her rain-damp dress with something close to disdain.

“What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you. Please. It’s about my uncle’s treatment. I wouldn’t ask if there was any other way.”

For a moment, just a moment, something almost like the old Caleb flickered across his face. Then Sophia’s fingers tightened on his arm, and it vanished.

“We’re not doing this here,” he said.

“Then when? You won’t answer my calls, you won’t come home—”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her aside, away from the watching eyes of the arriving guests, his grip bruising.

“Listen to me carefully,” he said, his voice low and venomous. “Your whole family deserves to die. Especially your mother, the treacherous bitch.”

Tania froze.

“What are you talking about? What did my mother ever do to you?”

“Don’t play innocent with me.” His fingers dug in harder. “Tania, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

She wrenched her arm free, her mind spinning. Her mother had disappeared when she was five years old. What could a woman who vanished nearly two decades ago possibly have done to earn this kind of hatred?

“You’re hurting me,” she said, and for the first time that night, her voice shook not from fear of him, but from the sheer confusion of not understanding him at all.

Caleb released her like her skin had burned him, disgust flashing across his face, though whether it was directed at her or at himself, she couldn’t tell.

He walked away without another word, Sophia throwing a triumphant glance over her shoulder as she followed him inside.

Tania stood alone on the pavement, the cold finally catching up to her, her whole body trembling.

A car pulled up. Gabe leaned across to push the passenger door open. “Get in.”

This time, she didn’t argue.

He drove her home in silence, sensing she wasn’t ready to talk. Only when they reached her doorstep did he finally speak.

“Let me help with the hospital bills. Please. I have the money, Tania, and I’d rather use it for something that matters than let it sit uselessly in an account.”

She shook her head. “I can’t ask that of you.”

“You’re not asking. I’m offering.”

“Gabe.” She met his eyes, grateful and exhausted in equal measure. “Thank you. But no.”

He didn’t push further, though the disappointment was clear on his face as he watched her walk inside.

Alone in the house that no longer felt like home, Tania sat on the edge of her bed and turned Caleb’s words over and over in her mind.

Your whole family deserves to die. Especially your mother.

Whatever secret was buried in her mother’s disappearance, it was clear now that it was the root of everything: Caleb’s hatred, his cruelty, the divorce he’d demanded out of nowhere two years into a marriage that had started with him pulling her from a fire.

She needed answers. And she was running out of time to find them.

 

• • •

 

The estate was dark when Tania arrived that night, save for a single light burning in an upstairs window.

She hadn’t been invited. She hadn’t been welcome in weeks. But after Caleb’s words at the gala, she couldn’t simply go home and pretend nothing happened.

The guard at the gate recognized her and, after a moment’s hesitation, let her through.

She found Caleb in the study, a glass of amber liquid in his hand, his tie long discarded.

“What did you mean?” she demanded, not bothering with a greeting. “What did my mother do to your family?”

Caleb’s eyes were bloodshot, whether from alcohol or something deeper, she couldn’t tell.

“Get out of my house.”

“Not until you tell me the truth.”

“Get. Out.”

He crossed the room in three strides and gripped her arm, half-dragging her toward the door. As he did, a sound cut through the tension, faint but unmistakable.

A baby crying somewhere deeper in the house.

Tania’s stomach dropped. “Is that—”

“I said get out!”

He shoved her through the doorway and slammed it shut behind her, the sound echoing through the empty courtyard.

Tania stood there for a long moment, staring at the closed door, before the weight of everything, her illness, her uncle, this loveless war of a marriage, finally pulled her under.

She made it to the hospital instead of home, desperate for word on her uncle. The nurse’s face told her everything before she even spoke.

“His condition is deteriorating rapidly, Mrs. Wilson. Without the specialized treatment, I don’t know how much longer—”

The room tilted.

The last thing Tania remembered was the floor rushing up to meet her.

She woke to unfamiliar walls, soft morning light filtering through gauzy curtains, and Gabe sitting in a chair beside the bed, dark circles under his eyes like he hadn’t slept.

“You passed out at the hospital,” he explained before she could ask. “I brought you back to my place. You needed rest.”

