No Meeting In This Life

Chapter 1

At the wedding, my ex was marrying into serious money, and she was walking arm-in-arm with her ridiculously rich husband, coming over to toast me.

Her husband gave me this smug grin, “Thanks for dumping her back then. Allowed me to find such an amazing wife.”

My ex just scoffed, “Dumped? Please. He doesn’t even deserve the word now.”

“Just a broke, gimp, that’s all,” she added.

Everyone around us snickered, loving the drama.

I forced a smile, grabbed my glass, and downed the cheap champagne.

Nobody knew I’d taken the hit during that car crash seven years ago, saving her from getting killed. I had been left with a bum leg.

I was staring blankly at the bride putting the ring on the groom’s finger, totally lost in my head.

Some loudmouth old classmate next to me was all, “Whoa, Mr. Brainiac, you still not over Mandy, or what?”

I snapped back to reality, quickly looking away. “Nah, long over it.”

“Over it?” he sneered. “Back in the day, Mandy was just a regular girl, barely able to afford tuition. Mr. Big-Shot College Genius was way too good for that.”

“Bet he didn’t think she’d land a millionaire and become a total queen, right?”

I gave a weak smile, trying to brush it off.

But the rest of the crew wasn’t letting me off that easy.

“Hey, Scott, didn’t you bail on everyone, take the family fortune overseas, and leave your dad to rot, a deadbeat?”

“And Mandy’s mom was super sick back then. He wouldn’t even answer her calls. Just ran off. Class act,” someone else added.

I was cringing, wanting to explain, but where do you even start?

That’s when the happy couple showed up to make the rounds.

Mandy lifted her glass, giving me a fake-sweet look. “Long time no see. Thanks for coming to my wedding, and also thanks for disappearing without a word back then. Allowed me to find such an amazing husband.”

I clenched my glass, stood up, and forced myself to be steady, trying to hide the limp.

“Yeah, a great husband is what you deserve. I never stood a chance…”

Mandy laughed, cold as ice. “You sure didn’t.”

“Heard your old man kicked the bucket back home? Well, this drink’s for him, then.”

She didn’t even take a sip, just threw the champagne on the floor.

“How can you even say something like that?!” Frank, always a hothead, jumped up, ready to throw down.

I grabbed his arm, shaking my head. No point in starting a fight.

Joe, the groom, gave me this look of total contempt and wrapped his arm around Mandy’s waist. “Since he’s so beneath you, Mr. Scott better not come sniffing around my wife.”

“Oh, Joe, you’re too kind. What’s a cripple ‘genius’ gonna do, anyway? He has nothing on you,” some random girl chimed in, and everyone burst out laughing.

I was freezing inside from the humiliation, just wanting to get out of there.

But the second I took a step, Mandy shoved me.

I lost my balance and went sprawling, right on my butt.

The metal stuff under my pants was suddenly on display for everyone to see.

My prosthetic leg.

The room went silent.

Mandy’s eyes widened a little, then she got this smug look. “Oh, so that’s why Mr. Big-Shot College Stud’s doing so bad these days. He’s a cripple.”

“That’s too bad. Scott used to be so sharp, so full of life,” she continued.

Joe put on a fake sympathetic face, but you could see the amusement in his eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll call a few of my CEO friends. Maybe we can find Mr. Scott a decent job.”

Everyone else joined in, making fun of me.

I scrambled to my feet, pulling my pants down to cover the leg. “No, thanks. I’m good.”

Mandy snorted. “Find a job? You’re too generous. The way he is now, with all that debt, no company would touch him.”

“She’s right.”

I gave a bitter laugh, raised my glass, and drained it.

“Congrats to you both. May you live a long and happy life together,” I said as I walked away.

I was leaning over the sink in the bathroom, dry-heaving.

After the bride and groom left, everyone started pouring drinks down my throat.

My stomach felt like it was being stabbed over and over.

There were a few soft knocks on the door.

“I’m okay,” I managed to choke out.

I figured it was Frank, worried about me. I wiped my face and opened the door.

But it wasn’t Frank. It was Mandy!

I froze.

She was standing there, arms crossed, leaning against the wall, giving me this look. “You okay? You look like you saw a ghost.”

“You saw what I did,” I laughed.

I tried to walk past her, but she blocked my way.

“Move,” I said.

I frowned, trying to sidestep her, but she kept cutting me off.

“You came here to play the victim, didn’t you?” Mandy said, with a smirk. “Trying to look all noble and long-suffering? You think that’s going to make me feel sorry for you?”

