No Longer His Wife, His Mother

No Longer His Wife, His Mother

Qijia Lady

5.0
Comment(s)
270
View
10
Chapters

As the building crumbled around us, my husband, a paramedic, held the only oxygen mask. He gave it to his high school sweetheart, not to me, his wife who was struggling to breathe. Pinned under a beam, I gasped that I was pregnant. He told me to stop being dramatic and left me to die, taking our son with him. My own son agreed, telling his father I always "bounce back." I lost our baby, alone in a hospital room, while they fussed over her "anxiety attack" across the hall. They had chosen her, leaving me and our child in the rubble without a second thought. When he finally confronted me, it wasn't to apologize, but to demand I stop my "games." So I gave him exactly what he and our son had wished for. "I'm divorcing you," I said calmly. "And you can have Jax. I no longer want to be his mother."

No Longer His Wife, His Mother Chapter 1

As the building crumbled around us, my husband, a paramedic, held the only oxygen mask.

He gave it to his high school sweetheart, not to me, his wife who was struggling to breathe.

Pinned under a beam, I gasped that I was pregnant. He told me to stop being dramatic and left me to die, taking our son with him. My own son agreed, telling his father I always "bounce back."

I lost our baby, alone in a hospital room, while they fussed over her "anxiety attack" across the hall. They had chosen her, leaving me and our child in the rubble without a second thought.

When he finally confronted me, it wasn't to apologize, but to demand I stop my "games." So I gave him exactly what he and our son had wished for.

"I'm divorcing you," I said calmly. "And you can have Jax. I no longer want to be his mother."

Chapter 1

Alisa POV:

My husband handed the oxygen mask to his high school sweetheart, Bria, not to me, the mother of his child, as the building around us crumbled. The dust choked me, burning my lungs with every shallow breath. I watched him, my heart hammering a frantic, irregular rhythm against my ribs, fully aware that this was the end.

It was Jax' s seventh birthday. We had planned a small party at home, just us. Jonas, my husband, had surprised me earlier that morning.

"Bria' s coming over," he' d said, his voice flat. "Jax insisted. She' s bringing the cake."

My stomach churned. It always did when Bria' s name entered our household like an unwelcome draft.

"Jonas, it' s our son' s birthday. Just us, remember?" I tried to keep my voice even, but a tremor escaped. My heart condition flared with stress, a constant, unwelcome reminder of my fragility.

He sighed, a long-suffering sound that always made me feel like an unreasonable burden. "Alisa, don' t start. Jax loves Bria. She' s like an aunt to him. What' s the harm?"

The harm? The harm was in her constant presence, her manipulative tears, the way she subtly undermined my authority as a mother, and how Jonas always, always sided with her. The harm was the gaping hole she tore in our family.

"She' s not family, Jonas," I retorted, my voice rising despite my best efforts. "She' s your ex-girlfriend who decided to suddenly reappear in our lives a year ago. She' s destabilizing everything."

Before he could answer, the world convulsed. A deafening roar swallowed our words, followed by a violent tremor that threw me against the wall. The building groaned, a tortured sound of metal and concrete tearing apart. A gas explosion. The thought flashed through my mind just before the ceiling above us disintegrated. Dust, thick and acrid, filled the air, instantly coating everything in a suffocating shroud.

A sharp pain lanced through my side as something heavy struck me. I cried out, my breath catching. The dust was a physical weight, pressing on my chest, aggravating my already struggling heart. My vision blurred.

"Jax!" I screamed, pushing through the haze. He was smaller, more vulnerable. Instinct took over. I threw my body over his, shielding him from the falling debris, feeling sharp edges graze my back and arms. The impact knocked the wind out of me.

My heart pounded furiously, a desperate bird trapped in a cage. Each beat sent a jolt of pain through me, radiating from my chest. I could feel the familiar constriction, the terrifying tightening that signaled an attack.

