Swapped: His Dead Wife's Revenge

Chapter 6

June’s Pov

I stood in the middle of the enormous bedroom, staring down at myself, and the sight made my stomach twist. I was still wearing the thin hospital gown, now wrinkled and pathetic against Chloe’s body. My feet were bare, the cold marble floor biting into my soles. My hair hung in wild, tangled strands around my face. I looked like someone who had crawled out of a nightmare, not the polished wife of a billionaire.

Tears welled up fast and hot. I pressed my lips together, trying to hold them back, but they spilled over anyway, sliding down my cheeks in silent streams. What the hell had I gotten myself into? These people were strangers. This house was unfamiliar. This body was a stranger’s body. And my babies… my sweet, innocent babies were gone. Killed before they even had a chance to breathe.

A broken sob tore from my throat. I sank to the floor, knees hitting the hard marble, and curled forward until my forehead touched the cold surface. The tears came harder now, shaking my shoulders, soaking the gown. I rocked slightly, whispering through the sobs.

“Where are you? Where are my babies?”

The silence in the room felt suffocating. No one answered. No one ever would.

I thought of my old life, of Frederick’s house that had once felt like a home even when it wasn’t perfect. At least there I had known who I was. At least there I had carried life inside me. Now I was trapped in someone else’s skin, married to the man who had ended that life with a single bullet.

“Mom… Dad…” I whispered toward the ceiling, my voice cracking. “If you’re watching from heaven, please help me. Show me what to do. I can’t do this alone. I can’t stay here.”

The words dissolved into fresh tears. I cried for the twins I would never hold. For the future that had been ripped away in one terrible afternoon. For the woman I used to be, the one who still believed love could be simple and kind.

After what felt like forever, I wiped my face with the back of my hand and forced myself to stand. Crying on this floor would not save me. I needed to find a phone. I needed to reach Blue. She was the only person left who might believe me, who might help me escape this nightmare.

I didn’t even bother looking for shoes. Bare feet or not, I had to move. I cracked the bedroom door open and slipped into the hallway. The mansion stretched out before me like a maze of marble and gold, every surface gleaming under soft lights. It was beautiful in a way that felt wrong, cold, and empty. Nothing like the warm, lived-in richness I had known before. Here, wealth seemed designed to remind you how small and powerless you were.

I moved quickly, bare feet silent on the thick carpets, opening doors, peering into rooms that all looked the same. A library with leather-bound books no one probably read. A sitting room with furniture that looked too expensive to sit on. Every space felt staged, like a showroom no one actually lived in.

Finally, I found what I was looking for: a study at the end of a long corridor. Dark wood panels, heavy desk, shelves lined with files and books. And on the desk, a sleek black landline phone.

I rushed over and snatched the receiver, my heart hammering. I knew Blue’s number by heart. I dialed it with trembling fingers.

It rang once. Twice. Three times.

“Come on, Blue. Pick up. Please pick up.”

Voicemail.

I hung up and tried again, whispering urgently under my breath. “Pick up, pick up, pick up…”

Still nothing.

I was about to try a third time when a deep, icy voice cut through the silence behind me.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Chloe?”

I spun around so fast the phone cord yanked tight. Nikolai stood in the doorway, his tall frame filling the space, eyes narrowed with cold suspicion. He looked every bit the ruthless billionaire, suit still perfectly pressed even after the long day.

“I… I was just trying to call my friend,” I stammered, the receiver still clutched in my hand. My voice came out raw from crying. “Everything happened so fast. The hospital, the wedding, all of it. But I’m not who you think I am. I don’t look like your Chloe. I don’t belong here. I just want to get the f**k out of this place.”

Nikolai stepped inside and closed the door behind him with a soft, deliberate click. The sound made my stomach drop.

“You want to get the f**k out?” His voice was low, dangerous, laced with disbelief and something darker. “After you spent months begging me to marry you? After you chased me like a desperate little shadow everywhere I went? Now you suddenly want out?”

He took another step closer, his gaze raking over my disheveled hospital gown, my bare feet, my tear-streaked face. “What are you even doing in my study? We may be married, but you don’t have any business snooping around my things.”

“I don’t have any business here at all!” The words burst out of me, loud and broken. Fresh tears burned my eyes. “I just needed a phone to call Blue. She’s going to help me. She’ll get me out of this mess. I don’t want to be here. You… you killed my babies.” My voice cracked on the last words, turning into a sob I couldn’t hold back. “You killed them. What am I supposed to do without them? How am I supposed to live like this?”

Nikolai stared at me for a long moment, his expression shifting from anger to something colder, almost pitying. He shook his head slowly.

“I think the accident messed with your head more than the doctors let on. You need sleep, Chloe. Go back to your room. Let your brain reset. Stop with whatever game this is.”

“I’m not playing a game!” I cried, slamming the phone back onto its cradle. “I’m not Chloe. I’m telling you the truth. I want to leave. Right now. I’m walking out of here.”

Nikolai’s lips curved into a humorless smile. He crossed his arms over his chest, blocking the doorway.

“Suit yourself,” he said quietly, his voice like ice. “But if you walk out that door tonight, barefoot and looking like you just escaped a psych ward, you won’t get far. And when you come crawling back, because you will, remember that you chose this. You begged for this marriage. Now live with it.”