I Personally Cremated My Husband Chapter 05
The death-simulating drug had worn off—right before he was sent into the incinerator.
Looking completely disoriented, he shoved the lid aside and struggled to sit up.
He took in the dim lights, the cold metal of the conveyor belt, and the gaping mouth of the high-heat incinerator directly in front of him.
“Where… where am I?” Galen’s voice was raw and gravelly, sheer panic creeping across his face.
Then, he saw me. I stood by the machinery in my mourning clothes, calmly watching his panic as he realized he’d almost been cremated alive.
Instantly, Galen slipped right back into that soft, gentle look I knew so well. His voice turned desperate and pleading. “Lia, what’s going on? All I remember is leaving for a mission, and then… an accident. How did I get back here?”
Even now, he was lying to my face. I just stared at him, ice-cold, and didn’t say a word.
“Lia, what are you doing? Get me out of here! I’m not dead! Those idiot doctors must have misdiagnosed me! Lia, look at me, I can move. I’m alive!”
A misdiagnosis? For a guy who was supposedly in a vegetative state, he sure knew a lot.
Panic flashed in Galen’s eyes as his slip-up registered, the words tumbling out of him in a desperate rush. “Lia, you love getting dessert on the South Side with me, right? We’ll go tomorrow! And… the snowy mountains, you wanted to see them. I’ll take you the second I get some time off.
“Why are you just staring at me? Lia, we grew up together. Are you seriously going to just stand there and let me die?”
I watched him, my expression deadpan. When he saw the sweet-talking wasn’t working, his loving-husband act vanished, replaced by a vicious snare. “Delia, think about this. You kill me, and you’re not getting away with it. My commanders and my squadmates are right outside. You really think you can dodge prison? And your dad—if he knew you were being this cruel…”
“Cruel?” I finally asked, my voice perfectly level. “You actually have the nerve to lecture me about cruelty? Galen, do you have any idea what dying feels like?”
His face tightened. “Why are you acting like a psycho? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let me out of here. Now.”
“You don’t understand?” I let out a dry laugh. “No, you know exactly what I’m talking about. After all, this is the third time we’ve been in this exact situation.”
Galen’s fingers gripped the edge of the coffin, his knuckles turning stark white. He stared at me, completely thrown.
I kept going, my tone as casual as if I were recounting a movie plot. “The first time happened right after you woke up. We were at the house. You pushed me down the second-floor stairs, and I died on impact.”
Galen froze. I had just laid out his exact plan without missing a beat.
“The second time around, I learned my lesson. I changed jobs, thinking I could get away from you. But instead, you just decided to run me down with a car.
“While I was trapped in the wreckage, barely breathing, you and your parents just stood there. You actually stood there and discussed dumping my body in the mountains for wild animals to eat so there wouldn’t be a trace left behind.”
“You… you’re making this up!” Galen’s voice shook in a pathetic attempt at denial.
“Making it up?” I glared at him. “Am I making up the part where you and Rosalia used a drug to fake your death? After the doctors called it brain death, she refused to let your family pull the plug. All to make sure you could wake up later without raising any red flags.
“And your parents—they dragged their feet trying to delay the cremation earlier. What were they waiting for? They were waiting for the drug to wear off so their precious son could wake up.”
Hearing his entire conspiracy laid bare, the shock on Galen’s face melted into sheer, unadulterated terror.
“Rosalia gave me the drug, and my parents knew… but we just wanted to trick you into a divorce!” he babbled, the dam finally breaking.
He confessed to everything. He admitted to hooking back up with Rosalia, plotting to steal my money, and even his original plan to push me down the stairs.
“I wasn’t thinking straight!” he sobbed, tears streaming down his face. “We’ve been married for ten years, Lia. Please, just forgive me this one time…”
“Oh, right,” I cut in. “I really should thank you for writing that suicide note so you could play the martyr. You wrote that you ‘didn’t want to be a burden,’ which left your parents completely speechless. If you hadn’t done that, I would’ve had a hell of a time figuring out how to get you out of that hospital.”
Galen broke down completely. He started frantically hammering his fists against the inside of the coffin, scrambling to pull himself out. “Lia… I was wrong! I know I messed up! Please, spare me! Forgive me just this once! I’ll do whatever you want! You can have all my money! Please get me out of here! I don’t want to die!”
I looked down at his tear-streaked face, but all I saw was the cold, dead-eyed expression he’d worn when he pushed me down those stairs and ran me over in our past lives.
I reached out and slowly pressed the start button on the incinerator. Deep inside the chamber, the gas ignited with a heavy, concussive roar.
“Forgive you?” I watched through the thick observation window as the conveyor belt jerked into motion.
“Only God can forgive you. My job is just to kill you.”
The second I stepped out the door, Petra, Marco, and Rosalia were on me.