Then, a flicker of light, a silhouette in the swirling dust. Jonas. My paramedic husband. He was here. Hope, sharp and desperate, pierced through the pain. He would know what to do. He always did, for others.

He knelt, his face grim, his eyes scanning the carnage. He saw me, pinned beneath a fallen beam, Jax squirming free beside me. But then his gaze shifted, locking onto Bria, who was dramatically clutching her chest, tears streaming down her face, coughing theatrically.

"Jonas! My chest! I can' t breathe!" Bria wailed, her voice surprisingly clear through the chaos.

Jax, now free from beneath me, scrambled to his feet. He pointed a small, trembling finger at Bria. "Daddy! Aunt Bria! She needs help!"

Jonas had a portable oxygen tank strapped to his back. The only one. My eyes pleaded with him, my mouth opening, struggling for air. I needed it. My heart. My baby.

He hesitated for a fraction of a second, his eyes meeting mine. In that moment, I saw a flicker of something, perhaps guilt, perhaps recognition of my silent plea. But it vanished quickly, replaced by a hardened resolve.

He moved towards Bria, wrenching the oxygen mask from his tank. He pressed it gently to her face, his hands steady, his gaze filled with a concern I hadn't seen directed at me in years.

I watched him go, a bitter, humorless smile twisting my lips. Bria, the perpetual victim, always received his attention. Always.

A raw, ragged cough tore through me, sending spasms of pain through my chest. My vision swam. Consciousness was a flickering candle in a hurricane. I was losing air. My oxygen was running out. And if Jonas left, I would be truly alone. My heart, already so weak, couldn't take much more. I had to tell him.

"Jonas!" I gasped, the word barely a whisper, swallowed by the groaning building. "I' m... pregnant..."

He paused, his back to me, already helping Bria to her feet. He didn't turn. He didn't acknowledge my words.

"She' s fine, Alisa," he called over his shoulder, his voice dismissive, already moving away. "Bria' s much more fragile. You always bounce back."

Jax was clinging to his father' s leg, his small hand gripping Jonas' s uniform. "Daddy, is Aunt Bria okay? Mommy always gets strong really fast." His words, so innocent, twisted the knife in my gut.

I closed my eyes, a wave of despair washing over me. He was abandoning me. My husband, the man who vowed to protect me, was walking away, taking my son with him, leaving me to die.

The tremor in the building grew, a chilling reminder of my imminent demise. I heard Jonas issuing orders, his voice fading as he herded Bria and Jax towards a presumably safer exit. Jax kept asking, "Is Aunt Bria okay? Is she hurt?" His concern was solely for her, for the woman who wasn't his mother, for the woman who had stolen his father's attention.

A profound, suffocating grief settled over me. It wasn't just the physical pain, the burning lungs, the failing heart. It was the crushing weight of betrayal, the stark realization that I meant nothing to them. I was truly alone.

My mind, in its desperate attempt to find a foothold, replayed the morning' s argument, the one that had led to this moment. Jax' s birthday.

"Mom, I want Bria to bring the cake!" Jax had yelled, stomping his foot. "Yours are always boring! Bria makes the best cakes!"

I had tried to reason with him, to explain that I loved baking for him, that it was a special tradition.

"Why do you always have to ruin everything for me?" he' d shrieked, his face scrunched in a mask of pure fury. "I wish you weren' t my mom! I wish Aunt Bria was my mom! She' s way cooler! I wish you would just disappear!"

His words, sharp and venomous, had sliced through me. I remembered flinching, the familiar ache in my chest intensifying. Jonas, of course, had been silent, merely watching the scene unfold, his disapproval a palpable weight in the room.

Years of this. Years of being the villain, the strict one, the uncool one. Years of Bria' s sugar-coated sabotage, offering Jax sweets I forbade, buying him toys I deemed inappropriate, always the "fun" one. Jonas had never intervened, never defended me. He simply let it happen. Our family, if you could even call it that, had been a slow, agonizing decay.

