REBORN THIRTY DAYS BEFORE THE ICE AGE

RAYNA

I snapped open my eyes, My  lungs burning as my heart raced  violently inside my chest, 

I stared up at the white ceiling above me. The air in the room was warm. It was comfortable. There was no howling wind outside. There was no terrible bite of freezing ice sinking into my flesh and freezing my blood.

I sat up fast. My breath came in short, ragged gasps. I looked down at my hands. They were smooth and not black from frostbite. 

I slowly turned my head and looked at the clock on the bedside table. Right next to the time, the date glowed in bright red numbers: October 4th.

October 4th.

I stared at those numbers until my eyes burned. It was exactly thirty days before the extreme cold apocalypse would strike the earth. Exactly thirty days before temperature plummeted overnight, burying the entire city under meters of lethal snow and ice.

I was back. I had actually returned to the past.

Memories of my previous life hit me hunger, the brutal betrayal.

Michael…the man I had foolishly loved for years, the man I thought was my partner—had brought his stepsister, Lily, straight into the safehouse I had paid for with my own money. Together, they had seized my shelter. They took control of every single piece of food and every blanket I owned.

When the temperature outside dropped to negative fifty degrees, they did not just hoard the food. They decided to drive my five-year-old daughter and me out into the blizzard.

I remembered falling to my knees in the deep snow outside the front gate. The cold was so sharp it felt like knives cutting into my face. I remembered crying until my lips cracked and bled. I had dropped all my pride. I had begged them like a dog.

"Please, Michael!" I had screamed through the iron gate, my hands clawing at the icy bars.

 "Please! You can leave me out here! You can let me freeze to death! Just take Sera inside! She is only five years old! She is your daughter! Keep her warm! Let her live!"

Michael had stood behind the glass door of the warm house, holding a steaming cup of hot coffee. Lily had stood right beside him, wrapped in my thick  coat, wearing a lazy, cruel smile.

They did not save my child. Instead, Lily opened the gate just enough to throw a thick piece of coarse rope at my feet.

"If she wants to stay near the door, she needs to know her place," Lily had laughed.

I watched in absolute horror as Michael walked out, grabbed my tiny, shivering daughter, and tied that rough rope tightly around five-year-old Sera’s chest and arms. 

They dragged her through the sharp snow, laughing out loud as her little legs scraped against the frozen ground. They walked my child around the yard like a stray dog.

When I screamed and rushed forward to pull the rope off my baby, Lily stepped in my way. She knocked me down into the snow. 

Together, she and Michael grabbed my winter jacket and my sweater. They stripped off my warm clothes completely, leaving me shivering in nothing but my thin undershirt in the negative fifty-degree storm.

They threw me hard into the deep snow outside the main gates.

As I lay on the ice, my skin turning blue, my body shaking so hard my teeth cracked, Michael stepped up to the gate one last time. He looked down at me through the bars. His eyes were totally empty. There was not a single trace of warmth or mercy in him.

"Stop crying, Rayna," Michael had said calmly, as if he were talking about the weather. 

"You keep calling her my daughter, but you need to accept reality. I never legally married you. Look at the papers if you ever make it inside. We never signed a real marriage certificate. You mean nothing to me. Your company, your money, your assets—they are all mine now. You were just a useful fool."

"Michael... please..." I gasped, my throat freezing shut.

"Shut up, enough with the pleas have some class lady, he doesn’t want you… that’s what you get for acting like you were better than me" Lily had spat, stepping up beside him. She raised her foot and kicked little Sera hard in the chest.

Sera tumbled across the ice, her tiny body rolling into a snowbank. She let out one small, weak cry. Then Lily kicked her again. And again. Right in the head. Right in the stomach.

I tried to crawl toward my child. I dragged my upper body across the sharp ice, my knees useless, my fingers numb. But I was too slow. I watched my baby girl’s tiny body go completely still in the snow. Her small cries stopped forever.

"Look at that," Lily had giggled, wiping her boot on the snow. 

"The little pest is finally quiet."

A second later, the frost covered my eyes. The cold reached my heart, and everything went pitch black.

Now, sitting on my soft bed in the warm room, I trembled violently from the memory of that ice. My chest heaved. I reached down and grabbed my own arms, feeling the warm skin.

I turned my head quickly. Beside me, under the thick pink quilt, was a tiny, round shape.

I reached out with hands that would not stop shaking. I pulled the blanket back.

There she was. Sera was curled up in a small ball, wearing her yellow bear pajamas. Her soft cheeks were flushed pink with warmth. Her chest rose and fell in a steady, gentle rhythm.

I pulled her into my arms so fast it made her shift in her sleep. I buried my face in her soft hair. She smelled like baby soap and warm milk. She was soft. She was warm. She was breathing.

Tears spilled out of my eyes, hot and fast, soaking into her pajama top.

She was safe. She was alive. My baby was right here in my arms.

I held her tight for a long time, listening to her breathe, feeling the heat of her body. Slowly, the chaotic panic in my mind began to clear away. The terror melted, replaced by a dark, heavy stillness.

I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand. My gaze turned hard. My heart turned into solid stone.

In my past life, I was weak. I was stupid. I thought if I gave Michael everything—if I hid my status as a major investor, if I handed over my money, if I acted meek and submissive—he would love me. I thought if I swallowed every insult, my daughter would have a peaceful family.

