Chapter 1

One week before the wedding, the doctor who ran my tests told me I didn't have long left.

The news hit me like a bolt from a clear sky, and I nearly fell apart.

My voice shook when I asked him. "How long do I have?"

"About a month."

The thought that the wedding was only a week away drove my nails into my palms without my meaning to.

As it happened, my birthday was three days later.

I went to my lawyer and left everything I owned to my fiancée.

I planned to surprise her on the day.

Call it my way of making up for what I owed her.

Everything was ready.

The night of my birthday.

I called all my friends and laid out a full table.

But the sky went dark and my fiancée never came.

She called me.

"I'm swamped. I won't make it to your birthday."

I assumed something had come up and she couldn't get away.

Then I turned around and saw her wheeling a man in a wheelchair into the private room next door.

I stood outside the door while laughter drifted out from inside.

I eased the door open and looked through the gap.

My fiancée was smiling, kissing that man on the forehead.

...

A high, ringing sound.

I froze where I stood, my mind blank, staring in disbelief at the scene in front of me.

Hailey Winfield had told me on the phone she was swamped.

No time to celebrate my birthday.

And this was what "swamped" turned out to mean.

Keeping another man company.

And the way they touched, the way they looked at each other, was intimate to the point of leaving nothing to guess.

My body was already failing.

Right then a warm surge shot straight up my throat.

The next second.

A wet, choking sound.

Rage twisting up inside me, and a mouthful of blood came straight out.

The sound of me coughing up blood caught their attention.

The two of them looked over together.

When they saw me.

The man didn't seem surprised at all.

Hailey Winfield, though, went still for a moment.

A faint flicker of panic crossed the bottom of her eyes, then she quickly composed herself.

"Why are you here?"

Hailey Winfield came toward me.

She saw the blood on the floor.

Her brow knitted tight. "Are you run-down? Coughing up this much blood?"

I lifted a hand and wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth.

Pale-faced, I shook my head.

"Aren't you... busy?"

My voice came out hoarse and ugly when I asked.

Like there was thick phlegm caught in my throat.

"I am."

"Jack wanted the seafood chowder here, so I came with him for it."

Seeing that something was off in my expression.

She lowered her voice. "Don't be jealous. The doctor said Jack's health keeps getting worse."

"He might not make it through this winter."

"As his childhood sweetheart."

"I couldn't bring myself to turn down what he asked."

"Can't you understand that?"

At those words.

My heart felt like a needle had driven hard into it.

The pain left me trembling faintly all over.

"But today... is my birthday."

Hailey Winfield sounded a little impatient. "You get a birthday every year. Why hold it against a man who's dying?"

"But this is my last birthday..."

"Because I'm about to... too..."

I was just about to tell her.

Maybe...

There was a good chance I'd go even sooner than Jack Simmons.

But before I could get the words out.

She cut me off, more impatient now. "Enough."

"You get a birthday every year."

"A man shouldn't nitpick over every little thing."

At that, it felt like something had lodged in my throat.

I stood there with my mouth open, unable to speak for a long moment.

Only that my heart hurt more and more.

Maybe because she saw something was off with me.

Hailey Winfield hesitated, then asked, "You're having your birthday here?"

"Then we might as well do it together."

"You have your birthday, he has his seafood chowder."

"But don't get ahead of yourself."

"I have to ask Jack first."

"It only works if he agrees."