Reborn Through The Ashes

Chapter two

The last thing Hannah remembered was not the sound of the crashing metal or even the sound of the flames that had slowly consumed everything around her. The only thing she could wrap her mind around was Nathan.

The man she had always desired and trusted with her heart, the man she believed would never abandon her no matter what the situation was.

She could remember the way she reached out to him.

“Nathan, please don’t leave me here.”

“Not to worry, Han. I will come get you soon.”

And he never returned.

She watched him lift Lydia in his arms and disappear into the rain. Things kept recurring in her mind, but the only thing that returned was the fire. The flames spread around her until there was nowhere left for her to escape.

Her final thought was a painful one.

Why wasn’t I enough?

She kept wondering until darkness swallowed the room.

Hannah’s eyes suddenly opened. Her chest rose sharply as she struggled to breathe. She sat upright, clutching her chest. Her heart was beating so fast.

Her eyes kept moving around the room, but there was no fire, no smoke, not even a piece of broken glass around her.

She found herself in a quiet bedroom. Her breath remained heavy, and her mind was filled with confusion.

How can I be perfectly fine? No burns, no wounds? This is something else.

She slowly raised her hand to her face, and it was very warm, smooth, and alive. That was when her eyes finally widened.

“No…”

She kept looking around the room,the familiar curtains, the wooden table, the wardrobe beside the wall, and the lamp near her bed. She knew this was her room, but she hadn’t seen it in years.

Her heart began to pound again.

She quickly pulled away from the bedsheet and stood up from the bed. Her legs were shaking and weak, and she nearly stumbled, but she grabbed the edge of the table to support her weight.

“What’s happening?”

Her voice sounded so strange to her own ears.

She staggered to the mirror. The reflection staring back at her made her blood run cold.

“It was her.”

But she was very much younger.

She raised her hand, and the woman in the mirror did the same thing.

“Noooo!” she screamed.

Her eyes filled with tears. “This cannot be possible.”

She turned from the mirror and reached out to her phone. Her hand shook as she grabbed it, and the date appeared on the screen.

Hannah stared at it. Not once, not even twice, her lips parted.

Three years? Yes, she was three years in the past, three years before the accident occurred, three years before the wedding, three years before the man she loved let her die.

She lowered her phone slowly and tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I’m alive.” She covered her mouth.

A broken laugh escaped her. She broke down in heavy tears, not because she was sad, but because it still felt unreal to her.

I have been given another life. A second chance to live, a chance I never thought I would have.

Hannah sat at the edge of the bed and cried silently with her hands covering her face.

For years now she had always wanted to be loved and feel at home, but she couldn’t get that from her family, and so she also searched for it in Nathan.

She had believed marriage would finally give her all she desired, but no it didn’t. Instead, it led her to death.

She wiped her tears and her expression slowly changed. The softness in her eyes disappeared.

“Nathan……………………..!”

“Lydia………………………!”

Their faces returned to her mind. Oh, how I remember every word, every detail, every moment.

Now I remember Lydia pretending she couldn’t breathe. I also remember Nathan choosing her and promising he would come back for me, but he never did. I remember his betrayal.

Her voice was barely a whisper.

“This time I won’t make the same mistake.”

She stood and looked at the mirror again. The woman staring back at her was no longer the naive Hannah who had died in that car.

She had lived this life once and lost everything, but life had given her another opportunity, and she didn’t know why.

But this time, she was not going to waste it.

There was a knock on the door and Hannah froze.

“Hannah, are you in there?”

That voice sounded so familiar. She knew it.

Lydia……

For a few seconds Hannah couldn’t move, because her mind kept returning to their burning car.

Lydia screams at Nathan. Nathan pulled her from the wreckage and left Hannah behind.

Another knock.

“Han?”

Hannah splashed cold water on her face and made her way downstairs, each step feeling heavier than the last. The smell of breakfast drifted through the hallway — eggs, toast, the same smell she remembered from three years ago, the last morning before everything started unraveling.

She paused at the kitchen doorway.

Nathan was already there, sitting at the table, exactly as she remembered him, the same crooked smile, the same way he leaned back in his chair like the world owed him nothing but ease. He looked up when she entered.

“There she is,” he said warmly, standing to pull out her chair like the gentleman he always pretended to be. “You slept in. Is everything okay?”

Hannah’s stomach turned at the sound of his voice, at the memory of him choosing Lydia over and over, at the rain, at the fire, at his broken promise.

“Fine,” she managed, sitting down stiffly.

Lydia slid a plate in front of her, smiling that same soft smile. “Eat up. We have a big day.”

Hannah blinked. “Big day?”

Nathan and Lydia exchanged a glance, quick, secretive, the kind of look shared between two people who already knew something she didn’t.

“You don’t remember?” Nathan asked, his tone light, almost teasing. “Today’s the day we’re all going to the lake house. Just like we planned.”

Hannah’s fork froze halfway to her mouth.

The lake house.

The place where, in her old life, everything between the three of them had truly begun to change, where the first crack in her marriage had formed, where Nathan and Lydia had started growing closer while she stood on the outside looking in.

“You okay?” Lydia asked, watching her carefully. “You’ve gone pale.”

Hannah forced a smile. “I’m fine. Just… surprised, that’s all.”

But her mind was racing. If today was the day it started, then she had a chance, a real chance to stop it before it ever began.

She opened her mouth to say something, to find some excuse to avoid the trip entirely.

But before she could speak, Nathan’s phone buzzed on the table. He glanced at the screen, and his easy smile vanished in an instant.

“What is it?” Lydia asked.

Nathan looked up slowly, his eyes locking with Hannah’s and for the first time since she’d woken up in this life, he looked afraid.

“It’s from an unknown number,” he said quietly. “It just says… ‘I know what you did to her.’”