Divorce Papers or Death Certificate Chapter 8

**Evelyn's POV**

Marcus is staring at Kaley while the cops hold her. His voice is ice cold. "I looked into everything. She's dead because of all of you. And you're all gonna pay for it."

Dad's face drains of color. "What are you talking about? What investigation?"

Marcus takes a stack of documents from his lawyer and throws them on the floor. "The doctors confessed. Kaley was never sick. Not once. Every test, every report, all fake. She paid them off and kept the act going for twenty years."

Mom's voice trembles. "No... that can't be right. You've been sick your whole life..."

Dad lunges forward and grabs Kaley by the collar. "What about your sister's kidney? Did the surgery even happen?!"

Marcus's voice drops lower. "There was no surgery. They tossed her kidney in the trash. Your daughter died on that table for nothing."

Mom lets out a scream and crumbles to the floor. "Why? Why would you do that to your own sister?"

Dad lets go, stumbling backward. He raises his hand to hit her.

Kaley suddenly starts laughing.

It's shrill and manic.

"Why?" She tilts her head, eyes wild and empty. "You're seriously asking me why?"

She jabs a finger at my parents, voice climbing higher. "You guys told me every single day that I was weak because she took everything from me! Before we were even born! You said she owed me!"

"Yeah, I got better years ago!" Kaley's laughing like she's unhinged. "But if I got healthy, you think you'd still spoil me like that? Still take everything away from her and hand it to me?"

I'm floating above them, watching this unfold. She's finally saying it out loud.

"So I kept faking! Kept playing sick! Kept playing weak!" Her smile twists into something vicious. "And you just gave me everything. Took the toys right out of her hands. Even the dress off her back. It was perfect!"

She whirls around to Marcus, pure hatred in her eyes. "And you! That whole 'I saved your life' story? Total bullshit! I made it up and you believed every word! Started treating her like she was some scheming bitch!"

She looks around at all of them. "You think I killed her alone? You're all murderers! Every single one of you!"

Marcus's fists clench so tight his knuckles go white.

"Get her out." His voice cracks.

The cops grab her arms.

As they drag her past Marcus, Kaley digs something out of her pocket. A wrinkled piece of paper. She throws it at his feet.

"Oh, and by the way?" Her smile turns nasty. "You don't get to call her your wife. She signed two things that day. The kidney form and the divorce papers."

"She was done with you! When she died, she wasn't your wife anymore!"

They haul her away while she's still laughing hysterically.

Marcus picks up the paper with shaking hands.

"Even dying..." His voice breaks. "You didn't want to die as my wife..."

"God... you really hated me..."

I'm watching him. I don't feel anything.

Everything changes after that day.

Kaley gets locked up. Marcus doesn't help her. Actually, he makes sure she gets "special treatment."

The same treatment she paid for when I was in lockup.

They put her in the worst cell. The head inmate takes her food, burns her with cigarettes, beats her daily.

The princess breaks in under a week. She starts laughing at nothing, ripping out her own hair, slamming her head against the walls. She keeps screaming, "Don't come near me, don't..."

Eventually they transfer her to a state psychiatric hospital.

I float there and watch. Her hair's matted, eyes blank, drool on her chin.

The sister who used to play innocent and fragile doesn't even know who she is anymore.

I thought I'd feel something. But there's nothing.

My parents fall apart too.

Dad's hair goes completely white overnight. Mom clutches our family photos and cries all day. Days later, they sell everything and leave town with that one picture.

Marcus shows up at the cemetery every single day.

Rain, snow, doesn't matter. He brings white roses. Sits by my headstone and talks.

"Closed another deal today..."

"It's snowing. Brought you a blanket..."

"I'm sorry... if I could go back..."

Then he breaks down crying, arms wrapped around the stone like a kid.

People at his company whisper that he's lost it.

But I know this is all he has left.

He's not my husband. He's nothing to me.

Just the man who got me killed.

Three months later on a rainy night.

Marcus is kneeling by my headstone, wiping off the rain.

Footsteps behind him. A woman with wild hair stands there in the rain, gripping a rusty knife.

Kaley. She escaped somehow.

She stabs him. Again and again.

Marcus doesn't fight back. He falls. Blood runs down the headstone, turning my carved name red.

Sirens wail in the distance.

Kaley hears them and stops. She turns the blade on herself and drives it into her chest.

By the time cops arrive, she's gone.

Marcus crawls to the headstone with the last strength he has. He wraps his arms around it.

His blood soaks into my name.

"I'm sorry... so sorry..." He can barely speak. "Next life... I'll do right by you..."

His eyes close.

Rain keeps falling.

I feel myself getting lighter. Whatever kept me here finally lets go.

I look at Marcus one last time, holding onto that stone.

"If there's a next life," I say quietly, "let's not meet again."

I turn and fly up toward the sky, toward that dim moon.

Below, rain washes over the headstone, washing away the blood.

But my name stays carved there.

Like that painful past that can never be erased.

But I'm finally free.