Chapter 3: Drowning in Darkness
462 Words
The ocean swallowed Lena whole.
Ice-cold water crushed her lungs as she plunged deeper, her scream lost in the abyss. Her gown billowed around her like a ghostly shroud, dragging her down, down, down. Panic clawed at her chest. She kicked, thrashed—desperate for air—but the weight of betrayal pressed heavier than the water itself.
Above, the yacht’s golden lights shimmered, growing distant. No one was coming for her.
Of course not.
Ethan wouldn’t jump in to save her. Victoria wouldn’t scream for help. They had planned this. They wanted her gone.
Her limbs burned, her vision darkening at the edges. Her mind screamed for her body to fight, but another part of her whispered… What’s the point?
She had spent years chasing love, believing in a man who had never truly seen her. She had sacrificed dreams, friendships, even her own company for him. And for what? To be discarded like trash? To be murdered by the very people she trusted?
A strange calm settled over her. Maybe this was how it ended.
Maybe it was better this way.
Her body stilled, surrendering to the cold.
But just as the darkness began to take her, a voice—soft, yet commanding—echoed in her mind.
"Do you want to give up?"
Lena’s eyes fluttered open. The water around her glowed faintly, as if the ocean itself was alive. Shadows swirled, forming glimpses of the past—Ethan’s deceitful smile, Victoria’s triumphant smirk, the moment she fell.
"Do you want to let them win?"
No.
A spark of fury ignited within her, piercing through the numbness. No, I won’t let them win.
Her fingers twitched. Her legs kicked. The fire in her chest roared back to life.
If she was going to die, it wouldn’t be in defeat.
Summoning the last of her strength, she reached upward, her hand breaking through the surface—
—and then, everything went black.
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Lena gasped awake.
But she wasn’t in the ocean.
She was in a bed. Her bed.
Sunlight streamed through the window. Her fingers clenched the silk sheets. The scent of fresh coffee lingered in the air.
Her heart pounded.
This wasn’t the afterlife. This wasn’t a hospital.
This was her penthouse.
Three years ago.
She bolted upright, hands flying to her chest. No bruises. No soaked gown. No sign of her death.
She stumbled to the mirror, her breath catching. The woman staring back at her wasn’t the broken, betrayed fool who had drowned.
She was younger. Three years younger.
The sapphire pendant glinted around her neck. The same one Ethan had gifted her before everything fell apart.
A slow, eerie realization crawled over her skin.
She had been reborn.
And this time… she wouldn’t be fooled.
- Writer