My weakness had killed my child. My submissiveness had gotten us both kicked to death in the snow.

Never again. In this life, I would not give them a single cent. I would take back every asset I owned. I would convert all my hidden wealth into cold, hard cash. I would build an unbreakable, warm fortress. I would hoard enough food and medical supplies to last ten lifetimes.

And as for Michael and Lily... I would make them experience a cold far worse than the apocalypse. I would make sure Sera grew up happy, safe, and rich, while they rotted in the hell they created.

The bedroom door was kicked open, slamming hard against the interior wall.

I slowly turned my head toward the door.

Lily, my step sister, walked straight into my room. She did not knock. 

She was wearing a high-end designer dress that I had bought with my own credit card three weeks ago. She looked at me with open disgust, her mouth twisted in a familiar sneer.

"Rayna, why are you still in bed?" Lily demanded, her voice sharp and loud. She walked over to the plush armchair near the window and threw herself down into it, kicking off her high heels onto my clean floor. 

"Are you deaf? I’ve been calling your name from the living room for ten minutes."

I stared at her. I kept my face completely blank, but underneath the blanket, my fingernails dug deep into my palms.

Lily crossed her legs, pointing her bare foot at me. 

"My feet are aching. I spent the whole morning shopping at the mall with Michael. Get up right now. Bring the basin with warm water, put in those expensive bath salts, and come pedicure my feet. Cut my toenails properly today. Last time, you left the edges too rough."

In my previous life, the moment she spoke like that, I would have scrambled out of bed. I would have put on a timid smile, run to the bathroom, filled the tub, and gotten down on my knees on the hard floor. 

I used to wash her feet, trim her nails, rub her ankles, cook their meals, and clean up their disgusting trash. I did the lowest, most degrading chores in this house just to keep Michael happy, believing his lie that Lily was just a spoiled younger sister who needed time to accept me.

And because I lowered myself to the dirt, Lily treated my daughter like dirt too.

"Did you hear me?" Lily snapped, her tone rising in anger when I did not move. 

"Are you stupid today? Move your lazy legs and get the basin!"

I looked her straight in the eyes. My voice was low, flat, and completely devoid of any emotion.

"No."

The room went dead silent. Lily froze. Her foot stayed suspended in the air. Her eyes widened in pure disbelief, as if she had just heard an animal speak English.

"What did you just say?" Lily demanded, her face turning red with sudden rage.

 "What did you say to me?"

"I said no," I repeated clearly. I did not raise my voice. I did not shrink back.

 "Get up and wash your own feet. Better yet, get out of my room."

Lily was so shocked her mouth hung open for a second. Then, her face twisted into a fierce mask of anger.

"How dare you!" she screeched, jumping up from the armchair. 

"You useless leech! You live in Michael’s house, you eat his food, and you dare talk back to me? Have you forgotten who you are? You're just an weakling who dragged a bastard child into this family!"

She marched over to the side of my bed, her hand raised high in the air, her fingers curled. She swung her arm down hard, aiming a sharp slap straight at my face.

Before her hand could reach me, a tiny body darted out from under the quilt.

Five-year-old Sera, who had just woken up from the noise, threw herself in front of me. She spread her small arms wide, blocking Lily’s path, her small voice trembling but firm.

"Don't hit my mommy!" Sera cried out, standing bravely on the mattress. 

"Don't touch my mommy!"

Lily stopped her hand for a fraction of a second. She looked down at Sera, her eyes full of intense hatred.

"Get out of the way, you little brat!" Lily sneered bitterly. 

"Like a mother, like a daughter. Both of you are disgusting!"

Lily reached out with her hand, her long, sharp acrylic nails aimed straight at Sera’s thin shoulder. She intended to grab my five-year-old child by the collar and throw her violently off the bed onto the hard floor.

The moment I saw those sharp nails heading for my daughter's skin, something inside my head snapped.

The image of Sera lying dead in the ice flashed before my eyes. The sound of her skull being kicked in the snow echoed in my ears.

Every maternal instinct inside my body exploded into a roaring inferno.

"Don't you dare touch her!" I roared.

With my left arm, I snatched Sera by her waist and pulled her safely behind my back in one swift motion.

At the same time, I planted my right hand on the mattress, shifted my weight, and threw my right leg out with every ounce of strength I possessed.

My foot landed square in the center of Lily’s stomach.

The force of the blow hit her. The breath left Lily’s lungs in a violent whoosh. Her eyes bulged out of her head.

"Fuck!!" Lily let out a strangled, painful gasp.

She flew backward across the bedroom floor. Her back slammed hard into the sharp wooden corner of the vanity table, knocking over makeup bottles and perfume containers that shattered across the floor.

She collapsed onto her side, clutching her stomach, gasping for air like a fish thrown onto dry land. Her expensive dress was rumpled, her hair was a messy nest, and tears of shock and intense pain streamed down her face.

I did not hesitate. I swung my legs off the bed, stood up, and placed my body directly between the door and my daughter.

I looked down at Lily as she writhed on the floor in agony. My eyes were as dark and cold as the apocalypse that was coming for them all.

"Touch my child again," I said, my voice dropping to a terrifying whisper, 

"and I won't just kick you. I will kill you."