Chapter 15: Awakening
1647 Words
The parking garage was shrouded in darkness.
The motion-activated lights remained dormant in the stillness, and at that moment, Evelyn Hart had no desire to see the light anyway.
With her eyes closed, fragments of the novel continued to circle endlessly through her mind. They felt less like fiction and more like prophecy, tugging relentlessly at her emotions.
She felt like a great drum stretched taut and hollow—one that anyone could strike at will. Pressure came crashing toward her from every direction, yet she had long since lost the strength to make a sound.
Both Mrs. Sterling and her own mother wanted her and Adrian Sterling to have a child as soon as possible.
Yet Adrian himself had made it clear that he did not want children so early in their marriage.
She had already been forced to step away from the career she loved, and now she no longer knew whether she should return to it or leave it buried forever.
The marriage she had spent so much effort nurturing suddenly felt as though it were balanced on the edge of a cliff.
Not only had affection failed to blossom with time, but layers of deception and concealment stood between them like insurmountable walls.
Every path seemed wrong.
Every choice felt impossible.
Outside, the rain grew heavier.
Listening to the relentless drumming against the windshield, Evelyn started the engine without hesitation and drove out into the storm.
The windshield wipers swept frantically across the glass.
A missed call notification flashed across her phone screen.
Glancing at it briefly, she answered.
“Hello?”
A woman’s nervous voice immediately came through the speaker.
“Mrs. Sterling? I... I need to speak with you.”
Evelyn frowned.
The voice sounded vaguely familiar.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Chloe Bennett.”
Her tone faltered.
“There’s something I need to discuss with you...”
The sudden respect in Chloe’s voice caught Evelyn off guard.
Before she could process the strange change in attitude, a sharp blast of a car horn erupted ahead.
Evelyn turned the steering wheel and merged onto the road.
On the other end of the line, Chloe hesitated before asking carefully,
“Are you heading somewhere right now?”
A flicker of anxiety crossed her mind.
Surely Evelyn wasn’t trying to find Adrian.
But Adrian was already with Natalie Hayes tonight.
Even if Evelyn searched everywhere, she would never find him.
The thought brought Chloe immense relief.
“What exactly do you want?” Evelyn asked coldly. “If you have nothing important to say, I’m hanging up.”
“Wait!”
Chloe hurriedly stopped her.
“Are you going to see Mr. Sterling?”
Evelyn’s expression instantly darkened.
“What are you trying to say?”
“N-Nothing.”
The call abruptly disconnected.
Already irritated, Evelyn stared at the screen before exiting the call log and dialing Adrian’s assistant, Victor Wells.
Using navigation, she followed the route for more than half an hour.
The farther she drove, the emptier the roads became.
Perhaps because of the storm, pedestrians had vanished entirely.
Even other vehicles were scarce.
Alone inside the car, she unexpectedly found her emotions calming.
During the drive, she called Adrian repeatedly.
No answer.
Again and again.
Nothing.
Eventually his phone was switched off entirely.
The frustration building inside her became impossible to suppress.
As she approached an intersection and prepared to change lanes, a blinding light suddenly pierced through the rain.
Someone had their high beams on.
Evelyn narrowed her eyes.
Visibility was already terrible.
The glaring lights made it nearly impossible to see.
She tapped her horn and slowed down.
The approaching vehicle showed no sign of dimming its lights.
Instead, the roar of an accelerating engine echoed through the rain.
It seemed to be speeding directly toward her.
Evelyn froze in surprise.
She sounded her horn again, harder this time.
The distance between them shrank rapidly.
Only then did she realize the small white sedan was not drifting.
It was heading straight for her.
Her instincts reacted immediately.
She slammed on the brakes and jerked the steering wheel.
But the rain-slick road betrayed her.
The vehicle lost traction.
Momentum seized control.
Unfamiliar with the winding terrain, she failed to notice the steep embankment beside the road.
The car tipped violently.
Then rolled.
A deafening crash exploded through the storm.
Everything spun.
The world became a whirlpool of fragmented images and distorted light.
Rain continued pouring from the heavens.
Blood rushed toward her head.
When awareness slowly returned, she realized she was hanging upside down inside the wrecked vehicle.
The door had burst open.
One arm dangled outside.
Her pale lounge clothes were soaked through completely.
The fabric clung to her skin.
Heat drained from her body at an alarming rate.
Numbness spread across her limbs.
More terrifying still was the growing sensation that oxygen itself was slipping away.
In the distance, she could see the white sedan.
It had stopped.
After forcing her off the road, it had braked as well.
Yet nobody emerged.
Nobody approached.
