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The first word from Dr. Cole was "Leukemia," and it felt like a death sentence delivered under fluorescent lights, far from the small, coal-mining town I' d never escaped. I had been with Liam for nine years, forever dependent on him, even as his calls grew shorter and his voice colder – I knew he was cheating, but I clung to us. Then, during a call about our anniversary, I heard it: a soft, musical voice asking, "Liam, honey, who is that?" and the line went dead, leaving me with the cold, hard proof of his betrayal. My world shattered. How could the man who promised he' d never leave me be so easily replaced, so carelessly abandon the life we'd built, especially now, with my own life slipping away? That night, clutching the crumpling diagnosis, I decided: I would die first, before he saw me as a burden; I would disappear, and he' d never know what he'd lost.