An Unspoken Obituary

The night before our wedding, Liam suddenly sent me a text: [Pick a number between 1 and 365.] I picked 287. That was the exact number of days from the moment we first met to the day we officially started dating. The next second, he replied: [Then for the next 287 days, I'm going to completely ignore you.] I froze for a moment, thinking it was just a bad joke. Until the next day at the wedding venue. I stood there from early afternoon until midnight. My feet swelled until they turned purple, but he never showed up. In a panic, I finally told my family about the text message "game." My mother listened, her eyes filling with deep disappointment. "Chloe, Liam is just trying to test your patience. Why couldn't you just play along with him?" My father chimed in, nodding in agreement. "Liam is a good kid. Chloe, you need to seriously reflect on your behavior." My younger brother shook his head in disgust. "God, you're so useless, Clara." Even my best friend, Maya, sighed heavily over the phone. "You have such an incredible man, and you can't even hold onto him? You're being so stupid." Because of their words, I spiraled into a deep, agonizing state of self-doubt, eventually falling into severe clinical depression. On the 286th day of losing contact with Liam, I was hit by a semi-truck. I died on the street, still out looking for him. When my family went to the morgue to claim my body, my brother suddenly spoke up: "Mom... should we tell Liam that Clara died?" My mother’s eyes were completely red from crying. But the words that came out of her mouth made my soul shiver. "No. It's bad luck." "Maya just found out she's pregnant with Liam's baby. We can't let this upset her." ... "Tomorrow is day 287," my brother said, his face twisting with anxiety. "Liam always keeps his word. He promised he would properly make it up to Clara once the time was up. He's definitely going to do it." "What are we going to say if he asks?" My mother stared at my mangled corpse in silence. Her expression was deeply conflicted. After a long pause, she spoke in a hoarse whisper: "Just tell him your sister couldn't handle being without a man, so she ran off with someone else." That single sentence didn't just shock my dad and my brother. I stood there, frozen in sheer disbelief. "We absolutely cannot tell him that Chloe is dead." "Liam acts tough, but deep down he's incredibly sentimental." "We can't let Maya's baby lose its father before it's even born." A sharp, painful sting burned the back of my throat. I stared at my mother in absolute horror. The agonizing grief of finding out her daughter had just died was still visibly shining in her eyes. Yet every single syllable that left her lips was dedicated entirely to protecting Maya. My throat choked up. I felt sick to my stomach. "I guess that's the only way," my brother muttered. The brief flash of hesitation on his face vanished almost instantly. His tone became completely casual, as if stating a simple fact: "I mean, Clara's already dead. There's no point in her competing with Maya anymore." My parents nodded in unison. "People can't come back from the dead." "Let's just consider this her final favor to Maya." After that, they didn't cast a single glance back at my body. The transport van drove straight toward the crematorium. As we passed by our neighborhood, my mom suddenly yelled for the driver to stop. "I am still her mother, after all." Supported by my dad, she stepped out of the van. "I'm going to run up and grab some of Chloe's favorite things to burn with her. So she won't be lonely." The moment she stepped out of the apartment building lobby, a familiar voice called out from the sidewalk: "Mr. and Mrs. Evans? Leo? What are you guys doing coming out of..." I froze, snapping my head up. Liam glanced at the coroner's transport van idling behind them, his expression instantly dropping. "Did something happen?" "Where's Chloe? Why isn't she with you?" My mother’s hands clenched into tight fists. A flash of pure panic crossed her eyes. Seeing this, my brother immediately jumped in to control the situation. "Liam! Hey man, what are you doing here?" "My sister? Oh, she's doing great. Honestly, she's probably having the time of her life right now, completely forgetting about us!" He nodded enthusiastically, laying on the fake enthusiasm. But Liam's eyes never left the transport van. "Who's in the back?" he asked. The street fell dead silent. Liam frowned deeper. He took three aggressive steps toward the back doors of the van. My mom instantly lunged forward and grabbed his sleeve. "Liam, don't look." "It's a relative of Mr. Wilson next door. They came into town to visit him, and... they got into a terrible car accident." "Mr. Wilson is out of town for the weekend, so he asked me for a huge favor. I'm just taking them to the crematorium for him." The way they lied to his face was so smooth, so natural. It didn't look like they had spent the last 280 days completely ignoring his existence. A sharp, agonizing pain pierced my chest. It felt like a jagged piece of glass had been jammed straight into my heart. I couldn't pull it out. I couldn't make it disappear. It just hurt so much. Liam stood there, half-believing her, half-suspicious. He glanced at my dad and Leo. My mom quickly forced a stiff smile, desperate to cover her tracks: "I was too scared to do it alone, so I made your dad and Leo come with me for moral support." The suspicion on Liam's face faded slightly. He asked softly: "Where is Chloe? Has she mentioned me at all lately?" His lips trembled slightly, his expression filled with genuine guilt. "The way I handled things before... I didn't think it through. I treated her horribly." "I've already booked the venue. The day after tomorrow, I'm going to give her the wedding she deserves." The moment the words left his mouth, the faces of my mom, my dad, and Leo all froze simultaneously. My mom stammered, "Chloe... she told us not to talk about it." Liam paused, stunned. Then he let out a soft sigh. "It's fair that she's mad at me." "Maya's mental health has gotten a lot better recently. She promised me that as long as she has the baby, that's enough for her. She won't cause any more trouble." "For the