My Beautiful, Hard-Won Life

“The acrid smell of burnt plastic and copper filled my lungs, a familiar scent in the operating room, but this time, the searing pain in my leg was my own. My familiar workplace was a twisted wreck, a direct consequence of my husband Michael' s latest, championed medical device. Then I saw Liam, my five-year-old son, his small frame trembling in the doorway, eyes wide with terror as he screamed for me. Before the explosion, Michael was already distant, constantly busy, always choosing his mistress, Chloe, over us. Now, as I lay bleeding, my desperate call for help, relayed by Liam to his father, was met with cold dismissal. Michael was rushing Chloe, pregnant, to the hospital – prioritizing his new life over his injured wife and terrified son. The line went dead, a chill deeper than the blood pooling around me. He chose her. Again. I watched him speed off with Chloe in the ambulance meant for me, saw Liam' s desperate chase after his father, and then, the truck. My sweet boy, struck down, his life, and mine, extinguished in that cruel street. But then, I gasped. I was alive, whole, in my own bed, the sun streaming in. Liam was sleeping peacefully in his dinosaur bed, safe. It wasn't a dream; it was a terrifying memory. I was reborn, given a second chance. This time, things would be different. I would save my son. I would end this disastrous marriage.”