60 Days Before the Apocalypse,I Divorced My Cheating Husband

Hailey Young bolted upright in her bed. She took in massive, desperate gulps of air. Her chest heaved violently as fresh oxygen rushed into her burning lungs. The very last scene she remembered was the filthy, freezing flood water closing completely over her head. She vividly recalled the tearing agony after she had been bitten. 

Her hands flew frantically over her own body. She patted her arms, her legs, and her neck. She found absolutely no bruises. She felt no wet blood. 

The ragged, gaping bite wound on her arm was completely gone. Her skin felt incredibly soft, smooth, and genuinely healthy for the first time in what seemed like years.

"How is this physically possible?" Hailey whispered softly to herself, her voice trembling slightly in the quiet room.

She stumbled quickly across the bedroom floor and stopped right in front of the tall mirror above the vanity. The reflection staring back showed a woman with incredibly bright eyes and flawlessly clear skin.

 Her voluminous, dark hair fell perfectly around her shoulders. This was the exact face she had worn long before the entire world ended. The sheer weight of the sudden realization slammed directly into her chest like a solid physical blow.

"I am reborn," she said aloud, her eyes wide with total disbelief. "I really came back."

Hailey snatched her modern smartphone directly from the small wooden nightstand. The digital screen lit up brightly in the dark room. The date prominently displayed June twenty fourth. 

That meant it was exactly sixty days before the horrific Typhoon Wave.

 That was the catastrophic disaster that had ultimately drowned major cities, triggered a global ice age, and collapsed human civilization into a savage, endless fight for basic survival.

"Sixty days," Hailey muttered quietly, her grip tightening painfully on the sleek device. "Just sixty days left."

In her previous terrible life, she had bravely gone out alone into the raging storm to find vital medicine for her severely feverish son Liam. A vicious, mutated creature had violently bitten her while she desperately searched the ruined pharmacy. When she finally staggered back to the dock, bleeding and dying, she found her husband Derek Klein safely on the large escape boat. His brother's widow, Jessie , his arrogant mother in law Helen, and the rest of his greedy family were already comfortably sitting there.

"Please pull me up," she had begged them back then, her voice breaking with hope. "The flood is roaring closer."

"Hand over the food and the medicine first," Derek had ordered coldly, looking down at her like she was garbage.

She had dropped the heavy supply basket into their eager hands. The moment they had it, the whole boat laughed. Helen called her a stupid fool. Jessie didn't even bother to look at her.

"Derek, why are you doing this?" Hailey had cried, her fingers slipping on the wet dock. "I'm your wife! I gave you everything!"

"My wife?" Derek had laughed, and the sound was worse than the storm. "Hailey, I never loved you. Not for one single day. I love Jessie. I always have."

Jessie, his husband's widow sister in law.

Hailey warmly welcomed her into her home, as the woman had lost her husband and had no one else to turn to. Hailey even helped her find food, never suspecting that she had already been having an affair with Hailey's own husband.

"Then why did you marry me?"

"Because your family had money, and you were easy to use," he had answered, checking his watch like she was wasting his time. "You're dying anyway. Once you're gone, nothing is left standing between me and Jessie. Thank you for that, by the way."

Her phone was still sealed inside the waterproof pouch strapped to her chest. It held everything she had secretly found. The hospital records, the blood type mismatch, and every filthy message between Derek and Jessie. She had tried to upload the files to the cloud with shaking, bloody hands.

"Oh, look at her," Jessie had laughed, leaning over the rail. "Still fighting. You know what, since you're dying anyway, there's no harm in telling you the truth."

"What truth?" Hailey had whispered.

"Liam isn't your son. He never was." Jessie smiled sweetly, and the smile made Hailey's stomach turn. "He's mine. You gave birth to a daughter, Hailey. I swapped her the moment they took her away from you."

"No." Her voice cracked. "No, that's not true."

"She was so tiny. So weak. She could barely breathe from the very start," Jessie went on, her voice light and cruel. "Just as useless as her mother."

"You failed to give me a son," Derek cut in, his lip curling with disgust. "You gave me a daughter instead. A useless piece of trash, just like you. I loathe you, Hailey. And I have never been happier than the day Jessie gave me a real son."

"Where is my daughter?" Hailey had screamed. "Where is she? What did you do with her?"

"We left her at the hospital," Derek answered with a shrug. "Keeping her would have been a waste of money."

Something inside her chest broke completely. Then a small figure stepped up to the very edge of the boat. It was little Liam, the boy she had raised since birth, the child she had starved herself to protect.

"Liam," she had begged, reaching one trembling hand toward him. "Baby, please help Mommy."

"Hurry up and die!" the boy had screamed, his face twisted with hatred.

He shoved her with both small hands, hard. She fell back and caught the side of the dock at the last second, her nails scraping wood as the water dragged at her legs.

"Liam, please," she had sobbed. "Please, I'm begging you."

"You're not my mom!" he had spat down at her. "You're nobody! You're just some outsider who lives in our house. My mommy is Jessie. Now hurry up and die!"

It broke her heart, the boy she loved so much, was asking her to die.

Her fingers slipped. The massive flood finally took her deep under the dark water, and the last sound she heard was the family laughing as they sailed away.

"Never again," Hailey hissed angrily to the empty room, her jaw clenched completely tight. "I will never let them use me again."

Suddenly, a vast, pitch black void opened right in front of her wide eyes. It looked exactly like a magical pocket space. At that exact same instant, a cool, robotic, mechanical voice spoke directly inside her own mind.

