She had humbly begged his mother Patricia for just $300 to pay for a specialized oncology consult in the city.
Patricia had spat on her request and flatly refused to give her a single dollar, openly accusing Chloe of fabricating a fake illness just to steal Austin’s military paychecks.
Brenda had aggressively monitored Chloe’s daily phone usage, making sure she couldn’t call overseas or ask anyone in the military community for financial help.
The thousands of dollars Austin had sent home every month to care for his family had been systematically intercepted before a single penny could ever reach his dying wife.
Chloe had been trapped in a terrifying nightmare between a deadly disease and absolute human cruelty.
So she had made a heartbreaking choice that no human being should ever be forced to make.
She had cut off all her own gorgeous hair with rusty kitchen scissors.
She had walked down to a local wig shop and sold her hair for $150 in cash.
She had used those few paper bills to pay for bus tickets and the critical medical biopsy that ultimately saved her life by giving her a definitive diagnosis.
While Patricia and Brenda lived like queens upstairs surrounded by modern comforts paid for by his sacrifice, Chloe had been forced to sell her own physical body parts just to find out if she had a chance at survival.
Austin had pulled her tight into his arms, holding her delicate frame against his chest while promising her that everything was about to change.
However, inside his mind, the loving young man who had left for war four years ago had vanished entirely.
The soldier sitting in that damp storage room was now conducting a calculated tactical operation against the monsters living in his own house.
He stayed wide awake the entire night while his mother and sister slept peacefully on expensive mattresses upstairs.
Every small sound coming from the upper floors sounded completely different now.
The creaking wooden floorboards.
The heavy doors opening and closing.
The selfish conversations they held when they thought nobody was listening.
The house was completely packed with expensive items paid for by his blood, but the woman he loved most had been shoved into the darkest corner to rot.
By the time the morning sun began to light up the sky, Austin knew he could not execute his plan based on blind anger alone.
