The Cat He Chose Over Me

I am clutching my death sentence in a crumpled fist, but my husband is too busy holding her face to notice.

I crouch in the shadows of the parking garage, my lungs burning. The surgical mask against my face is heavy, soaked wet with warm, fresh blood. Ten feet away, Jett leans in close to Piper, his thumb brushing a tear from her cheek with a tenderness that shatters me. He thinks Im hiding because I lost his ex-girlfriends cat. He has no idea Im actually hiding because Im dying.

Chapter 1

"Why did you wait this long?" Dr. Vance stared at the scans, then at me. His expression was grim. "The coughing. The ringing in your ears. This didn't start yesterday, Remi."

I stared at the sterile white wall. "I thought it was allergies. The cat."

He paused. Frowned. "You have a cat? With your respiratory history?"

"Yeah." I swallowed the lump in my throat. "My husband's. It belonged to his ex."

I walked out of the hospital into the blinding afternoon sun. My brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

It started this morning. Jett left the bedroom door open. Again.

Nala slipped in. Piper named her. It fit. The cat was a manipulative little diva. She clung to Jett like a second skin but hissed if anyone else came near. Especially me.

As soon as Jett left for work, Nala jumped on the bed. Curled up right on his pillow. Soaking up his scent.

My throat closed up instantly.

I woke up hacking. My lungs burned. It felt like someone was scraping the inside of my chest with sandpaper. I coughed into my hand. Pulled it away.

Red. Bright, fresh red.

I stared at the blood on my palm. I thought it was just the allergies getting worse. I never thought a little cat dander would trigger a death sentence.

"Stage IV," Dr. Vance had said. His voice sounded far away. "The cancer has metastasized to the brain. That explains the tinnitus."

I wandered down the street. Aimless. My legs felt like lead. Gravity seemed to pull harder on me than everyone else.

I was fine this morning. Wasn't I? Now, I was a walking corpse.

My hand went to my pocket. Found the pack of cigarettes. Muscle memory. I froze. Shoved it back down.

I got home. Took the pills. Crawled into bed. My mind went blank. A total whiteout.

The light faded from the window. Darkness took over the room.

Then, a hand on my shoulder. Shaking me. Rough.

I opened my eyes. Jett stood over me. His face was a mask of ice. His lips were moving.

"Huh?"

A high-pitched whine filled my ears. Screeching. I couldn't hear him. I squinted. Tried to read his lips. He looked furious.

"front door open. Nala is gone. Do you hear me?"

The sound snapped back into focus. I sat up. Forced my brain to reboot. "Did you check the house?"

Nala never went outside. She liked to hide in the shadows and judge me. She was probably under the sofa.

"Really?" Jett's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Why was the front door wide open, Remi? Did you do it on purpose?"

The room spun. "What?"

I must be hallucinating. Maybe the tumor was already messing with my head. Who leaves a door open on purpose to lose a cat?

I let out a breath. It rattled in my chest. "I didn't do it on purpose."

I'm dying, Jett. I didn't check the latch. I didn't care about the damn door.

Seven years. I've put up with this for seven years. I don't have much time left. Do I have to keep doing this?

But the words stuck in my throat. I was scared. Scared he would be sad. Scared he wouldn't care at all.

Jett glared at me. "Remi, it's just a cat. Why do you have to be so petty?"

Petty.

The word hit me like a physical slap. It wasn't the worst thing he'd ever said. But today? Today it drew blood.

Usually, I'd apologize. I'd soften. I'd fix it. But I was so tired. My bones ached. I just wanted him to hold me. Just for a second.

"What if I did?" I looked up at him. My voice was flat. Dead. "You know I'm allergic. Would it be so hard to give her to your parents? Or a friend?"

He froze. Then his eyes narrowed. The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.

"Do you hear yourself? If you couldn't handle Nala, you shouldn't have agreed to keep her. You know the one thing I hate."

Silence stretched between us. I knew.

Liars. He hated liars.

Jett stepped back. He looked at me like I was a stranger. A stranger he didn't like very much. "If Nala is gone, Remi, don't bother coming back."

The door slammed. The vibration rattled the pictures on the wall.

The tiny bubble of hope in my chest popped. I sat there in the dark. It finally clicked.

Seven years. I had been by his side for seven years. And I was still worth less than his ex-girlfriend's cat.

Chapter 2

Jett had one rule. Zero tolerance for liars. If you made a promise to him, you kept it. If you broke it? He made you pay.

Back in college, I promised to spend his birthday with him. I showed up at his lecture hall that night, waiting for him to finish. Through the glass windows, I saw her.

Some random girl, sitting right next to him. She was leaning in, practically in his lap.

And Jett? He didn't push her away. He didn't lean in, either. He just sat there with that cold, bored expression. The look of a man who knew he could have anyone he wanted. Total red flag energy.

He turned his head. His eyes locked onto mine through the glass.

I didn't stay to make a scene. I turned around and walked away. I thought he would chase me. I thought he would apologize, beg me to come back.

Instead, I woke up the next morning to a digital ghost town. Blocked. Everywhere.

He froze me out for weeks. No matter how many times I apologized, he looked right through me like I was air. His indifference was a blade. It cut deep. I thought we were done.

Until the rain.

I was waiting outside his building again. The sky opened up, dumping buckets of water on the campus. I didn't have an umbrella.

Jett walked out. He snapped a black umbrella open and stepped into the downpour. He didn't even glance in my direction.

His back was straight. Unyielding. Cold. I watched his silhouette vanish into the crowd of students rushing for cover.

Behind me, the lights in the lecture hall clicked off. One by one. The campus was a graveyard. Empty. Dark.

Just Walt, the security guard, sweeping his flashlight beam across the wet pavement. "Go home, kid," he yelled over the thunder.

