I picked up the old pillow.
It felt strangely light—lighter than it should have been.
Yet something was wrong.Not the lightness of worn cotton.
Not the familiar softness I’d known for years.
There was something solid inside.
I frowned.
I had touched that pillow countless times before, but only now did I notice it—maybe because this time my hands weren’t guided by anger, but by an unfamiliar calm.
“You really hid something, Kara…” I murmured.
I grabbed the scissors from the toolbox.
Just one cut, I told myself. One cut, then I’d throw it away.
When the seam split open, something slipped out and hit the floor.
Not money.
Not jewelry.
Not even a photograph.
It was an old envelope—brown, creased, swollen in places as if it had once been soaked and left to dry.
Inside were receipts, medical documents, and a small blue notebook.
My fingers went numb.
The first page I lifted carried a hospital stamp.
St. Luke’s Medical Center
Department of Oncology
For a moment, my mind refused to process it.
Then I read the name.
PATIENT: KARLA MAE SANTOS
My chest felt like it had been struck.
Oncology.
Cancer.
I sat upright on the bed, only then realizing my knees were shaking. Papers slipped from my hands and scattered across the floor.
Stage II.
Stage III.
Chemotherapy sessions.
Radiation schedules.
Dates.
Two years ago.
Two years.
Two years since he grew distant.
Two years since he stopped asking for affection.
Two years since he suddenly became “careful” with money.
I couldn’t breathe.
“No… this can’t be real,” I whispered.
My hands found the notebook.
On the first page—his handwriting.
“If you’re reading this, Mark, then I’m no longer at home.
I hope that by now, you’re happy.”
Tears blurred the ink.
Page by page, a life I never tried to understand unfolded in front of me.
He wrote everything.
The nausea after chemotherapy.
The hair falling out, hidden beneath a bonnet.
The nights he cried silently in the bathroom so I wouldn’t hear.
“I don’t want him to see me weak.
Mark already has his battles—the studio, the debts, the dream of becoming someone.”
One page was wrinkled with tear stains.
“If I ask for help, it will only break him.”
“So I have to be strong. Even alone.”
Memories slammed into me.
The nights he stayed locked in the bathroom.
The days he refused to move.
I thought he was pretending.
I thought he didn’t love me anymore.
One sentence cut straight through me.
“I saved the money.
Not for myself.
For Mark.”
I stared at the receipts again.
A bank account.
In my name.
I kept reading.
Near the end, the truth became unbearable.
“The pain is getting worse.
The doctor says I need intensive treatment.
Expensive. Long. No guarantees.”
My chest tightened.
“If I stay, he will give up everything for me.
He’ll sell the studio.
He’ll drain the last of his strength.”
Another page.
“I can’t watch him destroy himself just to keep me alive.”
And then—
“So I have to let him go.”
I was sobbing now.
His coldness—it had been armor.
His frugality—a sacrifice.
The annulment—a final act of love.
“It’s easier for him to hate me than to love me while I disappear.”
“Why, Kara… why didn’t you tell me?” I screamed into the empty room.
Something else lay beneath the pillow.
A USB drive.
Labeled in marker:
FOR MARK – IF ONLY
I plugged it into my laptop.
A video opened.
Kara appeared on the screen.
Thin.
Bald.
Smiling.
“Hi, Mark,” he said softly.
My world cracked.
“If you’re watching this… then I did what I set out to do.”
He inhaled slowly.
“I chose to be the villain in your story, so you could be the hero in your own life.”
I couldn’t stop crying.
“The money… every paycheck… I saved it for you.
So you can keep the studio.
So you never have to depend on anyone.”
He paused.
“And yes… I know about Diane.”
My breath caught.
“I’m not angry,” he said gently.
“I’m just glad someone makes you smile again.”
Shame crushed me.
“But please… don’t waste love.
Because only once does someone come along who’s willing to get sick for you…
and leave so you can survive.”
The screen went dark.
At the bottom of the envelope lay one last paper.
A death certificate request form.
Unsigned.
CONTINUE READING IN THE NEXT PAGE