rest of our lives, I'm going to spend every day making it up to Chloe." My mom's face turned a sickening shade of gray. Liam didn't notice a thing. He thought for a second, then, to the absolute horror of my family, he stepped right up into the back of the transport van. "Since Chloe isn't here, I'll go with you guys. Keep you company." Inside the van, my mangled corpse was covered with a thin white sheet. He sat less than an arm's length away from me. If he just reached out and pulled back that sheet, he would see my face—crushed and destroyed by the massive tires of an eighteen-wheeler. Liam stared at the white sheet for a long time. Every time he shifted his weight or twitched a muscle, my parents and my brother practically jumped out of their skin. They were terrified he was going to pull back the cloth and recognize me. A flicker of suspicion returned to Liam's eyes. When my parents looked away for a split second, he suddenly reached out and yanked the white sheet back. "Gkkh—!" It took less than a second for him to violently snap his head away. He clamped a hand over his mouth, looking like he was about to vomit. My mom forced a pained, awkward smile as she hurriedly pulled the sheet back over my body. She explained quickly: "Run over by a truck. The face was completely crushed." Liam froze completely. Then, very subtly, he scooted further down the bench, distancing himself from my body. He swallowed hard, over and over again. I swallowed hard too. The vivid memory of the tires crushing me flashed in my mind. My ghostly form shriveled up, trembling violently. It hurt so much. Every single bone in my body shattered. But in those final agonizing seconds, the only thought in my mind was that I was going to die without ever seeing Liam again. But now, looking at the four people sitting in this van... I suddenly felt so incredibly exhausted. So powerless. "Liam, how has Maya been doing these past few days?" "Is she still throwing up a lot?" My mom grabbed Liam's arm and forced him to switch seats, pulling him further from my body. "She's so fragile. You need to be paying close attention to her." Liam nodded quickly: "She's doing a lot better the last couple of days. She's finally able to keep food down." "Oh, by the way, Mom. Last night Maya was just talking about how much she misses you guys. She was guessing when you'd come visit her again." As he spoke, he pulled out his phone. He opened his photo gallery. It was absolutely packed with recent photos of Maya. There were photos of her sitting at the dining table eating. Photos of her fast asleep in bed. I stared at the screen without blinking. Like a masochist, I forced myself to examine every single photo. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a handwritten notepad on the table in one of the pictures. It was a detailed log tracking exactly how many times Maya used the bathroom on a specific day. And notes on whether she needed to drink more water or less water the next day. The group in the van started chatting happily. It was as if they had completely forgotten they were sitting in the back of a coroner's transport van. Forgotten that my mangled corpse was lying less than a foot away. My mind completely blanked out, and a flood of memories rushed into my brain. They were all sickeningly similar to what I was watching right now. I used to wake up from nightmares, sobbing until my body convulsed. I would scream Liam's name over and over again. My mom would kick open my locked bedroom door. Despite her severe arthritis, she would limp over to my bed as fast as she could and hold me tightly against her chest. "Chloe, Mom's right here." "Mom will always be here." She told me that even if Liam disappeared forever, my family would always be my ultimate safe harbor. I would cry and scream 'no', telling her I had to find Liam. And she would agree without hesitation. Even if it was three in the morning, she would drag my dad and Leo out of bed to go drive around the city looking for him with me. But now I realized, that was all a complete lie. Betrayal. Heartbreak. Utter confusion. A violent storm of emotions warred inside my chest. In that exact moment, the tears I had been suppressing for so long finally broke. They smashed against my heart. Burning so hot I felt like my soul was being singed. Liam swiped to another close-up photo of Maya. In the live photo, she pouted sweetly at the camera: "When is my godmother coming to see me?" "I miss her." The very last trace of genuine grief completely vanished from my mother's eyes. She snatched the phone right out of Liam's hand. She scrolled through the photos one by one, her eyes brimming with absolute, maternal adoration. "Liam," she asked, sounding incredibly eager. "How is Maya feeling today?" "If we go visit her right now, will we be disturbing her rest?" Liam smiled, his tone dripping with pure affection: "Mom, if you guys go visit her, Maya will be absolutely thrilled." "Why would she ever think you're bothering her?" The moment the words left his mouth, my mom immediately yelled to the front: "Driver! Pull over at the next corner!" My dad and Leo immediately sprang into action. One started adjusting his jacket, trying to look presentable. The other was already scrolling on his phone, looking up what gifts they should buy to bring over. The only one who hesitated was Liam: "Mom, what about the body...?" My mom's expression froze in panic. Leo didn't even look up from his phone: "Liam, don't worry about that morbid stuff." "It's not even a close relative. I'll just slip the driver an extra fifty bucks to drop it off at the crematorium. That's enough of a favor for Mr. Wilson." A burning, acidic ache crawled up my nose and into my eyes. Leo Venmo'd the driver an extra fifty dollars. Then, he practically sprinted out of the van. He was muttering to himself: "Maya loves these pastries, I should grab a box." My parents chimed in right behind him: "Buy a few cartons of blueberries! They're good for pregnant women!" "Don't forget the vitamins!" Liam casually pulled the heavy van doors shut behind them. SLAM. The sound reverberated, physically hurting my chest. I stared at their retreating backs. And swallowed down an ocean of absolute bitterness.