MY EX LEFT ME TO DIE BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE

CHAPTER ONE

My Husband Locked me out in a place like this, leaving me to die here.

“Open this fucking door, Ethan! You can hate me tomorrow, but if you leave me out here tonight, I'll die!”

I slammed both hands against the reinforced glass, ignoring the pain shooting through my fingers. Snow clung to my eyelashes, my knees were shaking, and I could barely feel my feet inside my frozen boots. Beyond the door, the generator hummed, the fireplace glowed, and my husband stood beside the woman who had helped him destroy my life.

Ethan looked at me as if I were a stranger begging outside a grocery store.

“Stop making a scene, Evelyn. You're frightening everyone inside.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “A scene? There are infected people roaming the streets, half the city has lost power, and you're worried about me making a scene?”

“Keep your voice down,” he snapped. “You know how much stress Vanessa is under.”

Vanessa stood behind him in my cream-colored sweater, the one I had searched for three days after it disappeared from our bedroom. She rested one hand on her stomach while the other held a mug of hot chocolate.

My sweater…. My husband. My home, or what had once felt like one.

Everything I had sacrificed to keep this family alive, and there she stood, enjoying the warmth I had nearly died trying to preserve.

“Ethan, please.” I pressed my forehead against the glass. “I'm not asking you to give me your food. Let me inside for ten minutes. I'll sit by the door if you want. Just let me get warm.”

He shook his head.

“We have a limited supply of food, medicine, and fuel. Every person inside consumes resources. I can't keep making exceptions because you refuse to accept reality.”

I almost laughed.

For three months, I had been the one counting cans of food, measuring water, and making sure everyone received their medication. When his mother developed an infection, I had walked through an abandoned pharmacy while the streets filled with the infected. When his brother broke his leg during a supply run, I had cleaned the wound and stayed awake for two nights monitoring his fever.

I had given up meals so Ethan could eat.

I had traded my wedding ring for antibiotics.

I had even risked my life returning to our former neighborhood because he insisted that his mother's medication was still inside the house.

Now he was telling me I consumed too many resources.

“You said we would survive this together,” I reminded him. “You looked me in the eyes and promised that you would never leave me behind.”

“That was before things got this bad.”

“And what changed? Did the apocalypse make you forget your vows, or did you finally find an excuse to stop pretending you loved me?”

His jaw tightened.

“Don't do this now.”

“When, Ethan? When am I allowed to ask my husband why he has decided that my life is worth less than everyone else's?”

Vanessa stepped closer, wearing the soft, sympathetic expression she used whenever she wanted people to believe she was innocent.

“Ethan, perhaps we should let her inside. I know she's upset, but she is still your wife.”

For one ridiculous second, hope rose in my chest.

Then she added, “If something happens to her outside, the others might blame you.”

There it was.

Even now, she wasn't worried about me. She was worried about what people would say about the man she had stolen from me.

Ethan glanced at her, and his expression softened.

“Don't worry about that, sweetheart. I've got everything under control.”

Sweetheart.

I had not heard him call me that in months.

“Are you sleeping with her?” I asked, staring through the transparent glass.

His expression went blank and Vanessa looked down at her mug.

I swallowed hard. “I want you to answer me, Ethan. Have you been sleeping with Vanessa while I've been risking my life to keep you alive?”

“Your personal problems don't matter anymore.”

“Then answer the question!”

He stepped closer to the door, his voice dropping to a furious whisper.

“Yes, Evelyn. I've been sleeping with her. Are you happy now?”

The words hit harder than the cold. I gripped the door handle to keep myself upright. “How long?”

“Long enough.”

“Before the outbreak?”

He didn't answer.

I looked at Vanessa, and she finally raised her eyes to meet mine.

There was no shame in them.

“I'm pregnant, Evelyn,” she said quietly. “Ethan and I are going to have a baby, and he needs to think about our future now.”

My stomach twisted.

A baby.

While I had been splitting my food into smaller portions, she had been sharing my husband's bed. While I had been trying to keep his family alive, they had been planning a future that did not include me.

“Does your husband know?” I asked her. “Does he know you're carrying another man's child?”

Her face paled, because she has a husband named Daniel. A husband who's been trying so hard to save what has already been destroyed.

Ethan slammed his palm against the glass from the other side.

“Don't you dare bring Daniel into this!”

“Why not? You had no problem bringing me into your affair, and I'm the one standing outside freezing to death.”

“Daniel has nothing to do with this.”

“Neither did I, until you decided to make me the villain in a marriage you destroyed.”

My voice broke on the final word, and I hated myself for it.

I hated that a part of me still wanted Ethan to open the door. I wanted him to remember our wedding day, when he had held both my hands and promised that no matter what happened, we would face it together.

I wanted him to remember the woman who had loved him before he became a coward.

But the man standing in front of me only looked annoyed.

“You need to accept that I have responsibilities,” he said. “Vanessa is carrying my child. My mother needs protection, and even Daniel is injured. I can't risk everyone inside because you refuse to make sensible decisions.”

I stared at him. “I'm your wife.”

“And I can't save everyone!”

“You're not being asked to save everyone. I'm asking you to open a fucking door!”

He flinched, but he didn't move toward the lock.

She had once called me the daughter she never had.

Now she turned her back on me. That hurt more than I wanted to admit.

“Margaret!” I shouted through the glass. “Please, you know what I've done for this family. You know I wouldn't be standing here if I had anywhere else to go.”

She paused. For one hopeful moment, I thought she would help me.

Instead, she said, “Evelyn, you should have thought about your future before allowing things to get this bad.”

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I had spent months protecting these people, and now they were blaming me for the apocalypse as if I had personally destroyed the power grid.

“Are you serious?” I whispered. “You think I caused this?”

Margaret refused to meet my eyes. Ethan turned toward the control panel beside the door.

“No more arguments. The outer barricade is damaged, and we can't risk opening the entrance unnecessarily.”

I watched him enter the security code.

“Ethan, don't.”

He pressed the button that activated the secondary lock.

A heavy mechanical sound echoed through the entrance.

He had locked me out permanently.