The Crippled Vendetta

At the awards ceremony for the parasports competition, my ex-girlfriend Seraphina and I stood facing each other in silence. As I accepted the trophy, her eyes fixed on my hand with its six remaining fingers. Her voice was laced with panic. “Rick, what happened to you?” She couldn’t imagine it. The former star student of the top university, now without even a whole body. “Why didn’t you call me when you got out early? Why didn’t you come home?” Her assistant chimed in, indignant. “The day you were released, Ms. Vance waited for you at the prison gates all morning, in her wedding dress! She loves you so deeply, and you just hid away in this backwater town, humiliating her!” Hearing this, I could only laugh. She wouldn’t marry anyone but me? If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have been forced into a marriage with that psycho mob boss’s daughter, wouldn’t have had my kidney torn out, my fingers and legs severed.