Despite his cruel words, despite the anger that still simmered from his outburst, when the building shook, my first, only thought was to protect him. I had thrown myself over him, feeling the sharp, agonizing impact.

"Are you okay, Jax?" I' d coughed, my voice thick with dust, my body screaming in protest.

He had pushed me away, scrambling to Bria' s side. "Aunt Bria!" he' d cried, ignoring me completely. His small, ungrateful hands reached not for me, but for her.

And now, Jonas was echoing his words. "Bria' s much more fragile."

Fragile. My heart condition. My pregnancy. None of it mattered. Bria, the master manipulator, had won again.

The dust swirled, obscuring my vision. My breath hitched. My world was shrinking, suffocating. They were gone. All of them.

My eyes burned with unshed tears, but I was too weak to cry. The betrayal was absolute, a cold, hard stone in my chest, weighing me down. They had chosen her. Over me. Over their own blood.

The last thing I heard before the darkness started to claim me was Jonas' s voice, distant now, but clear: "Bria, are you feeling better? Just hold on, we' re almost out." He sounded genuinely worried, a stark contrast to the indifference he' d shown me.

My world dissolved into darkness, leaving me alone in the rubble, a casualty of a love that was never truly mine.

Continue Reading

Other books by Qijia Lady

More
Love Beyond The Scars

Love Beyond The Scars

Romance

5.0

For five long years, Ethan Miller lived in silent devotion to Victoria Davenport, pushing her wheelchair, fulfilling her every demand, and harboring a desperate love he believed would someday be reciprocated. He considered himself her devoted world, her hands and feet, following her tragic horseback riding accident that left her seemingly paralyzed. But one chilling whisper shattered his meticulously constructed reality: Victoria's paralysis was an elaborate hoax, his unwavering dedication a mere component in her sadistic, years-long game of revenge. He was exposed as nothing more than a "poor fool," a pathetic pawn manipulated in her cruel scheme. The profound love he had nurtured curdled into an agonizing bitterness as he learned they planned an "unforgettable" 99th game, designed explicitly to "truly break him." Lured on a fake errand to a desolate warehouse, Ethan was subjected to an unspeakable, humiliating assault, brutally filmed for their wicked amusement. Broken physically and defiled spiritually, a devastating question echoed: How could five years of his life, his entire being, have been reduced to such a twisted, grotesque joke? Yet, from the abyss of betrayal, a steel-cold resolve emerged. Ethan Miller orchestrated his own dramatic disappearance, faking his suicide by the cold Charles River. He was no more. Reborn as Alex Chen, he journeyed west to Seattle, determined to rebuild a life free from the shadows of his tormentors, seeking healing and genuine autonomy.

The Oracle's Revenge: My Purchased Marriage

The Oracle's Revenge: My Purchased Marriage

Modern

5.0

I’m the girl from the trailer park who married the coldest billionaire on Wall Street. To the world, I’m a lucky gold-digger. To Gustavus English, I’m just a $2 million "service fee" and a human shield to keep his board of directors from tearing him apart. The morning after he treated our intimacy like a cold business transaction, he threw a check at my face and called me a mistake. He didn't know that behind my "frightened doe" act, I was a finance genius at Columbia secretly shorting his company’s stock to destroy him from the inside. The humiliation was relentless. He forced me into expensive suits that made me look like a pathetic doll and paraded me in front of paparazzi to boost his stock price. Then his brother, Caspian, arrived—the man who laughed while bulldozing the orphanage of my childhood. Caspian recognized me, whispering threats of exposure while his eyes stripped me bare. "Don't method act with me, hillbilly. You aren't my wife," Gustavus hissed, pinning me against a marble wall. I felt the burning injustice of being a bought asset, trapped between a husband who despised me and a brother-in-law who wanted to break me. I was a victim playing a dangerous game, waiting for the right moment to strike. But at a high-stakes family dinner, the power struggle turned lethal. To stop his family from seizing his billions, Gustavus dropped a bomb that shattered my plans. "We are already working on an heir," he announced, activating a legal clause that froze the entire family trust. He dragged me into the shadows, his voice a dark command. "Now you have no choice. You get pregnant, or we lose everything. Don't make me regret this." He wanted a legacy to save his empire, but I was about to give him the most expensive mistake of his life.

