AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 1
I stare up at the ceiling, trying to figure out where the droplet of water is leaking from. Before it gets worse, I would need to climb up on the roof of my old cabin to repair it. I arrived ten months ago after being unable to take the pity in my family and friend’s faces each time they looked at me. It made me want to scream.
I could tell what was going on behind their eyes as they searched mine for any signs of emotion. They wanted to know if I was going to be alright if I was going to be the same guy when it was all over. But it would never be over for me. I lost my wife. She’d been dead longer than we had been married—shit, longer than we’d been together.
The last fourteen months had been hell on me since Cassandra died. My sweet, gentle Cassie. The last thing I remember was her contorted expression as she held down the button of the morphine pump to take away her pain. As she passed out, I planted a kiss on her forehead and went to relieve myself in the guest bathroom across the hall from her hospital room.
I needed a breather for a moment, even though I knew she couldn’t escape her torture. I sat staring into the mirror after I took a piss, watching the tears roll down my cheeks. I was haunted by the fact that there was nothing I could do to save Cassie. Her cancer had been so aggressive that we opted for no treatment because it would have only extended her life an extra few weeks.
At the hospital, I spent most of my days and nights holding her hand, waiting for her to leave me. I didn’t want to admit it, but as much as I loved her, I wanted death to come swiftly. With each passing day, watching her suffer was making me want to join her in that hospital bed. I was dying along with her.
After I washed my face and came out, I was met with a flurry of activity in her room. Besides the shouting, the long beep of the machines attached to her told me she was gone. I didn’t have to go inside to know she had left this world without me being there.
I sank to my knees and buried my face in my hands outside her door. The nurse ran to me, but I waved her away.
“Mr. Wilton, you can spend some time with her alone. We just need to shut down the monitors.”
“Thank you,” I had managed to croak out.
For three hours, I sat with Cassie’s cooling lifeless body. The nurses kept asking me if I wanted to call someone. Each time, I had to stifle a dry laugh. There was no one who I wanted to share this private moment with. My parents were away on a trip to Brazil, my brother, Noah, was away on security detail. My niece, Rory, and her fiancé, Hunter, lived in New York and my sister in law, Vivian, had gone to visit them. I was alone.
My last memory of Cassandra shreds my heart every time it comes up, and even when I shake it away, I could never escape myself. I had to get away, and the small cabin on the shores of Buzzard’s Bay in Massachusetts was perfect. It was cheap and in need of repair but I had all the time in the world. I took a leave of absence from my father’s building and development company and left.
The leak continues, but as long as it’s raining, I can’t risk climbing on the roof. It would be too dangerous. I learned that March is the offseason, which meant the homes around the cabin were vacant. If I slipped, I’d probably end up dying from exposure before anyone found me.
Under the sink, I find a bucket to place under the drip. The rain is letting up so it should stop soon. Tomorrow I’ll go and get some shingles to fix it. In the meantime, I look around the two-room cabin, which consists of the main room with a small kitchen and living area and a bedroom. I’ve done nothing to alter the place since I moved in. The walls are devoid of any color except for the rounded rough logs that make up the structure.
The bedroom is tiny and barely fits the full-sized bed that I sleep on. But I didn’t move in for comfort; I moved in to be alone in my misery.
I head to the bathroom where I stare at my over a year's growth of black beard. My hair has become unkempt, so I keep in a ponytail, but it still fans out around my face, emphasizing my sunken blue eyes. Anyone that knew me in the past wouldn’t recognize me, but that’s the way I want it—to be anonymous.
The only creature comforts I allow myself are a cell phone, a laptop for checking emails, and books. I’ve spent months reading financial books and economics, trying to figure out where I can fit back into society. When I hear my cell ring, I snap back to my reflection. Leaving the bathroom, I yank the drawer out where I stashed it. The number is recognizable—Zane Butler, a friend from my days at Boston University.
“Yeah?” I answer after a few rings.
“Luc, how are you doing?”
“Fucked up as usual.”
“Any chance of you coming back anytime soon?”
I huff. “I doubt it. What’s the point?”
“Look, I know losing her was hard, but you can’t hide forever.”
My throat constricts, and I barely get out, “It destroyed me.”
“I know, buddy. I just thought I would give you the first crack at an opportunity I have available. If you don’t want in, that’s fine.”
Zane owned Eltech, a gaming company based in Manhattan. The first two games that he developed while we were still in college gave him enough visibility in the market to make his fledgling company relevant. But recently, his twelve-year-old company was being stretched thin financially, and I could already assume he was looking for funds—funds that I had to give.
Unbeknownst to me, Cassie had made investments that she never told me about. Her attorney approached me about them after she passed away. I wasn’t poor by any means, being a Wilton, but when her money was combined with my own, it quickly became apparent that I would never have to work again if I didn’t want to. Something I still wasn’t sure I wanted.
“What’s the opportunity?”
“I’m looking for an investor. I have a new project in development; it’s a virtual reality system. It will be at the top of the market, but finances are tight, and we have a limited advertising budget. I need some capital. Before I go begging to the VC’s, I wanted to offer you a slice of the pie.”
I absentmindedly stroked my beard, waiting for him to finish his pitch. “How much?”
