My Husband Paid Me for Likes, So I Made Him Pay After His Accident

When I went to ask my multimillionaire husband for my allowance, the childhood sweetheart living under our roof grabbed his phone, snapped an ugly photo of me, and posted it to his social media feed.

The little vampire's here begging for money again. A hundred bucks per like. How many likes do you all think she's worth?

I lunged for the phone to delete the post.

My mother-in-law held me back and said it was a wonderful idea.

My husband praised her for being so clever, and decided that from then on my allowance would be paid according to the number of likes.

For the sake of my grandmother lying in her hospital bed, I swallowed the humiliation and didn't dare fight back.

For the next three years, the likes only dwindled.

When Grandma was eight thousand short for her surgery, I begged everyone I could and still got only seventy likes.

By the end, when I was pregnant and malnourished and needed to buy supplements, I got two.

In the end Grandma died because there was no money for her surgery.

And the child in my belly dissolved into blood because of my long malnutrition.

Just as my heart went dead and I decided to divorce him, my husband was in a car accident.

His body lay in the hospital bed, but his soul was up in the air, ranting.

*Go find the best doctors, at home and abroad, to treat me right now.*

*Otherwise, once I wake up, you won't get a single dollar from me.*

I only pulled out my cracked-screen phone, took a photo of him, and posted it to my social media feed.

"Collecting likes. One like and I pull the oxygen tube."

One:

The moment that post went up.

Thomas Maxwell, floating in the air, was so furious he nearly came back to "life."

He came drifting at me, all flailing arms, muttering that he'd teach me a lesson. Pity that after all that effort, the most he managed was to stir a few strands of my hair.

*Serena Bellamy, have you lost your mind?*

*I order you to delete that post, go tell the doctor you can see me, and have him find a way to save me, or else I'll*

I turned the screen off, gave a cold laugh, and looked at him.

"Or else you'll post to your feed and collect likes, and make my allowance two hundred next month so I can't afford to eat?"

"No, wait. I think I've been through that a few times already. It doesn't scare me anymore."

Thomas of course knew that a two-hundred allowance was what caused my miscarriage, so a little guilt crossed his face.

But he recovered his confidence soon enough.

*Nobody's going to like that post. No one's going to go crazy with you and become an accomplice to murder!*

I pressed the phone on and looked.

Thomas wasn't wrong. The post had been up for fifteen minutes, and not a single person had liked it.

Which was normal, really.

Ever since my allowance became a hundred dollars per like, I'd often begged our mutual friends to like his posts. After three years of that harassment, they'd all either muted or blocked me.

And the ones who hadn't blocked me would never joke around and like something like this.

I sighed, a little regretful.

Thomas thought I'd given up. He kept ordering me around, telling me to hurry and go find a doctor.

But I didn't move. I just looked at him.

"I know one person who'll like it. She wants you dead more than anyone!"

And with that.

Under Thomas's baffled stare, I gave the post a like, and before he had any chance to react, I pulled his oxygen tube right out!

2:

The moment the oxygen tube came free, every machine wired to Thomas started to flash and shriek.

All of them warned Thomas and me that the body on the bed was fading fast. The heart monitor most of all the line growing more erratic by the second, on the verge of going flat.

This.

It looked so much like the day I couldn't scrape together the money for surgery and could only sit there crying, keeping watch over Grandma.

It finally sank in for Thomas.

I wasn't joking at all. I really did want him dead.

So he froze for a few seconds, then began to scream, pounding on the closed door of the room, shouting for help.

Too bad heaven had played a fatal joke on him.

Floating there in the air, he was visible only to me, and his screaming could be heard only by me.

There was nothing for it. He had to come back to me.

*Serena, don't lose your mind. Put it back in, right now, get a doctor, now!*

*Your grandmother and our child dying was just an accident. But what you're doing to me right now is wrong. This is murder.*

*Or do you want to die together with me?*

*I'm begging you, put it back. The moment I wake up, I swear I won't hold any of this against you. We'll go back to how we were.*

I smiled.

Back to how we were? A hundred dollars per like?

"No need for that anymore."

"In your heart I stopped being your wife a long time ago. But legally, I'm still your closest relative."

As I spoke, I picked up the withdrawal-of-treatment form from the corner of the table and gave it a little wave.

"Which means I can sign to withdraw treatment. And I can pull your oxygen tube myself, all perfectly reasonable, legal, and by the book, and send you off to apologize to my grandmother and my child."