“Daddy died and left you with no one to pay your debts, so you came running to me.”

She delicately tapped my pants with the tip of her heels, showing off my metal leg, and the words cut me like a knife. “What makes you think I’d help you?”

I clenched my fists, trying not to cry. “Enough, Mandy. No need to be cruel.”

“I’ll give you twenty grand a year. That’s all you’re worth, cripple. Not a penny more. And that’s more than you deserve.”

Hearing that from Mandy, it made my heart freeze.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Just hire you to be my servant, always available.” Mandy laughed. “What? Are you trying to start something? Maybe you want to be my sugar baby, despite your disability?”

I took a step back, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. “Mandy, you just want to humiliate me, don’t you?”

Mandy paused for a second, seeing my eyes getting red. After that she saw a girl in a dress walking closer and smiled.

“Lana,” Mandy said, saying hi to the other girl, “If I remember right you liked Scott a lot in college.”

Lana gave me a nasty look from head to toe. “I could never be good enough for the smart Scott.”

In college, Lana had a crush on me and said that I was harassing her. She almost got kicked out of school because of it.

“It’s good to see everyone again. We should forget about the past.” Mandy then pushed Lana a little closer to me.

Lana gave a little laugh. “Who wasn’t an idiot when they were young? But I don’t want someone that’s crippled and broke.”

I ran away from their horrible laughs.

“Mandy really said all that?!” Frank punched the steering wheel, pissed.

I nodded, and he got even angrier. “If I’d been there, I’d have ripped her a new one!”

“Forget it. I won’t see her again, anyway. No point in fighting over it.”

“Why do you always do that to yourself?” Frank gave me a serious look, not understanding. “Your family needed the money back then, and you gave up everything to leave Mandy a backup plan.”

“How could she blame you? If you hadn’t tried to save her from that car crash, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” Frank asked.

I smiled and said, “Why even talk about that stuff anymore? It’s the past.”

“Scott, do you even care?”

I heard a woman’s voice crying next to me.

“My mom is super sick. How could you just leave like that?!”

I was staring at myself in the mirror, my head covered in bandages. I had no energy and was in a wheelchair. My right pant leg was empty.

I was repeating that awful day at the airport with Mandy again.

I could hear myself trying to calm my voice, “Did Doctor Jones get here yet?”

Getting the heart expert to Mandy’s mom for surgery was the last thing I could do for her.

“Scott! I gave up my scholarship to go overseas for you. Why would you abandon me at a time like this?!” Mandy was crying and became even more upset. “Are we just supposed to be grateful because you’re giving us a doctor?”

I tried to explain but couldn’t. I just forced myself to squeeze out a laugh in the mirror.

“Mandy, you should just take it,” I said.

“You can’t find a doctor that good, even if you tried for the rest of your life,” I said.

“Just do it for your mom. It can’t be that hard, right?”

I heard a bunch of loud noises, and Mandy threw the phone on the ground.

When I woke up, I could still hear a ringing in my ear from the phone hitting the ground.

I got up and swallowed a bunch of pills from the bottle next to my bed. I could hear knocking at the door once the ringing stopped.

It was 2:00 am. Frank probably drank too much, didn’t want to go home, and wanted to crash on my couch.

I was sweaty and shivered before putting on a jacket and opening the door.

“What’s wrong, Frank…”

But it was Mandy.

“Can I come in?” She was still cold and had been drinking. Her eyes were red.

I was just about to close the door, but she stopped me and walked in.

“Mandy!”

“Why aren’t you answering my phone calls?” Mandy started walking around and picked up my phone.

I take the pills every night, so I can’t hear anything. I didn’t want to explain, so I just tried to get the phone back, but I tripped and pushed her down on the bed.

I couldn’t move so I ended up on top of her.

Mandy smiled and started touching my face. “Did you know my mom died the night you left?”

“I got into a car accident on my way to find you at the airport. My mom found out and had a heart attack and died before they could get her to surgery.”

I felt horrible.

I was trying to avoid talking about her mom, but now I have to.

I sat down on the couch, pulled out a cigarette, took a puff, and looked sad.

I apologized.

“I’m sorry…”

“I’m sorry?”

She took the cigarette and started smoking. She then got on top of me and blew smoke in my face.

“Does ‘I’m sorry’ make up for what you did to me?”

“Scott, did you know how helpless I was? I wanted to hug you and lean on you because you were my only family.”

She paused and started to look angry.

Mandy grabbed my hair and made me look at her.

“I hate you. I hate that you left me!”