Tania sat up too quickly, her head spinning. “What time is it? I need to find Caleb. He’s leaving the country today, I have to catch him before he goes.”

“Tania, you just collapsed—”

But she was already on her feet, ignoring the way her vision swam, ignoring Gabe’s protests as she grabbed her things and rushed out the door.

She made it to the airport just as Caleb’s car was pulling up to the departure entrance. She ran across the drop-off lane without looking, a car horn blaring, tires screeching just inches from her as she stumbled to a stop.

Caleb was out of his car before the dust settled, fury and something rawer flashing across his face as he grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.

“Are you trying to kill yourself?” he snarled.

“Caleb, please, just tell me what’s going on. What did I do wrong? What did my mother—”

His grip tightened, his eyes dark with something that looked almost like pain, buried under years of anger.

“I wish you die.”

The words landed like a physical blow. Tania felt the air leave her lungs, felt something inside her chest, already so fragile, crack clean in half.

She swallowed the hurt, forcing her voice to stay steady even as her eyes burned. “No matter what my mom does, I don’t deserve this treatment from you.”

For a fraction of a second, doubt flickered in his expression.

Then it hardened again, colder than before.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, releasing her chin like her skin disgusted him. “Stay away from me, Tania. For your own good.”

He turned and walked back to his car without a backward glance, leaving her standing alone on the curb as his flight carried him to another country, and further away from whatever truth was destroying them both.

Tania watched until the car disappeared from sight, her hand pressed against her chest, willing her heart to keep beating just a little longer.

If Caleb wouldn’t give her answers, she’d have to find them herself.

 

• • •

 

Caleb’s assistant, Marcus, had always had a soft spot for Tania, ever since the early days of the marriage when Caleb still smiled like a man in love.

She found him in the office break room, and though he hesitated at first, her quiet desperation wore him down.

“It’s not something the family talks about,” Marcus admitted, glancing toward the door as though Caleb might materialize from thin air. “Mr. Wilson’s mother passed away when he was still abroad. It was sudden, and it broke something in him. He never got to say goodbye.”

“What happened to her?”

“I don’t know the full story. Only that his father blamed himself for years afterward. There were rumors, about an affair, about someone in his father’s life who wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Tania’s pulse quickened. “Do you know a name?”

Marcus shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Wilson. That’s all I know.”

It wasn’t much. But it was more than she’d had yesterday.

On her way home, her mind kept circling back to her own mother, the woman who had vanished when Tania was only five, leaving behind nothing but a grieving husband who spent the rest of his short life waiting by the window for a wife who never came home.

Her father had never once spoken ill of her. Not once, in all his heartbreak, had he suggested her mother left willingly.

So what kind of connection could there possibly be between a woman who vanished without a trace and the death of a stranger’s mother a world away?

There was only one place left to look.

Tania drove back to the estate, and this time, she didn’t bother knocking. Caleb was still out of the country, and the guards, unused to denying her outright, let her slip through to his private study.

She didn’t know what she was searching for until her fingers brushed against a small, leather-bound book tucked behind a row of law journals on his shelf.

A diary.

Her hands trembled as she opened it. There were only a handful of entries, spaced years apart, as though Caleb only wrote when the weight of something became too much to carry alone.

The first entry, dated ten years ago, read simply:

Rest in peace, Dear Mom.

The next entry was dated two years ago, around the time they’d met, around the time he’d pulled her from a burning hall and changed the course of both their lives.

I have found the love of my life. Her name is Tania.

Her breath caught. Even now, seeing proof of what they once were made her chest ache in ways she wasn’t prepared for.

Then her eyes moved to the final entry. Dated three months ago, right around the time Caleb had first mentioned the word divorce.

Tania is the enemy’s daughter.

The book slipped from her fingers.

The enemy’s daughter.

Whatever her mother had done, whatever secret had been buried for over a decade, it had reached across the years and detonated inside the one place Tania had finally allowed herself to feel safe.

Her marriage. Her love. Her entire life.

She sank to the floor of Caleb’s study, the diary open beside her, and for the first time since her diagnosis, Tania wasn’t crying for the six months she had left.

She was crying for the truth she was terrified to find, and for the man she loved, who had spent three months hating her for a sin that wasn’t hers to carry.