Chapter 1

SPLASH!

I gagged and gasped, thrashing around as I jerked upright, soaked.

“Noah? Where is my baby!” My gaze dropped to my arms.

Empty. Where my baby boy lay just a second ago, the ice cold was suddenly empty. He was nowhere in sight. The spiralling, numbing pain rising from my legs to my chest, wrapping cold fingers around my heart was gone.

Slowly, I glanced around.

I was back in my bedroom. Sunlight streaked the curtains and everything was in its rightful place, not a single item was out of place, unlike the raided house in the freeze.

Fumbling for my phone on the nightstand, I checked the screen with trembling hands.

7am. June 15th.

It was exactly 45 days before the snow came.

Could it be… I had been reborn?

It couldn't have been a dream. The ache in my chest from being locked out with my sick son while Adrian, my husband, held Vivian, was too real.

“Look at her gape like a fish!” A cold voice mocked. “The audacity to still be in bed when no one has eaten!”

Slowly, I turned to my mother-in-law, Sarah. She held an empty bucket, her face curled in irritation.

“Perhap, one more bucket of water would do the trick,” Trisha, my sister-in-law suggested with a smirk.

I had been given another chance by fate or God. I wasn't going to spend it making the same old mistakes.

The old Lena had been a doormat. She let every member of this cursed family humiliate her.

She sobbed into her pillows after faking smiles at the crude comments they made about her in her presence. She apologised at the slightest discomfort of them while she hurt even more within.

Yet, when it was time for them to choose her in that brutal blizzard, they had kicked her away and chose to save Vivian’s dog, Coco, instead.

“Don't you dare!”

They froze, exchanging furtive glances. Their faces underwent a rollercoaster of emotions.

Rising from my bed, I turned to head out. I needed to check up on my son to calm my racing heart.

Trisha's manicured fingers dug into my flesh as she gripped my arm. “Do you think you can walk out on us after speaking to mum like that? You must have forgotten the lessons I taught you!”

Maintaining a calm expression, I shrugged her arms off roughly.

Of course. I recalled her cruelty.

Locking me in my room while Noah cried for my attention from the hallways. Banning me from tasting the food I prepared. And even taking her best friend into my husband's room to spend the night while I sobbed as I heard the unholy sounds from my room.

“I have nothing to say to you,” I stated calmly. “But if you want breakfast, you'd have to make it yourself.”

Sarah looked like she had just been slapped. Trisha's jaw hit the floor.

Ignoring them, I headed to Noah's room. The soft rise and fall of his chest as he slept sent such a wave of relief to me that tears stung my eyes.

In the last life, I had been a fool to think that Adrian cared about his son.

His words, when I begged him to take Noah in, rung in my ears like an alarm.

“Why should I take him in? I can always make more with Vivian. Take him to hell with you.”

I gathered him in my arms. Don't worry, baby. Mummy, mummy will never leave your safety to chance anymore.

Clicks of heels followed me as I carried Noah.

“What do you think you're doing? Where are you carrying my grandson too?” Sarah snapped, standing in my way.

Trisha folded her arms. “Put him down and make us breakfast, and I promise I'll consider telling my brother to sleep I your room tonight.”

Laughable! The old Lena would have given anything for that. Unfortunately for them, my eyes had been forcefully opened to see just how foolish I had been.

Walking around them, I shoved Trisha aside. She stumbled into Sarah and they both collapsed on the ground in the hallway.

“What's all this noise about?!” Adrian stepped out of his room in his morning glory. Those abs would evoke a drool of desire from me. Now, it made me want to puke.

Beside him, Vivian emerged, wearing Adrian's shirt. I could tell that she had nothing else underneath it. How was I so foolish to believe that she was just a friend as close a sister to Adrian?

Adrian rushed over to his mother and sister who were sprawled on the floor exaggeratedly.

“What happened? Who pushed you?” His voice was cold and threatening.

Trisha sobbed dramatically. “Brother, can you image that Lena just pushed us for nothing?! I just wanted her to make breakfast!”

Sarah glared at me. “She’s obviously getting too comfortable here. She refused to cook and now she pushed us.”

Adrian turned to me. The ice in his eyes would once have made me kneel and beg him.

Now, I stood face to face with him, daring him silently to try to mistake me for the old Lena.

“Are you out of your mind, Lena? Is this how you expect me to forgive you and let you come back to my room?”

Vivian chuckled silently, stroking her chihuahua, Coco who also let out a mocking yap.

“I would rather freeze to death than want your filthy hands to touch me!”

The gasps in the room were so loud that Noah jerked up.

“Mummy, what's happening?” He asked groggily, rubbing his eyes.

Pressing a kiss to his forehead, I smiled at him. “Nothing much, my darling. Mummy is just putting some people in their place.”

Adrian's jaw clenched, his eyes darkening with something I couldn't place.

“Have you lost your mind?”

I stepped closer to him, facing him squarely. “I'm perfectly sane. I've tolerated your crap for so long and I'm done now!”

He froze, his eyes searching mine… probably looking for a trace of insanity. “What?!”

“I want a divorce!”