Reborn Before the Apocalypse,My Ex Will Regret Losing MeChapter 1
The apocalypse came as a heatwave.
When temperatures soared past anything the world had ever seen, I stumbled into a stroke of impossible luck: a Frost System, bound to me and me alone. It could generate ice to beat the heat and keep food from spoiling.
I told my boyfriend the moment it happened. I thought he'd be relieved. Instead, Owen Gilbert demanded I use the system to save his childhood sweetheart and her entire family.
People show their true colors when the world falls apart. I knew the risks. I refused him on the spot.
Lesley Henson and her family of five couldn't survive the heat. One by one, their bodies broke down, blistered, and gave out.
Owen's family, meanwhile, lived. Because of me. Because of my system.
After the apocalypse ended, he proposed like nothing had happened. We got married.
And on the day I went into labor, he drove me into the desert and left me there.
He stood over me while the sun scorched the life out of my body, and he smiled. That vicious, satisfied smile.
"Wanda Winfield, if you hadn't been so selfish, Lesley's family would still be alive! They were roasted to death under the sun, just like this! You selfish bitch. Today, you can join them in the ground."
I grabbed his wrist. My voice was raw, shredded, barely human.
"Owen, I'm carrying your child..."
He brought his foot down on my swollen belly.
"Lesley was carrying my child too, when she died! Anything born from a woman like you would be rotten to the core. Die."
I died with hatred still burning in my chest.
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in my own house.
It was the day before the apocalypse. The day Owen tried to move Lesley's family into my home.
Through the open front door, I could see him outside, hauling Lesley's bags from the car with the eager attentiveness of a devoted servant.
A cold laugh echoed through my mind.
You love her that much? Fine. This time around, you can follow her straight to hell.
——
"What are you standing there for?! Get out here and help carry things!"
Owen's sharp bark snapped me back to the present.
I glanced at the television. A heat advisory scrolled across the screen in bold red letters, the warnings cycling on repeat.
Then I looked at Owen, arms full of Lesley Henson's belongings, already halfway through my front door.
It hit me like a freight train.
I had actually been reborn.