[System activated,] the voice announced flatly. [Host reborn sixty days before apocalypse. Primary mission: Survive. Daily check in available. Storage dimension linked.]

"A system?" Hailey asked clearly, her eyebrows pulling together in deep concentration.

[Yes, Host,] the voice replied smoothly. [You have a fully secure space to freely store your supplies.]

Hailey forced herself to take a very deep breath. "Good," she stated firmly, a dangerous smile touching her lips. "I will absolutely not waste this second chance."

She quickly got dressed and confidently walked downstairs. Down in the large living room, Jessie and Helen lounged extremely comfortably on the expensive leather couch. Nearly four year old Liam sat messily in his plastic highchair, making a huge disaster with his morning food.

"Well, look who finally decided to join the living," Jessie sneered loudly, her arms crossed aggressively over her chest.

"It is about time you woke up," Helen complained bitterly, her tone dripping with intense annoyance.

Hailey stopped right at the bottom of the wooden stairs. She stared coldly at the two horrible women who had basically murdered her. Her facial expression remained completely flat and unreadable.

"What do you want, Helen?" Hailey asked quietly, her voice totally devoid of any warmth.

"Do not use that disrespectful tone with me," Helen snapped angrily, her face turning a very bright shade of red. "You got paid from your job today. Transfer your senior graphic designer salary to my bank account right this instant. I saw a beautiful pair of real pearl earrings I want to buy for my upcoming party."

"You want my hard earned salary so you can buy pearl earrings?" Hailey asked, her voice dropping dangerously low.

"Obviously," Helen scoffed loudly, rolling her eyes in highly exaggerated disbelief. "You live in my successful son's nice house. Do you honestly think you are special just because you bring home a simple paycheck? My Derek provides the actual roof over your head. You should happily contribute to your respectable elders. It is truly the absolute least you can do."

"And frankly," Jessie chimed in quickly, a highly wicked smirk playing vividly on her painted lips, "you look terrible lately. It is no wonder Derek prefers spending time with his real family. You are always so terribly stressed and boring. You really should be eternally grateful that Helen even generously lets you breathe the exact same air as us."

Hailey just laughed softly, an icy sound that made the room temperature feel like it dropped significantly. "His real family?" she asked calmly, staring right into Jessie's lying eyes. "Is that what you call yourself, Jessie?"

"Are you suddenly deaf, you stupid girl?" Helen yelled loudly, standing up quickly to point an accusatory finger directly in Hailey's face. "Stop talking nonsense! Get your phone out right now and transfer the money!"

Hailey raised her right hand highly in the air and delivered a truly thunderous slap directly across Helen's wrinkled face. The incredibly sharp cracking sound echoed very loudly through the entire spacious living room. Helen stumbled backward heavily, her hand flying quickly to her bright red face.

"What did you just do?" Jessie screamed in terror, her eyes bulging with pure, unadulterated shock.

Hailey smoothly spun around and forcefully delivered another completely brutal slap directly to Jessie's stunned face. Jessie immediately collapsed down onto the soft couch cushions with a very loud, painful gasp.

"You totally crazy bitch!" Helen shrieked hysterically, thick tears of genuine pain quickly welling in her angry eyes. "I will absolutely tell Derek you hit me! He will permanently throw you out on the street!"

Hailey rapidly stepped forward and gripped Helen securely by the chin. Her perfectly manicured nails dug very sharply into the older woman's delicate skin.

"Listen to me very carefully," Hailey said coldly, her piercing eyes boring deeply into Helen's completely terrified face. "If you ever want another single dime from my bank account, you will immediately get down on your knees and happily lick my shoes clean."

"Let go of me right now!" Helen cried out pitifully, her entire body shaking violently in pure fear.

"You are totally insane!" Jessie yelled loudly from the couch, her hands shaking quite visibly as she gently touched her burning, red cheek.

Hailey proudly released Helen's chin with a very rough shove. She walked calmly over to the wooden side table and confidently picked up a sharp pair of metal crafting scissors.

"Stay far away from me," Jessie whimpered pathetically, her trembling body pressing extremely hard against the back of the heavy sofa.

Hailey completely ignored her frantic pleas. She grabbed a very thick chunk of Jessie's blonde hair and aggressively snipped it right off in one single, quick motion.

"My beautiful hair!" Jessie shrieked at the top of her lungs, her hands flying desperately to her freshly ruined locks. "What is terribly wrong with you?"

Hailey walked over to the messy highchair. Little Liam immediately started crying incredibly loudly. She quickly snipped a very small lock of his dark hair too. She successfully sealed both of the hair samples safely inside a small plastic bag from the kitchen counter. With just one single thought, she magically stored the small bag safely inside her invisible, secure pocket space. She absolutely needed their exact DNA to officially prove the cruel child swap to the lawyers soon.

"You are a total monster!" Helen sobbed loudly, holding the crying Jessie defensively in her arms. "Just wait until my son finally hears about all this!"

Right on perfect cue, Hailey's phone began to ring loudly from her pocket. The caller ID brightly flashed Derek's name across the lit screen. Hailey confidently accepted the call and promptly put it on speaker mode.

"Hailey!" Derek roared aggressively through the tiny speaker, his deep voice dripping with absolute, unfiltered fury. "What the hell is completely wrong with you? My mother just texted me everything! Did you actually attack her and poor Jessie?"

"Derek, we're over. Get ready for the divorce."