"And I even played fair. I waited more than ten minutes, and only pulled the tube after I saw the like."

"I learned all of this from you. Isn't that right?"

3:

Thomas had nothing to say.

Because I hadn't gotten a single thing wrong.

Ever since his childhood sweetheart Kitty came back from abroad and latched onto him, everything between us changed.

He listened to Kitty's poison and grew colder to me by the day.

To keep Kitty happy, he froze every asset in my name and had me blacklisted across the industry so I couldn't take any work, leaving me to live with my hand held out for money.

And even that wasn't enough for them. When I asked for my allowance, they made me write down the reason and hold it up in front of me, then they'd photograph how pathetic I looked and post it on social media.

A hundred dollars per like.

It was those likes, one by one, that stripped everything away from me.

Thomas must have realized this too, realized I was truly capable of letting him die.

So he dropped to his knees in front of me.

*I really don't want to die.*

I stood, looking down at Thomas.

"You don't want to die? And my grandmother, my child, they wanted to die?"

Thomas started to apologize, weeping as he spoke.

*I know I was wrong. But please, for the sake of what we used to have, give me a chance to make it right.*

*When I wake up I'll treat you well. I'll send my mother and Kitty both away, I'll never let them bully you again.*

*And if you've given up on me completely and want a divorce, I'll agree to that too. We'll split everything down the middle, part on good terms. All right?*

I smiled.

"I did think about divorce before. But now I think being a widow beats being divorced."

"You never wrote a will anyway. Your estate, I'd get three quarters of it. Isn't that a lot better than splitting it down the middle?"

Thomas began to kowtow. Strange as it was, he couldn't touch anything, yet the kowtowing looked exactly real. The skin of his forehead reddened before my eyes, turned purple, and finally broke into blood.

But I felt no softening. I only watched the heart monitor start to flatten into a single line.

And then, at that last critical moment.

The door opened. A hand snatched the oxygen tube out of mine and shoved it straight back in.

Four:

I turned my head with a flicker of regret and saw that it was Kitty Delaney.

Thomas lit up with excitement and got straight to his feet, crossing over to stand in front of her, tears and snot streaming down mixed with the blood from his forehead.

"Kitty, thank God you're here."

"This bitch nearly got me killed. Hurry, go get a doctor, tell the doctor to"

But before Thomas could finish,

Kitty reached out, her hand passing right through him, and slapped me across the face.

"Serena Bellamy, aren't you clever."

"You think if this fool Thomas dies, you get to seize all his money and throw me out? Dream on!"

"The first time I ever met you, I told youI came to destroy this family, not to join it. Or did you forget that?"

Of course I hadn't forgotten.

But Thomas didn't know any of this. He'd never imagined that what I'd said before was true, that the sweet, gentle, adorable Kitty he carried in his heart could wear this face in front of me.

I saw how wounded he looked, and I couldn't hold back a smile.

"See now how formidable your little sweetheart is?"

"See now whether the person you love is a human or a ghost?"

Kitty followed my gaze, but she saw nothing.

"Serena, who are you talking to?"

I explained the situation, but Kitty simply took me for someone out of her mind.

Naturally I didn't waste any more words on her. I reached out again, meaning to pull Thomas's oxygen tube loose.

But Kitty wouldn't allow it. She grabbed my hand and started screaming for help, and the instant the door opened she slapped herself across the face, crumpled to the floor, and burst into tears.

"Serena, whatever's wrong, it's all my fault."

"If you've got a grudge, take it out on me. Please, spare Thomas. Please don't kill him."

Five:

The whole routine flowed without a hitch, and both Thomas and I had seen it many times.

Only, all this time Thomas had truly believed it was me who'd done it. It was only now that it dawned on himmaybe, in all those past incidents, I really had been innocent.

"How can this be?"

"Just now, just now she clearly did it herself."

I gave the smile of someone long used to it.

"Kitty, what are you performing?"

"The person who trusts you most is lying on that hospital bed. What's the point of putting on this show for anyone else?"

Kitty looked a little awkward too.

I supposed it had all become muscle memory by now, and she'd forgotten what the situation actually was.

Still, Kitty didn't get up. She crawled on her knees to the doctor who had come in through the door.

"Doctor, please, please, hurry and call the police."

