Before My Husband Even Died, His Mistress Came to Claim His Body,and I Laughed

1: 1

My husband had just been given a critical-condition notice, and his mistress barged into the hospital with a crew of men.

The second I moved to stop her, she slapped my husband's will against my forehead.

Open your eyes and read it, you dog. Giles Gilbert put me in full charge of his final arrangements.

"Now get lost! Or don't blame me for taking out the trash!"

I glanced at Giles, who was still breathing, and figured he wanted to fake his own death so he could run off with her. So I decided to let them have their way.

In under half an hour, she was on her knees begging me for mercy. And I smiled.

My husband's condition had turned critical without warning, and the hospital had just issued the notice.

I signed the paperwork and came back from the doctor's office to the room.

A group of people kicked the door open and shoved their way in.

Ignoring me completely, they stripped every piece of medical equipment off Giles's body.

They closed in around me, and I couldn't hold them back.

"Mrs. Gilbert, I know you're grieving, but the dead don't come back. Please don't get in the way of our work."

The one in front wore a mask, but I still recognized him.

My panic settled fast, and I asked calmly, "He's still alive. What do you think you're doing?"

They didn't stop. If anything, their hands moved faster.

The alarms on the monitors kept shrieking, and not one of them so much as flinched.

"We're from the funeral home. Someone just called us to collect the body."

I snapped at them. "This is insane. You want to send a living man to the crematorium? Can't you tell he isn't even dead?"

The man didn't get angry. He just pulled off his mask.

"Mrs. Gilbert, it's me!"

Once I was sure it was Bryan Cobb, I forced down the corners of my mouth. This was working.

He was my neighbor's cousin. Back when Giles wasn't so sick, we used to run into each other around the complex all the time.

"Bryan, hurry up and put the monitors back on."

He stayed planted at the foot of Giles's bed, not moving.

He tried to comfort me. "Mrs. Gilbert, I've worked at the funeral home for years. Mr. Gilbert really has passed. I know it's hard to accept, but it's so hot today. In under half an hour the smell will start."

He sounded sincere, like he wasn't lying to me.

I bit back my smile. Trouble was, the real player hadn't shown yet, so I couldn't let him take Giles away.

I didn't want to keep going on about it, but I warned him again anyway.

I said, "Giles is in critical condition, but he isn't dead. He's only clinging to life because of these machines. Pull them off and you're leaving him to die. If you insist on hauling him out and he dies on the road, that's causing death by negligence. That's a criminal offense. You understand?"

The men Bryan had brought didn't dare to move Giles by force anymore.

He was about to explain when a familiar voice came from the doorway.

"Bridget James, why are you scaring them like this?"

The sight of Evelyn Ramsey's eyes, red and swollen from crying, made me want to pinch my own thigh.

"Giles is gone. At least let him keep a little dignity."

Only when Bryan saw his cousin come into the room did he let out a breath.

I asked, "Who told you Giles was dead?"

"And you just come running to collect the body?"

Evelyn didn't answer me. She threw a death certificate at me.

"Can a corpse die a second time?"

2: 2

I was about to explode when Bryan stepped forward.

"Mrs. Gilbert, I know you don't want to accept it, so don't take it too hard. Honestly, Mr. Gilbert passing away it's a good thing for you too."

Bryan leaned hard on every word.

When I didn't react, he kept going. "A long illness wears out even the most devoted spouse. As his wife, you've done more than your share. He's free now, and that means you're free too."

"That's right, Bridget, it's about time you got some peace."

Evelyn joined in, and that was the opening I'd been waiting for.

I raised my hand and slapped her hard across the face.

I'd been wanting to slap her for a long time. Waiting this long had let her off too easy, so I put everything I had into it.

Her face went red and swollen where I'd hit her.

"Who do you think you are, that you get to talk?"

Evelyn glared at me, mouth opening, then closing when she couldn't find anything to say.

The whole room went dead silent, everyone staring at the two of us, stunned.

"I'm Giles's wife. Since when is it your place to call in the funeral home?"

Evelyn wiped her tears and pulled a will out of her bag.

"You recognize Giles's handwriting, don't you?"

"He wanted me to handle everything after his death."

I raised my hand and slapped her again.

"Who the hell are you? You forge Giles's handwriting on a will and come strutting up to me thinking you can take my place?"

Two slaps had Evelyn seeing stars.

Bryan darted in front of me, using his body to block me, because otherwise I couldn't have stopped myself from hitting her again.

Evelyn took a long moment to recover before she spoke. "Drop the act!"

"Giles and I have been together a long time. Are you telling me you're only finding out now? You've cursed me out, you've hit me. You've let it all out, so stop getting in the way!"

I smiled and asked, "What exactly is he to you?"

"Fling? Kept woman? Affair?"

Called out, Evelyn's face went red and she said nothing.