His Cruelty, My Despair

His Cruelty, My Despair

Romance

5.0

The heavy oak door of my penthouse swung open, and I looked up, my heart hoping Ethan was finally home alone. He wasn' t. Olivia Chen was clinging to his arm, her smile bright, her eyes sweeping over our home with a look of ownership. "Chloe," he said, his voice flat, "We need to talk." For a month, he' d been asking for a divorce, claiming our life was monotonous. He meant someone new. "I' m not signing the papers," I told him, the words tasting like ash. Olivia' s sugary sweet voice cut in, "Ethan, darling, maybe she just needs more time to understand." A cold fury ignited in my chest as he gestured vaguely, tired of "this" -our ten years together. Then he led her right into our custom-designed master bedroom. My blood ran cold. He couldn' t. But he did. And her light laughter drifted out, cutting right through me. A sudden, searing pain shot through my chest, making me gasp. It felt like a wire pulled tight, a strange agony I' d been feeling for weeks, always when his betrayal was deepest. I stumbled toward the door, pushing it open, and the sight shattered the last piece of my hope. He had her pressed against our bedroom window. "What are you doing? Get out," he said, his eyes filled with cold irritation, not shame. "This is my room," I whispered. "Not for much longer," he said cruelly. The pain intensified. He didn' t just want a divorce; he wanted to erase, to humiliate me. With the calm of despair, I walked to the study, and signed the divorce papers. "Here," I said, my voice empty, holding them out. "It' s what you wanted." He snatched them, his eyes lighting up with unconcealed joy. "Finally. Let' s go. We can get this filed right now." He dragged me to his new Aston Martin, personalized with Olivia' s initials. He was so eager to be rid of me, he was blind to his own betrayal. At the courthouse, ten years dissolved in twenty minutes. As he walked away, I felt something snap inside me. "The bed," I called out. "The million-dollar bed. It was a gift from my grandfather." "It' s just a bed, Chloe." "It' s not just a bed. It was for us!" I cried, the pain in my chest flaring. "I was bored. Love isn' t some fairy tale," he said, dissecting our love like a failed business deal. Another sharp pain, more intense than any before, shot through me. I crumbled to the ground, black spots dancing in my vision. "Stop being so dramatic," he said, pushing me into a cab. I curled into a ball, the world fading to black. I woke in the condo he' d sent me to, weakened. A few days later, Olivia showed up, demanding the pearl necklace Ethan had given me. "He told me it represented the years we had built together, each pearl a precious memory." "I' m here for the pearls," she said. "No," I said, my voice firm. Then Ethan appeared with security guards. "She' s been unwell. She might not be thinking clearly. Retrieve the jewelry box." One pushed me. I hit my head. Olivia cried, "Oh my god! She fell! Ethan, she tried to attack me!" He looked at her, not me. "She' s unstable. Take her to the old property with the basement apartment. Make sure she stays there." They dragged me to a dilapidated building, throwing me into a damp, dark basement. The heavy metal door slammed shut. I was a prisoner. And I began to remember. Not just in this life, but a past one. He had saved me then, binding his life force to mine with a forbidden ritual. His betrayal now was severing that bond, killing me. I would not die in this basement. I found a way out, desperate to clear my name. I went to Marcus Green, Ethan' s business partner, our friend. "Ethan said you' d gone to a wellness retreat," Marcus said, shocked by my appearance. I told him everything. "He locked me in a basement. Olivia set me up!" "Ethan is my partner. He wouldn' t do something like that." "Olivia is pregnant," Marcus said. The words hit me like a physical blow. A baby would secure her position. "It' s a lie," I whispered, though I knew it was likely true. Marcus reached for the phone. "I' m going to call Ethan. He' ll know what to do." Panic seizing me, I ran, a fugitive on the streets, with no money, no phone, nowhere to go. My body was failing, the cough persistent. He found me in a doorway. "You' ve caused a lot of trouble," he said, leading me to his car, straight to the penthouse. Olivia' s things were everywhere. "Olivia is having a difficult pregnancy," he said. "She needs someone to look after her." "You' re going