The Ruined Bride of Velvet Nights by Brick Moving Ant

+ Chapter 2

Chapter 2

While we talked. Mike slipped out, phone already pressed to his ear.

No doubt calling Carol to get her butt down here ASAP.

“Let’s move quickly.” 1 urged. “Tis critical with organ donation, right?”

The team started wheeling the bed toward the door.

“Stop!” Mike blocked the doorway, practically dripping sweat.

“Dr. Anderson, what are you doing?” the coordinator asked, baffled.

“Mike, move. Don’t interfere with Dave's final wish,” | snapped.

“He’s not... | mean, you can’t... Please, just wait,” Mike sputtered, nearly blowing the whole charade.

“Dr. Anderson, step aside or I'll have to report this to the chief of surgery,” the coordinator said

firmly.

“The family hasn't even had tto say goodbye,” Mike pleaded.

“Organs first, goodbyes later. There are people dying while we stand here arguing.”

“Get your hands off my son, you heartless witch!”

Carol burst through the door like a hurricane.

“How dare you try to carve him up before he’s even cold!”

“Mom, this isn’t butchery - it’s organ donation,” | explained, trying to keep my voice level.

“Who gave you the right?”

“I'm honoring Dave's wishes.”

“Bullshit! My son would never agree to this. | absolutely refuse!”

dont Volvat Nights

Chapter 2

Carol shoved past the transplant coordinator

“Get out! Nobody's touching my baby boy.”

The coordinator left reluctantly, shootingan apologetic look.

Mike sagged against the wall, finally able to breathe again

Dave was probably thanking his lucky stars on that bed, thinking he'd dodged a bullet

“My poor baby...”

Carol threw herself onto Dave's body with all the of a soap opera star.

“How will | go on without you?” Then she whirled on me, mascara running down her cheeks.

“This is all your fault, you gold-digging tramp! You worked him to death!”

She catwith her French-manicured claws out.

I saw red.

In my previous life, it was Carol who'd rushed Dave's “body” to cremation.

She’d been in on the whole scam.

“Back off, Carol. You want to talk about who killed Dave? Look in the mirror!” | shoved her away.

She stumbled back, mouth hanging open. “How dare you! | would never hurt my son!”

“Oh really? Why do you think he was always hustling for more money? Because his mommy dearest has a

gambling addiction and keeps maxing out credit cards at the Hard Rock Casino!”

“I only lost a couple hundred grand...”

“A couple hundred grand? Jesus Christ, Carol.”

“Do you know what the median incis in this city?”

“Most people don’t see that kind of money in five years.”

“And let's not forget your little ‘accident last month that cost us twenty grand in medical bills, Don’t think |

don’t know what really happened.”

“You weren't ‘rear ended at the mall. You got caught fooling around with Susan’s husband at the country

club,”

“That's a lie!” Carol's face turned scarlet,

“Save it. | saw your ER report,”

“The whole club is talking about how you've been working your way through the married men’s golf league,”

“If you're that lonely, join Matchlike a normal person instead of breaking up marriages.”

“You shut your mouth!” Carol lunged for my throat.

1 sidestepped and she slammed into the crash cart, knocking herself out cold.

“Carol!” | rushed to check on her, helping the nurses get her onto a nearby gurney.

Mike hovered anxiously nearby.

“Mike, help her! We need a nurse in here!” | ran into the hallway shouting.

While the medical team swarmed in, | grabbed Dave's personal effects bag and started wheeling him toward

the service elevator.

Outside, the funeral hvan was already waiting.

| slipped the driver five hundred bucks to take the fastest route to the crematorium.

Carol and Mike's calls started flooding my phone.

I hit “decline” on both.

In the back of the van, it was justand Dave.

| dug through his clothes until | found his phone case. Inside was his lucky hundred-dollar bill - “for good

fortune,” he always said - and folded with it, the Mega Millions jackpot ticket.

hapter 2

One ticket, forty plays, worth two hundred million dollars.

With this kind of money, | could rewrite my whole future.

| pulled back the sheet and noticed Dave had wet himself.

The organ donation threat must have scared him senseless.

It confirmed he was still conscious, just paralyzed.

“Looking for the Mega Millions jackpot ticket, honey?”

“Wondering how | knew about it? Let's just say I've seen how this plays out before.”

“In my last life, you and your high school sweetheart lived it up in your beachfront mansion while |

worked the pole to pay off your debts.”

“I got HIV, and when | finally tracked you down, you ranover like roadkill. What kind of monster does

that?”

“You love playing dead so much?”

“Fine. This twe'll make it permanent.”

“Once you're in that crematorium, you'll know what it feels like to really burn.”

Dave's eyelids twitched.

“Scared? Having second thoughts? Too bad, baby.”

“Today, you're going up in smoke for real.”

Carol and Mike kept calling. | put my phone on airplane mode.

Thirty minutes later, we pulled up to Sunset Hills Cremation Center.

| thought we could get started right away, but there were six families ahead of us.

The receptionist toldit would be at least three hours before they could take him.

My stomach dropped. Carol and Mike had to be on their way by now.

Chapsy 3

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