The Girl I Fed For Five Years Stole My Fiancé Chapter 04
Grandma’s Last Breath
Grandma is wheeled into a private room.
An oxygen mask covers her face. That warm, kind expression I know so well—gone. Just gray, slack skin.
I sit at her bedside, gripping her wrinkled hand, tears dripping silently onto the sheets.
Grandma, please wake up. Please. You’re all I have left.
I whisper it in my head like a prayer.
If you come back, I’ll give up everything. Kane. The money. The betrayal. All of it. I won’t care.
Around eight p.m., her vitals steady a little.
I grab my purse and head to the hospital cafeteria for some broth—something soft, for when she wakes up.
But when I come back with the thermos, Mia is inside Grandma’s room.
She’s leaning right over the bed, her lips almost touching Grandma’s ear. Whispering something.
Then Grandma’s whole body jerks. Violent. The heart monitor screams. Red lights flash like a fire alarm.
I drop the thermos and shove Mia off her.
“What the hell did you just do?!”
Mia stumbles back, hand over her chest, playing scared.
“I—I just came to tell Grandma some good news.”
“I told her… I told her I’m pregnant with Kane’s baby.”
“I don’t know why she reacted like that! I swear!”
I whip around toward the bed.
Two tears roll from the corners of Grandma’s eyes. A wet, choked sound rattles in her throat. She’s trying—trying so hard—to say something. Nothing comes out.
The heart rate on the monitor plummets. Blood pressure crashing.
I slam the call button over and over.
“DOCTOR! NURSE!”
“Somebody get in here! Please, save my grandma!”
Her pupils are going glassy. Empty.
Something inside me snaps clean in half.
I lunge at Mia and clamp both hands around her throat.
“I’ll kill you!”
“I swear to God, I’ll KILL YOU!”
Mia’s eyes roll back. She claws at my arms, gagging.
“Let… go…”
Then Kane bursts through the doorway holding a fruit basket.
“RONNIE, are you insane?!”
He drops the basket, tackles me off her, and scoops Mia up like she’s dying.
“Mia! Are you okay? The baby—is the baby okay?!”
Mia clutches her stomach and starts whimpering right on cue.
“Kane… my stomach hurts so bad…”
“What if we lose it…”
Kane’s face goes bone white. He picks her up and sprints out of the room.
“DOCTOR! Help my wife! Help our baby!”
Wife.
I turn to look at Grandma.
Her chest isn’t moving anymore.
The heart monitor is one flat, screaming line.
Nurses and a doctor shove past me. The defibrillator whines up. Her body jolts on the bed. Again. Again. Again.
Thirty minutes later, the doctor lowers the paddles. Slowly pulls the white sheet up over Grandma’s face.
“Time of death called. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
I just stand there staring.
Sorry for my loss? How am I supposed to accept that? She was the only family I had left in this world.
I walk to the bedside. My legs give out. I drop to my knees.
The grief is so big I can’t even cry.
I kneel for three hours straight.
When I finally push myself up on the bed rail, my legs are completely dead.
I call the funeral home myself. Sign the cremation papers that same night.
When the door of the cremation chamber slides shut, I swear I see Grandma smiling at me. Whispering, Ronnie, keep living. Don’t waste one tear on people who don’t deserve you.
I walk out of the funeral home holding her urn. It’s four a.m.
I check my phone.
Nothing. No missed calls from Kane. No texts. Nothing.
He’s probably at Mia’s bedside right now. Stroking her stomach. Protecting their baby.
I put my phone away and cab it home—if you can still call it that.
I push the door open. Everything screams us. Engagement photos on the wall. Matching slippers by the door. Those stupid custom mugs on the coffee table.
The joke’s on me.
I pack a small suitcase. Then I place Grandma’s death certificate on the table.
Before I leave, I take one last look around. Then I shut the door behind me without a second thought.
The airport terminal is packed.
I watch planes lift off outside the window. Weirdly, I feel calm.
The boarding call comes over the speakers.
I stand up. Pull the urn tight against my chest.
I walk toward the gate without looking back.
Goodbye to this city that stole everything from me.
Goodbye, Kane Griffin.