Surviving My Love

While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her

Katie Oettgen

As I lay on the floor of our manor, bleeding out from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I used my last ounce of strength to call my husband, Cole. I begged him for help, my vision blurring. But the only thing I heard was the clinking of champagne glasses and his mistress's giggle in the background. "Stop the drama, June," Cole snapped, his voice cold. "We're about to go on stage. Don't call again." He hung up, leaving me to die alone on the Persian rug while he accepted an award with another woman on his arm. I woke up in the hospital days later. My baby was gone. They had removed my fallopian tube. Cole finally arrived, smelling of expensive scotch and his mistress's perfume. He didn't hug me. He didn't cry. Instead, he leaned over my hospital bed, pressing his knee into the mattress until my fresh stitches tore open and bled. "You embarrassed me by calling an ambulance," he hissed. "My mistress, Alycia, says you're faking it. Clean yourself up." He left me bleeding again to go announce a $10 million donation to Alycia's "groundbreaking" medical research. I stared at the TV screen, numb. The research Alycia was taking credit for? It was mine. I wrote that patent years ago under a pseudonym. They thought I was just a poor, orphan housewife who needed Cole's money to survive. They had no idea I was actually a billionaire scientist hiding my identity. I pulled the IV needle out of my arm. A drop of blood fell onto the divorce papers I had been hiding. I didn't wipe it off. I signed my name right over it. Then I walked into the bank, reactivated my dormant account with $128 million, and bought the penthouse directly overlooking Cole's house. The mourning widow is dead. The avenger is born.

Romance Crime Revenge Pregnancy Enemies to Lovers Pregnancy Personal Growth

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Kenzie dragged in a sharp, jagged breath, her lungs burning as if she had just inhaled broken glass.

Her eyes snapped open. The cold, unforgiving bite of a metal floor pressed against her cheek. Her chest heaved. The phantom sensation of rotting hands tearing at her clothes—the last memory of her death on Earth—still crawled across her skin.

A violent wave of nausea hit her. She pressed her palms against the floor, trying to push herself up, but a sudden, blinding pain split her skull.

Memories that didn't belong to her slammed into her brain. Extravagant parties. Cruel laughter. A high-society monster named Kenzie Banks. She gagged, her stomach twisting into a tight, agonizing knot.

A low, guttural snarl vibrated through the room. It was a sound born of pure, unadulterated murder.

Her head snapped up.

Through the dim, blue-tinted lighting of the massive bedroom, she saw him. He was chained to the far wall like a rabid animal. Heavy alloy restraints dug into his wrists and throat. His bare chest was a canvas of fresh, bleeding whip marks and dark bruises.

Josue.

His silver hair hung in his face, but it couldn't hide his eyes. They were a toxic, glowing green. He stared at her throat, his jaw clenched so tight she could hear his teeth grinding. He looked exactly like a man calculating how much force it would take to snap her neck.

She scrambled backward, her survival instincts taking over. Her spine slammed hard against the base of a massive bedpost.

Ding.

A sharp electronic chime pierced her brain.

"AI Sev activated," a lifeless, mechanical voice echoed inside her skull. "Warning. Current host possesses a critical negative reputation. According to the Interstellar Marriage Act, your contract beast-husbands possess the legal right to execute you at the end of the two-month trial period."

Her breath caught in her throat.

A glowing red holographic timer materialized in her line of sight. Sixty days. Counting down.

She tried to mentally scream at the AI, demanding to know how this was legal, but the numbers just kept ticking.

Josue saw her wide, terrified eyes. He mistook her panic for anticipation. He thought she was getting off on his pain.

He lunged forward.

The heavy alloy chains snapped taut with a deafening crack. The metal bit deep into his raw wounds. Fresh blood spilled down his pale skin, dripping onto the floor. He didn't even flinch. The murderous intent in his green eyes only burned hotter.

Her stomach plummeted. The memories of what the original Kenzie had done to him flooded her mind. The electroshocks. The starvation. The humiliation.

She needed a weapon. Now.

She closed her eyes and reached deep into her consciousness, searching for the subspace inventory she had relied on during the apocalypse on Earth.

"Access denied," Sev's cold voice chimed. "Host biological energy level is insufficient. Subspace locked."

Her eyes snapped open. Her hands shook. She was trapped in a weak, pampered body with absolutely nothing to defend herself against a man who wanted to wear her intestines as a necklace.

Josue let out a harsh, broken laugh. His voice was shredded, like he had been screaming for days.

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