Chapter 1

Estelle Wheeler's POV:

Dust continued raining down from the concrete slab above me. All that dust in the air was suffocating me. My right leg was pinned beneath a beam, and the pain caused me to break out in a cold sweat.

I heard the sound of two people embracing from somewhere above me. I heard Gigi Lynch's muffled sobs against Kenneth Scott's chest, as well as the sound of him murmuring gentle words of comfort.

Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he asked, "Where's Estelle?"

"Estelle… She was fighting me for the rope earlier. She lost her footing and slipped into the shallow trench next to us," Gigi sobbed.

"Ken, it hurts so bad…"

Silence hung in the air for a couple of seconds. Then, Kenneth snapped from above, "In that case, she can very well climb up the beam herself. We're leaving now."

The sound of footsteps faded into the distance. Just like that, I was left behind.

The concrete slab above me broke in two, and debris continued to fall. The beam pinning my right leg down shifted, sinking another inch.

I heard a dull crack in my bone. The agonizing pain caused me to bite my lip so hard that it bled, filling my mouth with the metallic taste of blood.

I was given a second chance at life. I refused to let it end just like this.

I began clawing at the rubble with my bare hands. My fingernails ripped away, and blood trickled down between my fingers. Though I managed to clear away a fair bit of rubble, the beam was still pinning my leg down.

With my hands, I searched blindly around me before finally getting a grasp on a broken rebar, with which I began hacking away at the concrete around the beam.

My palms bled from all the friction. The rebar was covered in blood, which made it so slippery that I could barely hold onto it.

Finally, the concrete gave way. I pulled my leg out. The sheer pain caused me to curl into a fetal position on the ground.

With tears and dirt all over my face, I crawled, inch by inch, toward the opening. My pants were already ripped; my bare skin grazed against the raw concrete, leaving a long trail of blood behind me.

When I finally crawled my way to the opening, I noticed two people who seemed to be peering down from above. I reached my bloodied hand out and waved at them with all my might.

"Help!" I shouted.

"Don't go over there. That woman who was rescued earlier mentioned that there was a madwoman down here. Watch out, or she might just pull you under."

"I'm not a madwoman. I am that man's wife!"

That person let out a scoff. "He has just carried his wife away with him. So, who are you, really?"

My hand froze mid-air.

Throughout four years of my marriage with Kenneth, he had never acknowledged me as his wife in public. As it turned out, he had been introducing Gigi as his wife to others.

A dull pain shot through my heart as my head began to spin. As I dropped my outstretched hand, only then did I realize that both those people had walked away.

A biting wind whipped through the cracks in the rubble, bringing on a violent shiver in me and causing my lips to crack till they bled. My right leg throbbed with a searing pain while my empty stomach churned with nothing but gastric acid.

I never heard any footsteps from above again. I curled up in the darkness, feeling unresigned yet hopeless.

The night began to fall when, suddenly, someone showed up above. Even though I couldn't get a clear view of his face against the light, I recognized the silhouette of his face.

I thought he was back to save me.

"Kenneth…"

However, he simply questioned in an icy voice laced with a tinge of anger, "Gigi told me you shoved her down into the ruins. Is that true?"

His words hit me like a ton of bricks, filling me with disappointment as my arm dropped weakly.

"Acknowledge your mistake, and I'll pull you out of there."

He stared at me condescendingly from above, as if he were waiting for me to give in and coax him like I always did.

I studied his face. He looked as cold as he did when he grabbed me by my chin and forced me to take the medication in my previous life.

Through strongly clenched teeth, I said, "I did not push her."

He tossed the end of the rope down, letting it fall half an arm's distance away from my fingertips. Then, he said, "Come to me when you finally learn to swallow your pride."

Upon saying that, he turned around and left.

I had no idea how I managed to grab onto the end of that rope. Inch by inch, I climbed upward, ignoring the fact that my palms had been rubbed raw.

I finally hauled myself up to the surface. I sprawled across the rubble, gasping desperately for air.

Far off in the distance, the evacuation center was brightly lit. It was only at this moment that I noticed the piercing pain in my right leg. I had no choice but to prop myself up with my elbows and drag myself forward an inch at a time.

When I finally got to the entrance of the evacuation center, I heard Gigi's voice from within. She asked, "Ken, I think I hear something from outside… Could it be a wild animal?"