Chapter 1: From Wife to Stranger

“Is she dead?”

Luke’s voice came through Dexie’s phone while the ambulance siren screamed above her.

She tried to turn her head toward the nurse, but her body would not move. Cold had settled deep inside her, and each breath took more effort than the last. The light above the stretcher blurred as the ambulance sped through the city.

The nurse held the phone close enough for Dexie to hear.

“No. Not yet. Your wife was in a car accident. We’re taking her to the hospital.”

Dexie waited for Luke to ask which hospital. Even now, with pain fading into a frightening numbness, some part of her still expected him to come.

There was a brief silence.

“I’m busy,” he said. “Let me know when she’s dead. I’ll come collect the body.”

The call ended.

The nurse lowered the phone and looked at her. Dexie could see the shock on the woman’s face, but she could not find the strength to speak.

What could she say? That this was her husband? That she had loved him for years?

He was the person she had kept waiting for, even when waiting hurt. Whenever he pushed her away, she found a reason to stay. He was tired. He was busy. He needed more time.

Now she had heard him clearly.

He would come for her body. He would not come for her.

A bitter smile touched her lips. She had spent so long trying to become someone Luke could love, and he had made her death sound like another task he could leave until later.

Her fingers slipped from the edge of the stretcher.

Someone called her name. Dexie tried to hold on to the sound, but it moved farther away. The light above her narrowed, and the pressure in her chest disappeared.

“The patient’s heart has stopped!”

That was the last thing she heard.

Then darkness took everything.

Dexie woke with a sharp gasp.

She sat up, dragging air into her lungs. Her hands pressed against her chest as she waited for the pain to return.

It did not.

She could breathe.

For several seconds, she stayed still, afraid that one wrong move would send her back to the stretcher. Then she looked down at her hands. There was no blood. She touched her face, her arms, and her body, searching for wounds beneath the clothes she wore.

Nothing hurt.

“What happened?” she whispered.

The bed beneath her felt familiar. So did the curtains beside the window and the furniture across the room.

This was her bedroom.

Dexie pushed back the covers and stood. Her legs held her easily. She took a slow step, then another, before turning toward the clock.

January first, twenty twenty-three.

She read the date again.

A year earlier.

Her mouth went dry. She looked around, searching for something that would prove the clock was wrong, but every detail belonged to the room she remembered from that time.

There was no hospital bed, no nurse, and no sign of the accident.

Yet she could still hear the siren. She remembered the cold, the struggle to breathe, and Luke’s voice.

She had died.

And somehow, she had come back.

Dexie gripped the edge of the bedside table. The wood was solid beneath her fingers. This room was real, and so was the breath moving in and out of her chest.

A quiet, bitter laugh escaped her.

She had another chance.

Yesterday, in this life, she had still believed she could save her marriage. She had refused to let Luke go because she thought losing him would be worse than anything else.

Now she knew what waiting for him would cost her.

Dexie looked at the drawer beside the bed.

She pulled it open, and the papers were there, just as she remembered.

Luke had sent his lawyer to deliver them. He had not even come himself.

She lifted the divorce agreement from the drawer. In her previous life, she had hidden it here after refusing to sign. She had treated the unsigned papers like a promise that their marriage was still alive.

As long as she refused, there was still time. Luke might change his mind. He might finally see how much she loved him.

Dexie sat on the edge of the bed and opened the file.

The words blurred for a moment. She blinked until they became clear.

It hurt to remember the woman she had been. She had waited through every silence and made excuses for every cold word. Whenever Luke gave her nothing, she told herself to ask for less.

Even in the ambulance, she had waited for him.

Her fingers tightened around the file before she slowly loosened them.

She would not spend this second life waiting for the same answer.

Dexie read the agreement carefully. The settlement was generous. Luke had offered money, a house, and other assets that would allow her to live comfortably for the rest of her life.

Once, she would have pushed the papers away without caring what they said. She had wanted her husband, and nothing he offered could replace him.

Now she read every condition because she intended to leave.

She paused over the property division. Accepting what he offered would make the separation comfortable, but the thought brought her no peace. She wanted to look at her life and know that she had chosen it for herself.

She closed the file and went to the study.

When she returned, she carried another document and a pen. She sat down and worked through the terms, checking each change before moving to the next.

She refused the house. She refused the money and the other assets.

For once, she was making a decision without wondering whether it would please Luke.

Then she reached the shares.

Five percent of Dawson Corporation.

Dexie rested her fingers on the stock transfer agreement. These, too, could keep a connection between them after the marriage ended.

