Chapter 8
593 Words
Memories and Fate’s Cruel Twist
Anna sat in a cozy café, stirring her coffee absentmindedly as her best friend, Lillian, studied her with a knowing gaze. The café was filled with soft chatter and the comforting aroma of freshly brewed espresso, but Anna’s mind was elsewhere—four years in the past, to be exact.
“Earth to Anna,” Lillian teased, snapping her fingers in front of her. “Where did you go just now?”
Anna let out a small chuckle, shaking her head. “Just… remembering.”
Lillian arched an eyebrow. “Noah?”
Anna exhaled deeply, nodding. “The day he proposed.”
The memory hit her like a wave. She had been in her law office, buried under case files, when Noah stormed in, unannounced and completely ignoring the protests of her secretary. He was drenched from the rain, his expensive suit clinging to him, but his eyes burned with determination.
“What the hell, Noah?” she had hissed, mortified. “You can’t just barge in here like this!”
He had smirked, unfazed. “I’m about to do something even crazier.”
Before she could protest, he had dropped to one knee, pulling out a velvet box. Gasps and murmurs had filled the office as her colleagues peeked through the door, but all she could focus on was him—his wild, untamed love for her.
“I love you, Anna. I’ve loved you since the moment I met you, and I will fight for you every single day of my life. Marry me.”
Tears had welled in her eyes, but she had laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. “You’re impossible, Noah.”
“And you love me for it.”
She had. Oh, how she had.
Anna blinked, snapping back to the present. “It’s been four years since I walked away from that shop,” she murmured, more to herself than to Lillian. “And yet, it still feels like yesterday.”
Lillian reached for her hand. “Maybe it’s time to really move on. You deserve happiness.”
Anna nodded, smiling softly. She had moved on—or at least, she thought she had. Her new boyfriend, Daniel, was kind, stable, everything Noah hadn’t been. And today, she had taken a bold step forward by posting a picture of them together on social media, making it official.
Meanwhile, across the city, Noah scrolled through his phone absentmindedly as he sat in the back of his car, his driver navigating through the rain-slicked streets. He had been in a business meeting all day, but something compelled him to check his notifications.
Then he saw it.
Anna. Smiling. With another man.
His grip on the phone tightened. His heart clenched painfully in his chest. Four years, and yet seeing her with someone else made the air leave his lungs. He barely had time to process the emotions flooding him before his driver yelled, “Mr. Carter—hold on!”
The screech of tires. The blinding flash of headlights. The deafening crash.
Then—nothing.
Back at the café, Anna’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it absently, her breath hitching when she saw the caller ID.
It was the hospital.
Her hands trembled as she answered.
“Miss Carter?” a voice said urgently. “You need to come quickly. Your husband has been in a severe accident.”
Anna’s world tilted, her pulse roaring in her ears.
“Noah…” she whispered, her past and present colliding in the cruelest way possible.
- Writer
