The Death.

Chapter one: The Death 

The sky above Veridia burned orange, terror and screaming filled the streets like a symphony of agony I had never heard before.

 No one knew yet what was happening, whether this was a natural disaster or the start of something else entirely, something that defied explanation, but an unexpected apocalypse had just begun, and none of us understood it. 

I ran with my lungs on fire, pushing through crowds of panicked strangers, because I needed to find Julian before something happened to him. Buildings collapsed around me, chunks of concrete and glass raining down like a deadly storm. People shouted for loved ones already lost to the chaos swallowing our city.

A woman grabbed my arm, her eyes wild with panic. "You cannot go that way, the whole block is coming down! You will die."

I shook her off with more strength than I knew I had and kept running forward, because nothing mattered except reaching Julian. The heat was unbearable, the smoke thick enough to choke on, but I pressed through the ruins, stepping over things I refused to look at too closely, because love had given me a strength I didn't know I had. I prayed he was still alive, waiting for me, that whatever we had was strong enough to survive this.

Then I saw him, standing in the middle of the street with his back to me.

Relief flooded through me so hard I nearly collapsed. I opened my mouth to call his name, but the word died in my throat when I saw who he was standing with. A beautiful woman clutched a small child to her chest beside him, and I recognized her immediately. He had brought her back with him once. I had asked him but he said there was nothing between them and that I was imagining things, or simply being paranoid.

"Julian?" My voice came out barely above a whisper. I forced my legs to move toward him, needing him to tell me this was some terrible misunderstanding.

He turned, and his face was empty in a way I had never seen. His eyes were cold, distant, like I was a stranger. The woman beside him tightened her grip on the child and looked at me with something between pity and triumph.

"Elara." He said my name like it cost him something. "You should not have come here."

"What are you doing?" My voice broke. "Who is this woman? Why are you holding her like that?"

He sighed, irritated, as if I were inconveniencing him. "This is Clara," he said, with a casual wave. "And this is our daughter. Lily. She's two."

The words landed like physical blows. I staggered back, unable to breathe. "Your daughter? We've been married five years, Julian. How could you do this to me?"

His gaze held no remorse, no guilt, nothing at all. "Elara, you have to understand. I never loved you. I never wanted this marriage. Your family had money and connections, and I needed them to build my empire. You were useful, besides you know I had someone else in mind and yet you agreed to marry me, so how is that my fault ?"

Something inside me shattered. I couldn't cry, couldn't speak, could only stare at the man I had given everything to and loved for seven years and married for five years now. "You used me? For five years, you let me believe we had something real, and the whole time you were planning to throw me away?"

He didn't answer, but his silence was answer enough. I looked at Clara, smiling faintly as though my pain were a prize she had won. I looked at Lily, too small and innocent to understand what her existence had cost me, and I couldn't even hate her for it. I looked back at Julian, searching for any trace of the man I married, and found nothing but calculation.

"Julian, please." I hated myself for begging, but I couldn't stop. "Tell me this is not real. Tell me you love me."

He pulled Clara closer, the gesture so possessive it felt like a blade in my chest. "It's time you accepted the truth. Clara is who I love. Lily is my daughter. You were never anything but a stepping stone, and I am done pretending otherwise."

A building collapsed nearby with a roar that shook the ground. Clara screamed, clutching Lily tighter. Julian turned toward the falling debris, and for the first time, fear crossed his face. The rubble was coming for all of us, and we had only seconds.

He didn't look at me.

He grabbed Clara with one hand and Lily with the other and shoved them toward safety, running with everything he had and leaving me standing frozen in the street. He chose them. He chose to save his mistress and their child while I stood in the path of the falling building.

"Julian!" I screamed, my voice raw with betrayal. "Please, don't leave me. I love you."

He didn't look back. He vanished into the smoke with Clara and Lily, and a piece of debris slammed into my leg, dropping me to the ground. I tried to crawl, but my leg wouldn't move, and the rubble kept falling.

I lay there in the flames and thought of everything I had given up for a man who never loved me back. My family pushed away because he said they weren't good enough. My friends lost because he called them a distraction. My career, abandoned because he said I was needed at home. I had changed everything about myself to become the woman he wanted, and none of it mattered. I was never going to be anything more to him than a tool.

My tears mixed with ash as the heat closed in, and I understood that I was going to die there, alone, betrayed by the only person I had ever fully trusted. I thought of every warning sign I had ignored, every red flag I had explained away, and I knew it was too late for any of it to matter now.

In my final moments, I felt nothing but hate. Hate for Julian and his lies. Hate for Clara's smile. Hate for myself, for being so desperate to be loved that I had ignored every truth in front of me. I wished I could go back and tell my younger self to run, but wishing was useless now.

"I hate you, Julian," I whispered into the smoke. "I hate you for making me love you when you never cared. I hate you for leaving me to die while you saved her. If there is any justice left in this world, you will suffer for what you have done to me."

The building came down on top of me, and everything went black. The pain disappeared. I was floating in silence and darkness, dead, while the city burned on without me and Julian built a new life on the ashes of everything I loved.

But in that darkness, something stirred, a flicker of defiance that refused to be extinguished. I did not deserve to die alone and betrayed. If there was any power in this universe willing to give me a second chance, I would take it. I would

claw my way back if I had to. I would not let Julian win.