Her consciousness drifted dangerously.
Struggling to stay awake, she searched desperately for her phone.
Finally she spotted the white device wedged between the seats.
With immense effort, she stretched toward it.
Her fingertips nearly brushed the edge—
Then darkness crashed over her.
A violent wave of dizziness swallowed everything.
Before losing consciousness completely, she thought she saw someone step out of the other vehicle.
Hurried footsteps approached through the rain.
The passenger-side door opened.
For a moment, she believed someone had come to help.
Then silence returned.
The world dissolved into blackness.
...
Evelyn dreamed.
It was a dream so long, so vivid, so painfully realistic that it felt as though she had lived an entire lifetime within it.
In the dream, she was still Evelyn Hart.
Everything began exactly as it had in reality.
She married Adrian Sterling.
Believing her years of secret love had finally been rewarded, she entered their marriage filled with hope.
Then one day she discovered the truth.
Adrian had married her because he mistakenly believed she was the girl who had once saved his life.
The revelation shattered her.
Lost and heartbroken, she struggled to find her footing.
She intended to let things continue naturally.
Until Natalie Hayes appeared.
A chain of coincidences revealed that Natalie was likely Adrian’s true savior.
Panic consumed Evelyn.
The more she watched Natalie, the more extraordinary the young woman seemed.
She feared Adrian would eventually uncover the truth.
Though she knew she might be imagining things, she could not shake the feeling that he treated Natalie differently.
Countless times she wanted to confess everything.
Countless times she wanted to stop living inside the lie.
But her mother forbade it.
Accustomed to obedience all her life, Evelyn hesitated.
Her indecision altered the course of fate.
From that moment forward, she slowly transformed into the villainess of the story.
Step by step.
Choice by choice.
She concealed the truth.
Adrian continued believing she was his rescuer.
Yet Natalie’s presence still captured his heart.
Unable to bear it, Evelyn repeatedly targeted Natalie, creating conflict after conflict.
Ironically, every scheme only drew Adrian and Natalie closer together.
Bound by his marriage, Adrian and Natalie suffered through a painful, impossible love.
Both were miserable.
Both were trapped.
Eventually, Evelyn crossed the final line.
She attempted to destroy Natalie completely.
Natalie vanished.
Only afterward did Adrian uncover the truth.
He learned who had truly saved him all those years ago.
Natalie.
The woman he genuinely loved.
The woman he had always loved.
His fury was merciless.
He cast Evelyn out.
Stripped her of everything.
Ensured nobody would help her.
She lost her home.
Her dignity.
Her future.
Reduced to begging beneath an overpass, she spent her days shivering in the cold.
Five years later, Natalie returned in dazzling triumph.
Beside her were several children who looked exactly like Adrian.
And there the story ended.
The clearest image remained etched into Evelyn’s mind:
Adrian’s icy gaze as he threw her away.
The endless wind beneath the bridge.
The loneliness.
The humiliation.
Her family’s disappointment.
Her mother’s illness.
Her sister’s downfall.
No one willing to stand beside her.
No one willing to even look at her.
Then a luxury car swept past.
Inside sat the story’s perfect hero and heroine.
Happy.
Victorious.
Complete.
And Evelyn’s role ended there.
A brief, tragic existence erased from the narrative.
“No!”
The cry erupted from somewhere deep inside her soul.
She refused to accept such an ending.
She refused.
The next second, she bolted upright in bed.
Her entire body was drenched in sweat.
Her chest heaved violently.
Breath came in desperate gasps.
For several seconds she could not distinguish dream from reality.
Everything around her was white.
Blindingly white.
Only after staring blankly for a while did she realize where she was.
A hospital room.
Sensation slowly returned to her right hand.
Someone was gripping it tightly.
The pressure intensified.
Pain shot through her fingers.
“...It hurts.”
The grip immediately loosened.
A low, hoarse male voice sounded beside her.
“You’re awake. Does anything hurt?”
Evelyn turned her head.
And met Adrian Sterling’s eyes.
The same face from her dream.
The same impossibly handsome features.
The same powerful presence.
The same man who had ultimately abandoned her beneath a bridge.
Fear flashed across her face.
Before she could stop herself, the words burst out:
“Don’t throw me away.”
Her voice trembled.
“I don’t want to live under a bridge.”
Adrian froze.
His hand remained suspended in midair.
Confusion darkened his gaze.
“What are you talking about?”
His voice lowered.
“Why would I ever throw you away?”
Evelyn stared at him.
Then at Natalie standing nearby.
And suddenly fell silent.
Something was terribly wrong.
Very, very wrong.
- Writer
