My Stolen Song, My Silent Grave

For seven years, I was secretly married to Ethan, country-rock' s newest sensation. My ballad, a song from my soul, was meant to be my breakthrough.

Then my stepsister, Jessica, faked a rare, aggressive heart condition and stole my song. Ethan, my husband, bought her lie, pushing me to perform a dangerous pyro stunt for her music video. They didn't know I had aggressive leukemia, a real ticking clock I hid to protect them.

The stunt paralyzed me. When I tried to tell Ethan and my mother, Brenda, about my actual terminal illness, they scoffed. They accused me of faking, of seeking attention, jealous of Jessica' s fabricated "dying wish." Bedridden and abandoned, I watched my husband and mother fawn over Jessica, who was secretly having an affair with Ethan.

How could they be so blind? So cruel? My body was failing, life slipping away, yet their only concern was her. The man I sacrificed everything for believed I was a manipulative liar, trying to steal attention from a "dying girl."

Abandoned and ignored, the truth of my impending death went unheeded. But sometimes, it takes a final, devastating act for the blind to see. What happens when a secret, deadly allergy meets negligent "love"? My story was ending, but theirs was just beginning.