Bryan jumped in to smooth things over. "Bridget, someone who dies after a long illness starts to smell fast, and it's the hottest part of summer right now"

"That's right, he's already turning. Don't believe me, come have a whiff."

They all started talking over each other.

I glanced at Giles, stripped of the medical equipment and barely breathing, and was just about to give in.

"Bryan, our paperwork's all in order, so what if she's the dead man's wife? We'll send him to whatever crematorium we want. Why waste time on her?"

"Get out of the way! Keep getting underfoot and we'll haul you off to the crematorium along with him!"

I looked up and glared at the two of them cursing at me, then stepped aside to clear the way.

"Isn't this just Giles wanting to fake his own death so he can run off with his mistress?"

"Take him and get out, now!"

Evelyn froze, and big tears started rolling down her face.

"Giles is dead, and you still won't let him rest!"

I couldn't be bothered arguing with her. "Enough with the act. Get out fast, or I'll change my mind."

Seeing I wasn't joking, Bryan grabbed Evelyn, tears still swimming in her eyes, and dragged her out of the room.

"Evelyn, let's go!"

"It's hot out, any more delay and we'll have a real mess on our hands."

As Giles was carried past me, I saw that his lips had gone white.

3: 3

The second they stepped into the elevator, I called hospital security.

They didn't even make it out of the garage before the guards stopped them.

Evelyn panicked. She rushed up to the guard to block his way, then remembered she'd brought the death certificate and shot Bryan a look before digging through her bag.

She rummaged for a long moment. There was nothing in it.

The guard spoke up, impatient. "No one leaves the parking garage today."

"On whose authority?"

"It's hot out. The body goes bad, that's on you?"

"Body? What body?" The guard was stunned.

Because his orders were simple: no inpatient leaves the hospital.

He started toward the gurney. Evelyn was frantic now, at the end of her rope.

"I have a death certificate!"

"Where is it? I'm just following orders. You want to make trouble for me?"

The corner of Evelyn's mouth twitched, and finally she blew up.

"What is this hospital trying to pull?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

The whole group was screaming at each other by the time I arrived in the garage with the doctor.

Evelyn saw the doctor at my side, and her face lit up.

"Dr. Lambert, finally. Your guards won't let me through."

"If Giles doesn't get to cremation soon, he's going to start to smell."

I watched her wink and gesture at me, smiling. She must have thought her savior had arrived.

Evelyn quickly shoved Dr. Lambert toward Giles.

Then she turned and glared at me, vicious.

"If you insist on making trouble, you leave me no choice but to call Old Mr. Gilbert."

I saw the knuckles gripping her phone had gone white.

What she didn't know was that this line was exactly what I'd been waiting for.

But I was in no hurry to provoke her. I kept my eyes fixed on Dr. Lambert, watching him lift the sheet and lay it back over Giles's head. The moment he shook his head at me, I knew half my plan had worked.

The stone lifted off my chest. Evelyn's reaction, on the other hand, was something else.

She stared at Dr. Lambert in shock, and when she got no response, turned her eyes to Bryan.

"I keep telling you, I handle thousands of dead bodies a year. You think I can't tell if someone's dead?"

His own words startled him.

Evelyn had warned him again and again in private: seizing a critically ill Giles took care. And now

The thing you fear most is the thing that comes.

"He's really dead?"

Once Dr. Lambert confirmed it, the whole group fell apart.

Evelyn most of all. Her legs gave out and she crumpled to the ground.

"Impossible. You've got it wrong, haven't you?"

Watching her come undone, I said, "I warned you a long time ago. Giles couldn't take being dragged around like this."

Then I leaned close to her ear and murmured, "All these years you needled me from the shadows, and never lost once. Now that you've gone down like this, how does it feel?"

That snapped Evelyn back to herself, and she looked at me, seething.

From the first time she came at me, every step I gave up only made her think I was easy to push around.

Giles was no different. He kept his mistress in the building next door.

Every time I wheeled him downstairs for the sun and watched the two of them trade glances, I pretended I knew nothing, saw nothing.

Even the valuables in our home slowly vanished, one by one.

They'd all end up on Evelyn in the end. Even the jewelry I loved was no exception.

The truth was, I wasn't blind. I'd known his every move for a long time.

The moment they took me for a real fool, my plan began.

But this was only the first step of it.

When Bryan and his men kicked open the door of the hospital room, I knew Evelyn had taken the bait.

Now she was staring at me in disbelief.

Muttering under her breath, "It's over, it's over."

"My whole plan is ruined!"

Then, like a mad woman, she glared at me and screamed, "So what if Giles is dead? You'll never beat me. The one who isn't loved is the mistress."

"No one's fighting you for anything," I said.

What Evelyn didn't know was that from start to finish, I never wanted Giles's inheritance.

