My Fake Death Was The Punchline To His Cruel Joke Chapter 05
Camille’s sharp voice cut through the receiver.
“Get over to the foundation gala rehearsal. Now. We need to run through the breakup speech again. Everyone is waiting for you.”
Bennett looked at his phone, then back at me.
In that brief hesitation, I saw his choice, clear as day.
“I’m sorry,” he said, grabbing his coat. “I have to go. Wait for me.”
The door clicked shut behind him.
I let out a quiet, bitter laugh.
It wasn’t that he never had a choice.
It was that every single time, he chose to walk away.
Forty minutes later, Leo arrived.
He placed a manila envelope on my lap. Inside was a lease for a new apartment, a plane ticket, and a business card bearing the name Elena Ortiz.
Elena. My mother’s name for me.
Starting today, it was the only name I would answer to.
As my attorney and sole authorized family member, Leo handled my discharge, marking my transfer details as confidential.
The hospital would release no information.
All Bennett would find was a wall of silence.
We took a service elevator to the underground loading dock, bypassing the main entrance, and drove straight to the airport.
The real flight to Denver departed an hour later.
Once I was on board, I set one last timed text.
Send time: 12:24 AM.
The exact time of Camille’s birth, the one she made sure everyone remembered each year.
As the plane broke through the clouds, the message was delivered.
[Congratulations. Joke #100—you finally killed the woman who thought she was your wife.]
A second later, my phone began to buzz frantically.
One call. Three. Seventeen.
A flood of apologies, panicked questions, and desperate voicemails followed.
I didn’t listen to a single one.
I simply removed the SIM card, turned off the phone, and placed it face down on the tray table.
Outside the window, the lights of Rhode Island dwindled and disappeared.
Mara Ortiz was a ghost, left behind in their cruel game.
Elena’s life was just beginning.