She read the document once more, then signed.

The shares would return to Luke unconditionally.

The pen made a soft scratching sound across the paper. Dexie watched her name appear beneath the terms she had chosen.

She had once imagined that signing would break her.

Instead, she set the pen down and felt her shoulders ease.

There was no reason to leave the papers in the drawer again.

She picked up her phone and called Miller Lance.

“Mr. Lance, I’ve signed the divorce papers,” she said when he answered. “I made some changes to the settlement.”

She looked over the documents spread before her.

“Please give them to Luke. If he agrees to the new terms, have him sign them.”

“You’ve signed?” Miller asked.

“Yes.”

Dexie heard the surprise in his voice. Yesterday, she would have done almost anything to stop this divorce. He had every reason to question the change.

“I’ve also signed the stock transfer agreement,” she added. “I’m returning the shares to him.”

There was a pause before Miller spoke again. “I’ll take the documents to Mr. Dawson.”

“Thank you. Please tell him I want us to complete the divorce as soon as possible.”

She ended the call and laid the phone beside the papers.

The room was quiet.

She did not reach for the phone again. There was no explanation she needed to add, no loving message she hoped Miller would pass on.

Luke had asked for a divorce.

This time, she would give him one.

A knock sounded at Luke’s office door.

“Come in.”

He continued reading the document in front of him as Miller entered. Warry Williams stood nearby, but Luke’s attention shifted to the folder in the lawyer’s hand.

“Still refusing to sign?” Luke asked.

“No, sir. She signed.”

Luke looked up.

Miller placed the folder on his desk, but his hand remained on it for a moment.

Luke noticed.

“But?”

“She changed the terms regarding the property division.”

Luke leaned back in his chair. A faint scoff escaped him.

“She thinks I didn’t give her enough?”

Dexie had fought hard to marry him. Her grandfather’s influence had helped secure the marriage, and Luke had never forgotten it. Whatever she said about love, he had always suspected that the money, status, and Dawson name mattered to her too.

He had offered a generous settlement. Apparently, even that had failed to satisfy her.

Miller withdrew his hand. “You should read it, sir.”

Luke opened the folder.

The revised terms took up only one page.

He expected demands. Another property, perhaps, or a larger payment. Instead, his gaze stopped at the first refusal.

Then the next.

Dexie had turned down the house, the money, and every asset he had offered.

Luke read the page again.

She wanted nothing.

He lifted it and found another document beneath it.

A stock transfer agreement.

Five percent of Dawson Corporation, transferred to him unconditionally.

For a moment, Luke simply stared.

Yesterday, she had refused to end their marriage. Today, she was giving up the entire settlement and returning her shares.

His fingers pressed into the edge of the paper.

“What else did she say?”

His voice was level. He made sure of that.

“She didn’t ask for anything else,” Miller replied.

“There must have been something.”

“She only asked that both parties complete the divorce as soon as possible.”

Luke looked up.

“As soon as possible?”

“Yes, sir.”

Beside the desk, Warry leaned closer to look at the agreement. His eyebrows rose as he read it, but he said nothing.

Luke lowered his eyes to the page.

He knew how Dexie usually behaved when the marriage was threatened. She argued, cried, or tried to make him listen. Even when he had nothing more to say, she kept looking for a reason to stay.

There was no sign of that here.

He checked the terms once more, searching for a condition he had missed. There was no request hidden beneath the refusals, no demand that would force him to see her or keep discussing the marriage.

She had made it easy.

That should have pleased him.

He could sign, let Miller finish the process, and have the divorce he had wanted.

Yet his hand stayed on the papers.

“Did she explain why she changed her mind?” he asked.

“No, sir.”

Luke’s jaw tightened. Dexie had always had something to say to him. Why had she offered no explanation now?

His gaze settled on her signature.

Dexie Hansley.

The writing was clear and firm. He could not tell what she had felt while signing, but there was nothing uncertain about the decision placed before him.

He had expected to be the one who finally ended this marriage. Even after sending the papers, he had prepared for another refusal and another attempt to keep him.

He had not prepared for her to leave so completely.

Luke smoothed the edge he had crushed.

Miller waited across the desk. Warry remained silent.

All Luke had to do was sign.

But the words stayed in his mind.

As soon as possible.

Yesterday, Dexie had wanted more time with him. Today, she wanted the marriage over quickly enough to refuse everything he had offered.

He looked at her signature again, troubled by a feeling he could neither name nor dismiss.

For the first time, Dexie was no longer waiting for him.

And Luke did not know what to do with that.