"I saw a murder announcement Serena posted on her social media, and I'm Thomas's best friend, so I rushed straight over."

"The moment I came in, this woman pulled out the oxygen tube, trying to kill him"

However disappointed Thomas was in Kitty,

what he wanted more was to live.

So once again he took her side.

"Serena, you're finished. When you're in prison, I'll come visit you often."

I paid Thomas no attention and only looked at the doctor, who took one glance and understood exactly what this was.

So he explained patiently.

"Miss, Ms. Serena Bellamy is Mr. Thomas Maxwell's lawful partner."

"After the accident she was the first to reach the hospital, and she signed to withdraw treatment. Everything she has done is a right granted to her under marriage lawreasonable, lawful, and fully in order. It is not the murder you're describing."

"If you are only Mr. Maxwell's friend, then this is not something you can interfere in."

Thomas and Kitty both panicked at once, but the next second, the door opened again.

"Kitty can't interfere, but I can!"

Six:

The one who came in was my mother-in-law, Silvia Hancock. As Thomas's mother, she naturally had every right to demand he be saved.

I rolled my eyes.

Sure enough, villains die from talking too much. I never should have posted to my feed just to feel better, never should have wasted time trading words with Thomas. I should have kept quiet, made my move, and pulled the oxygen tube straight out.

The moment Silvia walked in, she first helped Kitty up off the floor.

Then she tore the withdrawal-of-treatment form to shreds, demanded that treatment continue, and told the doctors to draw up a proper plan based on his condition and come back.

The doctors, who had wanted a show, left with a touch of disappointment.

Once the doctors were gone, Silvia slapped me across the face.

"You little bitch."

"If Kitty hadn't warned me, I nearly lost my Thomas."

Thomas noticed the slap even before I did.

I have no idea what was going through his head.

But he actually stepped in front of me, trying to block it.

*Mom, it's not what you think.*

*Kitty's the fake one here. We had it all wrong about Serena before, and honestly, her pulling my oxygen tube is understandable. Don't blame her.*

Pity, though.

Silvia couldn't see Thomas floating in the air either. She just turned back to Kitty, fussing over her with aching tenderness.

"Thomas is already lying in that bed. What are you putting yourself through this suffering act for?"

"Do you have any idea how much it hurts me to see you like this?"

Thomas was even more stunned.

*What does my mother mean by that?*

*Don't tell me she knew all along too. She wasn't cruel to you because you were bad. She was helping Kitty the whole time?*

I nodded.

"That's right. Now you finally know what kind of people your mother and your true love really are."

Silvia froze.

Kitty rushed to cover.

"Serena's playing crazy. She keeps insisting that idiot Thomas is standing right here watching us."

"Go home and rest. I'll handle everything from here."

Seven:

Silvia left soon after.

I didn't. I just stood there, looking at Thomas.

"Congratulations. You don't have to die after all."

Even shaken by what Kitty and Silvia truly were, the lovestruck fool started hypnotizing himself again.

*Kitty only did all this because she loves me. And my mother helped because she knew Kitty was the right match for me.*

*So I won't be angry.*

*When I wake up, I'll use this insanity of yours today to have you committed to a psychiatric hospital, and I'll file for divorce. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with Kitty!*

I nodded.

Then I kindly relayed all of that to Kitty.

She looked at me like I was some kind of monster.

"Serena, what on earth are you performing here?"

"You know better than anyone that I don't feel a thing for Thomas. Only an idiot like you would love an idiot like him. I was only ever with him for the money."

"You knew I was in it for the money. You were afraid this fool would get conned by me, and that's the only reason you refused to let him divorce me, isn't it?"

"So everything you've been through, you brought on yourself. You deserve it!"

Of course I knew all this.

That was exactly why I'd said it out loud. If it was going to end, it might as well take both sides down together. At least that made it interesting.

I glanced at Thomas and turned to leave, but Kitty grabbed hold of me and started her self-inflicted suffering act again. Thomas and I exchanged a look, neither of us with any clue what she was playing at this time.

Before I could react, though, she took advantage of the moment. She seized my hand while I wasn't watching and made me pull Thomas's oxygen tube out again. Two tubes yanked in a row, and his heartbeat quickly flattened into a straight line.

I was more confused than ever.

But before I could ask anything, Kitty flung my hand away and ran into the hallway, screaming.

"Help, murder, someone help!"

"Serena killed Thomas...."