She saw the contempt on my face and thought I was dead set on winning, and the sweat broke out all over her.

"That's right. I've got someone backing me."

Bryan saw Evelyn rambling, incoherent, like a mad woman, and quickly cut in to remind her.

"Sis, you've got the death certificate, what are you scared of?"

Evelyn pulled herself together at once.

"Right. I don't just have a death certificate, I have the will too!"

"Bridget, so what if you're his wife? You still lost!"

"Oh, and let me tell you a secret. The house you're living in has already been signed over to my name. Didn't see that coming, did you?"

The three-thousand-square-foot place Giles and I lived in after we married was under the old man's name.

Hearing Evelyn quietly sell out Old Mr. Gilbert, I couldn't help but smile too.

"How's it feel, handing over a fortune worth millions on a silver platter?"

I held back a laugh, not willing to waste any more breath on this fool.

Evelyn saw that I couldn't be bothered to deal with her, and only then did she look dumbstruck.

I said, "When the man behind you learns that you killed Giles, do you know what that means for you?"

"Who says I killed him? You're the one who blocked me on purpose to stall for time."

"Giles hadn't stopped breathing. How did you get a death certificate? You think he won't have a coroner take a look?"

That was when Evelyn was truly scared. The color drained out of her face all at once.

Bryan looked at her, all bluster and no backbone, and reminded her again, exasperated. "Sis, it's thirty-six degrees today. We stall any longer and it really will stink. There'll be no explaining it!"

Evelyn came to her senses and finally pulled out her phone to call the old man.

She hung up, and I said with a smile, "So what did your reinforcements say?"

"He's coming himself. You can wait to die."

I rolled my eyes at her.

Evelyn and Giles, these two fools, playing clever, copying other people's faked-death escape trick, and in the end it was playing with fire and burning themselves. This situation now was no more than what they deserved.

"You think that once he shows up, I'm as good as dead?"

"You killed his only son!" Evelyn screamed at me.

The instant it was out, she realized she'd said too much, and tried to clap a hand over her mouth, but it was already too late.

I looked at her like she was an idiot.

"I let the two of you have your way, played the fool right along with you! And now you want to drag Old Mr. Gilbert out and pin this on me?"

4: 4

Evelyn sneered at me.

"Bridget, drop the little games."

"You can pull one over on me if you want. When the old man gets here, let's see you pull it over on him too."

At the mention of Giles's father, Evelyn shot me a smug look. The fear and defeat from a moment ago had already vanished.

The men Bryan had brought saw that Evelyn really did have someone behind her.

They started in on me too. "Play your dirty little tricks, huh? Not afraid your heart rots out for it?"

I had no interest in wasting my breath on them. My voice came out cold. "I'm not Giles. That act doesn't work on me. You think you can throw your weight around in front of me?"

"You talk and talk, but all you want is to weasel out of it, isn't that right?" Bryan looked at me with a smile that never touched his eyes.

"We can all testify. We only took Mr. Gilbert out of the ward after he'd stopped breathing."

"You think that just because you're Giles's wife, you can turn black into white?"

I looked at the whole pack of them and said calmly, "This is a hospital. You think the cameras are just for show?"

At that, they all went quiet, one by one. A few even tried to slip away.

I didn't stop them. There was nowhere for them to run.

Only Bryan stayed unhurried. He gave me a scornful glance and said with a smile, "Say what you want. Giles is dead. The dead don't come back. Even if his father shows up, there's nothing he can do."

"Cousin, where's the old man now?"

I looked at Bryan. "Enough borrowing another man's teeth to bite with."

He gave a dry cough. "Evelyn's carrying a Gilbert heir in her belly. Even if the old man learns the truth, what's he going to do to us?"

And he couldn't resist a jab at me.

"Not like you. Married into the Gilberts all those years and couldn't even drop an egg."

Everyone burst out laughing. With his cue, Evelyn perked right back up.

She tilted her chin up and taunted me with a half-smile.

"Cousin, don't waste words on her. Giles never once touched this dried-up old hag. How could she ever have a child? The moment the old man's here, you take Giles off to be cremated first."

The words had barely left her mouth when a black SUV rolled into the parking garage.

A dozen more cars followed in a line, jamming the crowded garage until there was no room to move.

"Wasn't the garage supposed to be closed?"

"How are there still cars coming in..."

Hearing all this, the look on Evelyn's face turned even smugger.

The cars came to a stop, and dozens of bodyguards jumped out, ushering a white-haired old man forward.

Joseph Gilbert's face was steady, his eyes cold and cruel, a killing weight hanging off him that needed no anger to command.

"What happened to my son?"

The deep voice rang through the entire garage.

Not one person dared make a sound.

"Who killed him?"

Joseph Gilbert's words landed like a clap of muffled thunder. No one dared even breathe.