Reborn before the apocalypse: from betrayed wife to survivor

Chapter One

The door closed in my face.

I stood there with my hand still raised. Blood kept seeping down my leg. I could hear them inside—footsteps, a child’s soft crying.

“Daniel.”

I knocked harder.

“Daniel, open the door.”

Nothing.

“Please. I’m hurt. I won’t take much space. Just let me in.”

His voice came through, calm and distant.

“Emma, go.”

“You can’t be serious. You know what’s happening out here. Where am I supposed to go?”

“There’s nothing I can do.”

“You can open the door.”

Silence.

“Is there someone else in there?”

The quiet that followed told me everything.

I laughed, the sound broken.

“Of course there is.”

The door opened a few inches.

Daniel stood behind it. He looked thinner, tired, but the worst part was the way he looked at me—no love, no guilt, just inconvenience.

“Let me in,” I whispered.

He shook his head. “You can’t stay here.”

“This is our shelter. I found it. I paid for the supplies. I fixed the water system. I brought the food.”

“I know.”

His eyes shifted past me.

Sophia stood a few feet away, wearing my winter coat. The one I had given her three days ago because she said she was cold. Her arms were wrapped around a little girl.

My stomach twisted.

“Daniel,” Sophia whispered, “she’s bleeding.”

“I know.”

“Maybe we should let her in.”

“No.”

I stared at her. “You’re really going to let him do this? After everything I’ve done for you?”

She didn’t answer.

Daniel stepped between us. “Enough.”

“What happened to us?” I asked him.

He frowned. “You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be.”

That sentence.

I had spent three years making his life easier. Cooked, cleaned, worked overtime to pay his debts, took care of his parents, sold my mother’s jewelry when his company almost went under. I never asked for anything except loyalty.

Apparently even that had been too much.

“Is she the reason?” I asked quietly.

He didn’t speak.

I looked at Sophia. “The late nights. The secret calls. The money that kept disappearing. Was it always for them?”

“Emma, this isn’t the time.”

“Then when is?”

The little girl started crying. Daniel turned toward her, and his whole face changed—soft, gentle, the way he had never once looked at me.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Don’t cry. Daddy’s here.”

Something inside me finally broke.

“Is she your daughter?”

Daniel went still. Sophia’s face drained of color.

“She’s your daughter, isn’t she?”

He sighed. “Yes.”

The world went quiet.

Three years of marriage. Three years of believing I was building a family with him. Meanwhile he had already built another one behind my back.

“You knew?” I asked Sophia.

She wiped her eyes. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

I laughed. “You slept with my husband, had his child, moved into my shelter, wore my clothes, ate the food I bought, and you’re telling me you didn’t want to hurt me?”

“I love him,” she whispered.

That was the moment the last soft part of me died.

I looked at Daniel. “Did you ever love me?”

He didn’t answer right away.

“Tell me the truth.”

He sighed. “Our marriage wasn’t supposed to last forever. I needed someone when my company was struggling. You had money. A stable job. You were willing to help. I thought marrying you would solve a lot of problems.”

“So that’s what I was? A solution?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“But you did.”

Everything made sense now. Every request for money. Every excuse. Every time he told me Sophia was just a friend.

He had been using me until he didn’t need me anymore.

“And now you don’t,” I said.

He stayed silent.

“Open the door.”

“I can’t.”

“Then look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t want me here.”

He did. “I don’t want you here.”

My heart shattered, but the tears never came. Something colder took their place.

I nodded. “Okay.”

Daniel looked surprised. Maybe he expected me to beg. Maybe he expected the woman who had forgiven him a hundred times to forgive him again.

I stepped back.

“Emma?”

“What?”

He hesitated. “I’m sorry.”

I looked at him for a long moment. “No. You’re not.”

Then I walked away.

My leg gave out before I reached the end of the street. I fell hard. The wound had gone numb. I knew what that meant.

I looked back once.

Daniel was still standing behind the door. He didn’t come after me.

I closed my eyes.

If I had another chance, I would do everything differently. I wouldn’t marry him. I wouldn’t give Sophia a second of kindness. I wouldn’t spend my life taking care of people who would abandon me the moment I stopped being useful.

If I could go back, I would choose myself.

My last breath left my lips.

Then everything went black.

—

“Emma!”

Someone shook my shoulder hard.

I gasped and sat up, heart slamming against my ribs. For several seconds I couldn’t breathe.

Lily stood beside the bed, staring at me.

Lily.

She had died in the first year of the apocalypse. I had held her hand while the light left her eyes.

But she was here. Alive.

“Lily?”

“Yeah? What’s wrong with you? You were screaming.”

I grabbed her hand. Warm. Real.

I reached for my phone with shaking fingers.

March 14.

Six days.

Six days before the first earthquake. Six days before the power stations failed. Six days before the world started ending.

I had come back.

Tears slipped down my face—not from sadness, but from something fierce and sharp.

I had another chance.

And this time, I was going to burn every bridge that had ever held me down.

My phone buzzed.

Daniel’s name lit up the screen.

One missed call.
Then another.
Then a message.

Where are you? I need you to come over. It’s important.

I stared at the words.

In the other life, I would have answered immediately. I would have rushed over. I would have asked what he needed.

This time, my thumb hovered over the screen for only a second.

Then I blocked his number.