She cut her wrists. Banged her head against walls. Countless times, she looked at me with red-rimmed eyes and asked me why.
And I just kept telling her, cold as ice: "Because I don't love you anymore."
A woman who had never feared anything in her life cried for the first time. Like a child, she sobbed and begged me not to leave. She said she'd get proper treatment, work properly. She'd give me every cent she earned. She just begged me not to go.
"Alex, I won't live much longer. I won't live much longer!"
"Just think of it as charity—lie to me, okay?"
"I still have a little stash in the bank. The password is your birthday."
"I'll give you everything I have. Just stay with me two more days. Just two days—is that still too much to ask?"
Serena trampled her own dignity into the dirt. She humbled herself to nothing. She wasn't even asking me to come back to her. She only asked that in the final days of her life, I would look at her one more time.
I lied to her.
I pretended to agree to get back together. And the moment hope flickered back into her eyes, I stole all her money.
I remember exactly how much was in that account. $35,800.
It was what Serena had saved up for a bride price—for me.