to take care of her." He wanted me, his ex-wife whom he had imprisoned, to nursemaid his pregnant mistress. "No!" I cried, a spark of defiance. "You don' t have a choice. Or I will have you committed." He had me trapped. The next weeks were hell. I cooked for her, cleaned for her, treated like an invisible servant. My health declined rapidly. One afternoon, carrying a heavy tray, an unbearable agony struck. I collapsed, gasping for breath. I woke in a hospital bed. Dr. Hayes was grave. "Your body is shutting down." From the other side of the curtain, I heard Ethan and Olivia. He cooed, "Don' t be scared, I' m right here." Then, kissing. The pain in my chest exploded. "How can you be so cruel?" I gasped, tears streaming. "Honestly?" he said, his voice flat. "I' d be relieved. It would make things a lot simpler." His words were the final blow. He wanted me dead. A few days later, I was back in the penthouse, facing a grim prognosis. The only comfort was Whiskers, my rescue cat. I found him huddled in the bathroom, a bloody gash on his fur. "You did this!" I screamed at Olivia. She lied. "He scratched me." Ethan walked in. She burst into tears, showing him her scratch. "Chloe' s cat attacked me! And now she' s accusing me of hurting it. She' s crazy!" "You did this?" he snarled at me, blindness in his eyes. "No! Ethan, she' s lying! Look at him!" He slapped me, sending me stumbling. Whiskers fell, crying. "You' re a monster. Get out, and take that disgusting animal with you." I carried Whiskers' dying body out, buried him in a quiet park, and returned, hollow. Ethan arrived later, searching. "Where is it? The herb. The life-saving herb I gave you." He wanted the miraculous herb that could save my life, to give to Olivia and his child. "It' s for the baby, isn' t it?" I asked. "It' s for both of them. Tell me where it is. Olivia' s life is on the line." "It' s mine. You gave it to me. I think I might need it." I placed a hand over my aching chest. "Don' t be dramatic, Chloe. Olivia is the one who is really sick." He twisted the past, claiming his life-binding sacrifice was a debt I owed him. "That bond is the reason I' m dying," I whispered. "Your betrayal is killing me, Ethan. Literally." He dismissed it as insanity, tearing the condo apart. My pain flared. I knew I didn' t have much time. I remembered the herb, hidden in my jewelry box. I could let him fail. But suddenly, what was I fighting for? A life without love? I pulled out the box, then the powerful herb. "Give it to me," he demanded, his eyes gleaming. "You can have it. But you have to do one thing for me. I want the divorce finalized. Now. Every last tie. I want to be free of you." He quickly agreed. An hour later, the papers were signed. The pain ripped through me as I finished. I cried out. He snatched the papers. "The herb, Chloe." With my last strength, I placed it in his hand. He didn' t notice me dying. "Thank you," he said, already turning. "Ethan," I gasped, "Help me." "You' ll be fine. You just need to rest." And he was gone. I lay dying, unseen. My life flashed before my eyes. I saw him racing to the hospital, giving Olivia the herb, her "miraculous" recovery. Then, their lavish wedding. As they kissed, a final, passionate sealing of their union, I took my last breath. My death was quiet, unnoticed. He was blissfully unaware he was dancing on my grave. A few days later, nightmares began for Ethan. He' d wake in a cold sweat, a profound sense of loss. He' d hum a lullaby, my mother' s song, and a sharp pang would hit. He looked for me in crowds, picked up the phone to call me. He tried to contact my lawyer, but my lawyer had vanished. A frustrating, low-grade anger grew. A cold dread then seeped into his bones. What if I had been telling the truth? He doubled down on his new life, but the nightmares came back. I was always there, just… gone. The emptiness was a gaping wound. My friend, Sarah Jenkins, called my lawyer, Liam Rodriguez. He told her everything. My death. The cause: heart failure from severe emotional and physical distress. "Ethan did this," Sarah said, her voice shaking with rage. "He killed her." Liam also told her about my will, leaving everything to Sarah. And Ethan was trying to contest it. Olivia, listening on a hidden device, realized she had to keep him in the dark. Once married, his claim would be stronger. The day before the wedding, Ethan found himself at my condo, staring. He felt an overwhelming urge to go up, to see me, to