Chapter 1

On the night Micah Gomez proposed to his true love, Annie Corbin, I stood on the thirty-third-floor terrace, clutching the diagnosis paper that confirmed my terminal stomach cancer.

I watched him get down on one knee inside the room and slide the diamond ring that should have been mine onto another woman's finger.

To avoid spoiling that perfect moment, I endured the sharp pain and hid outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

Until Micah noticed me.

He showed no panic, no guilt. There was only pure disgust in his eyes.

Micah pointed to the edge of the terrace with a sneer through the glass and mouthed to me, "Jump if you want. Don't put on a show to disgust us right now.

"If you've got the guts to die, then I'll believe you weren't lying."

In that instant, the last flicker of will to live inside me went out.

I looked at Micah, the man I had loved for ten years, and finally smiled.

It was a smile of letting go.

I turned around and climbed over the railing.

Micah, you were free.

Here was your gift. Hope you could handle it.

*****

The feeling of falling was strange.

It was like being a kite whose string had finally snapped, set free from the hand that refused to let go.

The wind was sharp and loud in my ears, but inside, I felt an overwhelming calm.

For the first time since my diagnosis, I felt no pain.

It had been forever.

For half a year, my world had been nothing but the taste of blood and the smell of disinfectant.

Every time I threw up, it felt like my guts were being ripped out. Every swallow felt like swallowing shards of glass.

To keep Micah from thinking I was playing the victim, I learned to flush blood-stained tissues down the toilet and learned to bite the back of my hand to stay silent when the pain hit.

I even had to stash my painkillers in vitamin bottles to keep them hidden from him.

Because Micah once said, "Eloise, a woman like you who will stop at nothing for attention. Even if you died right in front of me, I'd only find it a nuisance."

And now, I really was about to die right in front of him.

After I jumped off the building, a loud crash resounded below.

The agony lasted only a split second, then everything was swallowed by darkness and cold.

Blood poured from my body, spreading on the pure white snow, eerily similar to the pattern on that expensive hand-woven rug inside.

I stared up with my eyes wide open, taking in the pitch-black night sky.

Snowflakes settled on my eyelashes, icy and cold.

So this was what death felt like.

There was no fear as I had imagined, only relief.

I looked at my twisted limbs and the shocking pool of blood, and managed a weak smile.

Micah, tonight was your engagement party with Annie.

I had nothing else to give you.

This life of mine was my wedding gift to you.

From now on, you'd never have to worry about me secretly checking your phone, about me drugging your delicate first love, or about me clinging to the title of Mrs. Gomez and refusing to let go.

Your Eloise was dead.

The Eloise you had hated for three years had finally disappeared from your world.

Just before my consciousness faded, I thought I heard cheers coming from the banquet hall.

"Kiss her!" someone cheered.

It was so lively.

In the very end, I thought I saw Micah's cold face, but this time, he wasn't frowning at me.

I was dead.

But it didn't feel like I was completely gone.

My soul hovered above, staring down at the shattered body in the garden's corner.

The snow kept falling, piling up fast until it covered the blood and buried me under a tiny mound.

This was the hotel's backyard garden, a remote spot. With the music blaring in the banquet hall, no one had noticed that someone had just died here.

I wanted to float down and cover myself with a coat. It was so cold, and I had always hated the cold when I was alive.

Micah used to know that.

In our first year of marriage, when the heating broke in winter, he would hold me in his arms all night, warming my hands and feet with his body.

But then Annie came back.

Everything changed.