CEO's Regret After Burning Me to Ashes

Chapter 1-----Sorry I’m Late, Zoe “Why… Lukas…” Zoe’s breath caught as fingers tightened around her throat, her face flushing with strain. Tears gathered in her eyes, reflecting bewilderment and fear. Before her stood Lukas, the man she had just married. He was also the man she had loved for more than ten years. This was supposed to be their wedding night. Yet the gentle, attentive man from earlier that day had vanished, replaced by a stranger whose icy demeanor radiated unmistakable loathing. There was hatred deep in his eyes. It was as if he wanted nothing but to tear her apart limb by limb. She tried weakly to pull his hand away, but her efforts only provoked him to squeeze down on her throat harder. The edges of her vision darkened as the air left her lungs. “Mandy would’ve still been alive if not for you,” he hissed. “You deserve to go to hell for what you’ve done!.” “Every moment I spent with you is torture. I want you dead.” *Mandy?* The name caught Zoe off guard. It had been years since she last heard of it. Then, realization dawned. With difficulty, she managed a faint, bitter smile. *So that’s what this is about.* “How does it feel to have everything torn away?” Lukas whispered, “Tonight, you’ll join her.” Just as her consciousness began to fade, his grip abruptly loosened. He shoved her away, sending her sprawling to the floor. Zoe collapsed to the floor, choking and gasping for air like a drowning woman finally breaking the surface. Her lungs burned as she gulped in desperate breaths. Before she could recover, the acrid stench of gasoline hit her nostrils. She looked up in horror to see Lukas calmly emptying a large canister across the hardwood floors. Her blood ran cold. "Lukas, stop!" she croaked, her throat raw. He tossed the empty canister aside with a clatter and pulled out a lighter. The small flame reflected in his cold eyes as he gave her a humorless smile. "Time for you to join Mandy." The lighter hit the floor with a quiet click. Fire exploded across the room with a whoosh, racing up the curtains and engulfing the bed in seconds. Lukas turned and walked calmly toward the door. Zoe forced herself up, coughing violently as she staggered after him. She almost made it - until his boot connected with her ribs, sending her crashing back into the growing inferno. "Goodbye, Zoe." The door clicked shut. The lock turned with finality. “Lucas st–” Her screams and pounding fists changed nothing. The reality crashed over her - he was going to burn her alive. Through the thickening smoke, Zoe's streaming eyes fixed on the windows. Flames licked at the walls around her, the heat was becoming unbearable. Zoe could barely open her eyes against the rapidly thickening smoke, squinting through the haze as she stumbled toward the window, dodging the encroaching flames. When she finally reached it, her heart sank—the window was locked tight. He made sure to shut off all avenues of escape. The realization hit her like a physical blow. Slowly, her legs gave way, and she slid to the floor, consumed by a despair that she had never experienced before. All those years of loving Lukas, of giving him everything—and this was how it ended. Regret crashed over her, so heavy she could barely breathe. Her body swayed, then slumped to the ground. The wedding suite she had so carefully prepared was now a roaring inferno, the flames licking hungrily at her skin. *It hurts…* Tears streamed down her face, her throat too raw to make a sound. Each breath grew shallower, her eyelids heavier. Is this really how I die? I don’t want this… Then—BANG. A deafening crash at the door. Zoe lifted her head weakly. Through the smoke and fire, a figure charged toward her, uncaring of the flames, and dropped to his knees beside her. Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her close. "I’m sorry, Zoe. I’m too late..." Who…? Summoning the last of her strength, she forced her eyes open—and froze. "Eric…?" *Why? Why him?* He scooped her up without hesitation. "Don’t talk," he said, voice rough with urgency. "I’m getting you out of here." "No…" The fire was too strong. She knew they would never make it. "Go...!" Zoe tried to stop him, but her throat burned like razor blades. It choked back the words that tried to escape her lips. In the last second before darkness took her, she saw the chandelier above them tremble—then break free, plummeting straight toward them— A single tear slipped down her cheek, vanishing into the flames. *Eric... you fool.* *I already turned you away. Why did you still come for me?* "How dare he walk out on such an important day! This is an insult to our family!" "If Lukas didn’t want this engagement, he should’ve said so sooner! Our Zoe isn’t some desperate—" "Grace, Bryan, please—Lukas has always been a responsible child. Something urgent must’ve come up. Let’s just wait a little longer." "You want us to wait? For how much longer?!" Amid the heated argument, Zoe’s eyes fluttered open. The scene before her made her freeze. *Mom? Dad? Mr. and Mrs. Gray?* Her parents stood stiffly, their faces tight with anger, while Lukas’s parents wore matching expressions of guilt and unease. From their shouts, Zoe pieced it together: engagement, and Lukas’s disappearance. But this was impossible. This exact moment had played out the same way… Five years ago! It was something she would never forget. It was the day of their first engagement, when Lukas had vanished without explanation. Except... she remembered the years that followed. Their marriage. The fire. She had believed she was stepping into a bright new chapter of happiness - only for Lukas to deliver the cruelest twist of fate. He had been wearing a mask all along, biding his time in the shadows. Like a fool, she had believed their love was mutual. Little did she know, he had harbored nothing but hatred for her. To avenge his lost love, he had even burned her alive on their wedding night! Every time she closed her eyes, the raging inferno forced its way back into her vision. The searing agony of flames consuming her flesh returned in waves. She found her body trembling involuntarily at the sheer horror of it. It hurt. God, how it had hurt... After what felt like an eternity, Zoe finally opened her eyes again, wiping away the tear stains at the corners. *So... I seemed to have been reborn to the time when I’m still twenty two, where we’re just going to get engaged.* In her past life, their families had arranged for them to get engaged right after graduation. But on that fateful night, Lukas had received a phone call and disappeared without a word, leaving both families and all their guests in shock. No one could reach him. The engagement collapsed before it even began, and she became the laughingstock of their social circle for years. The memory brought a bitter smirk to her lips now. Perhaps this had been divine intervention all along, a sign that she should have walked away right then and there. But she did not. They had shared over a decade of history, of what she thought was genuine love. That was why she kept forgiving him, kept making excuses for him... until the night they got married. He murdered her with his own hands on their wedding night. But fate had granted her a second chance. Never again. Zoe rose to her feet, her expression turning icy, her eyes burning with newfound determination - and vengeance. *Lukas Gray, in our past life, I gave you my everything. And you repaid me with betrayal and death.* *This time?* *You'll learn the true meaning of regret.*