apologize, to fix his mess. But he drove away. It was too late. I was probably gone, living a new life. The wedding day. Ethan waited at the altar, but as Olivia walked down the aisle, a knot of dread formed. He was looking for me. He wanted me to stop this. His numbness continued until the reception. Sarah found him on the dance floor. "I' m Chloe' s friend. Chloe is dead, Ethan. She died three weeks ago. Alone." "No," he whispered. "You' re lying." Sarah shoved my death certificate at him. He stared at it. His vision swam. "She' s dead," he repeated. His mind flashed back to me, collapsed on the floor. He had walked away. He spiraled. "He' s lying! This is a trick! Chloe is trying to ruin my wedding!" "She' s gone, Ethan. And you killed her." The words broke through. He ran from the ballroom, collapsing in the gardens. Every cruel word, every selfish act, rushed back. He had taken my love, my loyalty, my life force, and thrown it away. He had traded a diamond for glass. Regret was a poison. He went to Dr. Hayes. "Tell me about Chloe. Her condition… it was unusual, wasn' t it?" "Rapid. As if her body had simply lost the will to live." "It wasn' t her will," Ethan said. "It was me." He found Olivia packing. "The baby isn' t yours to take. It' s mine. You' re not going anywhere." He told her about the bond, how he had killed me. She tried to dismiss it as grief. "You lied to me, Olivia. You lied about everything." "I did it for us! She was always going to be between us!" she shrieked. "Tell me the truth, Olivia. Was the baby ever in danger?" he roared. "No!" she sobbed. "The baby was fine! I lied!" He let her go. He looked at the wreckage. His new life was a lie. Only Chloe' s love had been real. And he had killed her for it. He drove to my grave. A simple, unmarked patch of grass. He found my locket. Inside, his smiling face, and Whiskers. "I' m sorry," he whispered, collapsing. He stayed for hours, tormented by memories. He found the truth. The long-buried memories of another life, of his sacred vow. He had murdered his own soulmate. Olivia and her mother, Lily, were plotting. He looked at them. "I' m going to destroy you, Olivia." His revenge was cold, systematic. He dismantled her life, piece by piece. He revealed her lies. He confined her to a gilded cage until the baby was born. He gave the child to another family. Olivia was given money and a one-way ticket. Ethan sold everything. He lived in exile, consumed by regret. He poured his fortune into finding a way to bring me back. He sought mystics, bought ancient texts, performed bizarre rituals. He came close, but the ritual required him to burn the locket, to erase my memory forever. He threw the locket into the flames, a final, agonized cry. The ritual failed. The memory was gone. He was utterly broken. Years bled into a decade. Ethan returned to New York, a ghost, the memory of my face burned away. All that remained was a hollow ache. He overheard talk of a reclusive spiritual guide, someone who could help him find what he had lost. Hope flickered. He undertook the perilous journey. Weeks of climbing, enduring, shedding his old self. He just needed to know why. At the monastery, the monk tried to turn him away. "I need to find her! I lost her, and I don' t even remember her face!" he yelled, an agony he couldn' t name. The master saw him. "The soul you seek cannot be brought back. Her spirit has moved on." "But there is a way for you to see her. She is in the world again, living a new life." "Where? I have to find her!" "To see her, you must first truly remember her. It is hidden in the place where your love was strongest." He searched their old haunts, desperate. At my unmarked grave, he knelt. "I can' t remember." His hand brushed against a smooth, white stone. He remembered. A promise on a beach. Our love was in the promise. The floodgates opened. My face, my smile, my voice-it all rushed back. He remembered everything. He then felt a faint, distant echo. He focused, and saw an image: a young woman with familiar eyes, painting in a bright, sunlit studio. He found the studio in Brooklyn. He watched her emerge. It was me. But she was younger, unburdened, happy. His first instinct was to run to her. But the warning held him back. "To interfere would be to risk causing her harm once more." He saw her with a young man, Noah. They were in love. It was a fresh stab of pain, but also a profound relief. She was happy. He started to follow her, a silent protector. One