I stared into the storm. "Jett," I whispered, my voice cracking. "I don't want to love you anymore."

I stepped into the rain.

The water soaked me instantly, hiding the tears streaming down my face. Nobody was around, so I let it go. I sobbed. Ugly, loud, gasping sobs that tore at my throat.

Thenimpact.

A hand shot out from the shadows around the corner. Ice-cold fingers gripped my arm. Yanked me into a hard chest.

I gasped. The air was knocked out of my lungs.

Walts flashlight beam swept over us, but Jett tilted the black umbrella. A shield against the light. A shield against the world.

I grabbed his collar, my knuckles turning white. I stood on my tiptoes, shaking, choking on my own breath.

He brushed a thumb over my eye. Rough. Impatient. "Stop crying."

"Jett." My voice was a broken whimper. "Can you please stop being mad at me?"

He let out a low, dark chuckle. The sound vibrated against my chest. His face was pale in the moonlight. Beautiful. Distant. "Hmph. Now you're scared I'm mad?"

I tightened my grip on his shirt. I tried to get closer, to kiss him, but he tilted his head back. My nose smashed into his jaw.

"Jett. I'll spend every birthday with you from now on. I promise. I mean it."

He looked down. His eyes were bottomless pits, swallowing me whole.

"I swear it!" I hissed, desperate. "If I'm lying, I hope I swallow a thousand needles."

He didn't say anything. He just turned around and crouched down. He carried me back to the girls' dorm on his back.

The puddles on the ground reflected our merged shadows. Distorted. Inseparable.

Every time we fought and made up, the intimacy that followed was intense. Suffocating. Addictive. But it was always temporary.

"Jett, I like you so much."

"Mmh."

"Do you like me?"

"Mmh."

"Then why didn't you push her away?"

I felt the muscles in his back tense. "What are you implying?" His voice was lazy, dangerous. "You think I let just anyone touch me?"

My cold hand touched his cheek. "No. But you have so many options. I'm scared."

"Remi." He scoffed. "You're the girlfriend. You have the title. What are you being such a coward for?"

That was how we fixed things. And since that night, I kept every single promise I made to him.

Including the one I made on our wedding day. I swore I would never make him get rid of the cat.

I didn't mean what I said earlier. I wasn't really going to send Nala away. I just I wanted him to coax me. To comfort me.

But I messed up. Jett definitely hated me now.

Chapter 3

There was a reason Jett treated honesty like a religion.

Piper.

His high school sweetheart. The love of his life. She played him for a fool. For six months, she was living a double life. Two-timing him while he planned their future.

They were supposed to be the "It Couple." In high school, they were royalty. He was the science whiz; she was the arts prodigy. Both from old money. Both perfect.

Before they even started dating, everyone knew. Jett belonged to Piper. Even their names sounded right together. Like a brand.

Piper went to a college across town. Freshman year, she visited our campus. She walked into the lecture hall and the air left the room.

She had that vintage, effortless glamour. Like a 90s supermodel who didn't need a filter. Every girl who had a crush on Jett took one look at her and gave up.

Nobody saw the betrayal coming.

The worst part? Jett didn't catch her. He found out through a group chat.

Some guy from our high school saw Piper at a bar, draped over another guy. He snapped a picture. The photo circulated for hours before it reached Jett.

Jett was proud. He was raised on a pedestal. Public humiliation wasn't something he handled well.

The breakup was nuclear.

Jett drove to the other campus and put the other guyChetin the hospital. He didn't want to break up with her. You could see it in his eyes. But his pride made the decision for him.

After Piper, Jett changed. The part of him that knew how to love someone deeply? It shut down.

Yet, he stayed with me for seven years.

I used to test him. I needed to know if I measured up to the ghost of his ex. Once, I "accidentally" knocked a mug off the counter. It was a gift from Piper.

It shattered.

Jett exploded. I still remember the way his voice shook, the venom in his tone. "I married you, didn't I? What more do you want?"

Maybe he was just angry. Or maybe he was telling the truth.

That was the best I was ever going to get. The title of "Wife." Nothing else.

I never touched Piper's things again. Especially not the cat.

Nala was the line in the sand. I had lived in this house for seven years. It was filled with our memories. But I still felt like a squatter. An intruder in his shrine to her.

I thought my love was enough. I thought if I poured enough affection into him, I could drown out the memory of her. I thought we had forever.

I was wrong.

I dragged myself out of bed. I pulled a mask over my face and went outside. I had to find the cat. Cancer wasn't an excuse. Not in Jett's world.

I searched the entire complex. Under cars. Behind bushes. Nothing.

My body screamed. Every breath was a battle against my own lungs. The coughing was constant, a rhythmic hacking that tasted like iron.

My legs gave out. I collapsed next to the dumpsters downstairs.

Jett's words echoed in my skull. Don't bother coming back.

I sat there, staring at the trash bags. Fitting. He threw me away just as easily.

Dead leaves littered the pavement around me. Brown. Crushed. Nobody mourns a dead leaf. Nobody was going to mourn me.

Nala was mean. She scratched and hissed and hated everyone but him. But she was loved. She had a home.

I didn't.

I pulled my knees to my chest, shivering. If I went missing today Would Jett even look for me?

Chapter 4

My legs were numb from crouching. Then I remembered. Someone mentioned seeing strays in the underground garage.

I dragged myself down there. I didn't find the cat. I found them.

Jett's car. Piper was in the passenger seat, sobbing.

And Jett? He was leaning in, talking to her. Softly. The cold, distant look he always gave me was gone.

He was smiling. A genuine, warm smile.

Pain slammed into me. Not in my heartthat part was already dead. My lungs. They seized up