Ben kissed my forehead. “My honor!”
But a turn of events occurred the day Ben planned to send me for hypnosis.
As we drove out of the villa, several cars began tailing us.
Ben tried hard to shake them off, but those cars were relentless, seemingly intent on mutual destruction.
We were blocked on the winding mountain road. When the mastermind got out of the car, we realized it was Lina.
In her hand, she held a gun!
Through the car window, the dark muzzle was aimed at both Ben and me.
“Ben, you think you can easily escape after playing me like this?”
“You, get out of the car!”
Ben shrugged indifferently, raising his hands as he opened the car door.
I had never seen a scene like this, and my heart raced as I got out of the car.
Lina smiled triumphantly. “Ben, choose one: either you walk out alive, or she does.”
“Your life or hers, how will you choose?”
A breeze swept across my face from the mountain, and as I looked at the dark gun barrel, I suddenly thought maybe dying wasn’t so bad.
After all, this life had been like this anyway.
“Stop choosing, just shoot. I’ll die.”
Veins bulged on Ben’s neck as he looked deeply into my eyes, then turned to Lina with a smile.
“Isn’t it just death? Let her go; I’ll play with you.”
“Let her get in the car; I’ll stay here.”
Lina laughed sinisterly. “Alright, Ben, didn’t realize you were such a romantic!”
I turned to Ben. “Ben , I’m practically dead already; I don’t need you to save me!”
Ben, rarely angry, shouted, “Sherlyn, get out of here!”
But I was almost pushed into the car, and just before the door closed, Lina turned the gun around.
She aimed it at me and pulled the trigger.
After the gunshot, I closed my eyes, but when I opened them again, I was unharmed, and Ben lay against the car window.
Blood flowed from his body, pooling beneath him.
His face pressed against the window, and I saw his mouth move.
“Sherlyn… I love you.”
I don’t remember how that day ended.
I only recall Ben’s hand falling, and the police arriving.
I was dully taken into the police station and then to the hospital, while Ben was rushed into emergency surgery.
The doctor said his chances of survival were slim.
I sat dazed outside the operating room, waiting for the lights to go out. The doctor finally said his life was saved.
Looking at my hands, I didn’t understand what I was thinking.
Until Ben woke up and said he wanted to see me.
I was used to his capriciousness, but it was the first time I saw him lying here, devoid of life.
He looked at me with longing in his eyes.
“Sherlyn… I want to hear you say you love me.”
He stared at me, seeking an answer.
I just looked at him, not blinking. “Ben… we can die together.”
He weakly smiled. “Sherlyn, as long as I’m alive, I will never… let you go.”
“So, I’m giving back the time I stole from you…”
I seemed to not understand what he meant when someone took me away.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. I thought I heard the machines in the hospital screaming.
Ben’s men found me: “Ben is dead; I hope you get what you wished for.”
He tossed me a box and left.
I stood there, holding the box in a daze. What did he say?
Ben pulled out his own oxygen tube and died by suicide?
I opened the box thrown at me by his man, revealing a video tape recorded who knows when.
He stood in the sunlight by the floor-to-ceiling window, his whole being seemingly bathed in a gentle glow.
He looked into the camera, smiling tenderly and passionately.
“Sherlyn, I love you, truly love you.”
“Even if you will never love me.”
I turned off all the lights, the camera’s blue glow casting a shadow on my face.
I lay back down, a single tear flowing from the corner of my eye into the pillow, then disappearing without a trace.