day, he sat near her in the park. She looked up, her eyes meeting his. There was no recognition. But he felt the last, tattered remnants of their bond flare. She felt a strange chill, a flicker of a forgotten nightmare, and hurried away. He had scared her. His presence, his dark history, was still a poison. He finally understood. To truly love her, he had to let her go. He would set up one final, massive trust fund, delivered upon his death. Then disappear. He watched Noah propose to Lily. His heart clenched. She was moving on. He had to hear her answer. He moved closer. Noah saw him, putting himself between Ethan and Lily, his voice protective. Ethan froze. On Lily' s hand, he saw the new ring. And on her thumb, another, a simple silver band. The one he had given me. "Chloe," he whispered. Lily' s eyes widened. "I' m sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else." Noah stepped forward. "I think you should leave." Ethan backed away, the image of her frightened eyes burning him. He had broken his own rule. He realized his guardianship was selfish. He would make the final arrangement, then disappear completely. A few weeks later, he saw them again in the park. Lily was smiling, talking about her solo show. Noah then proposed their wedding be soon. "Ever since that strange man in the park, I' ve felt this sense of urgency. I need to protect you." Ethan lowered the binoculars, a tear of sorrow and peace tracing his cheek. She had a protector now. His job was done. He walked away, not looking back. Letting go was harder than imagined. His purpose gone, he felt the hollow ache of grief. His obsession turned inward. He began to stalk her again, a ghost drawn to the light. He watched her gallery opening. She was radiant, confident. Noah was beaming. Ethan was the outcast peering from outside. That night, his nightmares returned, but they were Lily' s. The cold basement, the dying cat. He was experiencing the echoes of my trauma. He woke screaming, realization dawning. His presence was actively harming her. He dreamed again. As his spiritual self, he watched Lily' s spirit. "His regret is meaningless," my spirit-voice whispered. "It is the regret of a man who mourns what he has lost for himself, not what he has taken from another." He woke with a gasp. His atonement, his years of suffering, had all been about him. He was still selfish. He knew what to do. He had to erase himself from the world. A final, selfless act. He walked to the Brooklyn Bridge. "I love you, Chloe," he whispered. "Always." And then, he let go. Lily woke with a start, the nightmare more vivid than ever. Noah held her, reassuring her it was just a dream, but she felt a strange sense of finality. A few days later, a lawyer named Liam Rodriguez appeared. "He passed away. And he has left you his entire fortune." "Ethan Miller?" Lily stammered. "I don' t know any Ethan Miller." "I think you do," Liam said, showing her a photo. A younger Ethan, and her. Chloe Davis. "That is you, in a former life. And that is Ethan Miller. He was your husband." The words, the photo, the nightmares-it all coalesced. The dream wasn' t a dream. It was a memory. He handed her a thick envelope. "He wanted you to know the truth." Noah read Ethan' s confession. About the love, the betrayal, the spiritual bond, the cruelty, the long, painful atonement. How he watched over her. How he orchestrated her success. His final, selfless act. Lily cried. "He did all that?" "He was your guardian angel." A week later, Lily decided. "I' ll accept it. But on one condition. I want to use it to create the Chloe Davis Foundation for the Arts." She looked at Noah, her eyes clear. Chloe Davis was a part of her story, but she was Lily. In the months that followed, the nightmares faded. She and Noah married. The Chloe Davis Foundation became her life' s work, a legacy of hope. Liam called. Ethan' s official coroner' s report was out. "His heart… looking like the heart of a very, very old man. Worn out from overuse." Lily knew. The spiritual bond, the echo of his sacrifice, had drained him. His final act was the severance of a physical tie his heart couldn' t survive without. A package arrived. The silver locket. Returned by the mystic. "A soul' s story should never be erased." Lily looked at the locket, a symbol of a great, tragic love. She placed it in her safe. She returned to her canvas, a new, bright painting waiting. She had a new story to tell. Her own. And it was just beginning.

You'll also like

The Scars She Hid From The World

The Scars She Hid From The World

REGINA MCBRIDE
4.5

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

Clara Bennett
5.0

I had just survived a private jet crash, my body a map of violet bruises and my lungs still burning from the smoke. I woke up in a sterile hospital room, gasping for my husband's name, only to realize I was completely alone. While I was bleeding in a ditch, my husband, Adam, was on the news smiling at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. When I tracked him down at the hospital's VIP wing, I didn't find a grieving husband. I found him tenderly cradling his ex-girlfriend, Casie, in his arms, his face lit with a protective warmth he had never shown me as he carried her into the maternity ward. The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. Adam admitted the affair started on our third anniversary-the night he claimed he was stuck in London for a merger. Back at the manor, his mother had already filled our planned nursery with pink boutique bags for Casie's "little princess." When I demanded a divorce, Adam didn't flinch. He sneered that I was "gutter trash" from a foster home and that I'd be begging on the streets within a week. To trap me, he froze my bank accounts, cancelled my flight, and even called the police to report me for "theft" of company property. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a charity case he had plucked from obscurity to manage his life. To the Hortons, I was just a servant who happened to sleep in the master bedroom, a "resilient" woman meant to endure his abuse in silence while the whole world laughed at the joke that was my marriage. Adam thought stripping me of his money would make me crawl back to him. He was wrong. I walked into his executive suite during his biggest deal of the year and poured a mug of sludge over his original ten-million-dollar contracts. Then, right in front of his board and his mistress, I stripped off every designer thread he had ever paid for until I was standing in nothing but my own silk camisole. "You can keep the clothes, Adam. They're as hollow as you are." I grabbed my passport, turned my back on his billions, and walked out of that glass tower barefoot, bleeding, and finally free.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
No Longer His Wife, His Mother No Longer His Wife, His Mother Qijia Lady Modern
“As the building crumbled around us, my husband, a paramedic, held the only oxygen mask. He gave it to his high school sweetheart, not to me, his wife who was struggling to breathe. Pinned under a beam, I gasped that I was pregnant. He told me to stop being dramatic and left me to die, taking our son with him. My own son agreed, telling his father I always "bounce back." I lost our baby, alone in a hospital room, while they fussed over her "anxiety attack" across the hall. They had chosen her, leaving me and our child in the rubble without a second thought. When he finally confronted me, it wasn't to apologize, but to demand I stop my "games." So I gave him exactly what he and our son had wished for. "I'm divorcing you," I said calmly. "And you can have Jax. I no longer want to be his mother."”
1

Chapter 1

24/12/2025

2

Chapter 2

24/12/2025

3

Chapter 3

24/12/2025

4

Chapter 4

24/12/2025

5

Chapter 5

24/12/2025

6

Chapter 6

24/12/2025

7

Chapter 7

24/12/2025

8

Chapter 8

24/12/2025

9

Chapter 9

24/12/2025

10

Chapter 10

24/12/2025