My hands gripped the steering wheel of my car as I drive through the empty highway, my eyes flickering again and again to the my cell phone that was resting on the passenger seat.
The screen remained dark.
No messages.
No calls.
Nothing.
My lips curved into a faint, tired smile.
Tonight was supposed to be special.
It was five years of marriage.
Five years since I became Mrs. Dominic Blackwood.
Five years of loving a man who had never loved me back.
Five years ago, on a warm spring evening, I became Mrs. Dominic Blackwood, loving the most powerful man in the city.
Five years of convincing myself that one day.. he might love me back.
Thunder rumbled across the sky, shaking the car slightly as lightning flashed through the storm clouds, yet I blinked slowly, forcing myself to focus on the road.
'Maybe he was busy', I thought.
That was the excuse I had repeated to myself countless times over the years.
The rain had started before I even left the house.
By the time I reached the highway, the storm had turned violent, thick sheets of water crashing against my windshield so hard that the world outside looked like a blurry painting. The wipers moved back and forth desperately, but they could barely keep up with one another.
Still, I kept driving.
My hands tightened slightly on the steering wheel as my eyes drifted again to the phone lying on the passenger seat.
Yet again, the screen was still dark.
Dominic Blackwood wasn't an ordinary man. He was the CEO of Blackwood Group, a billionaire whose schedule was filled with endless meetings, negotiations, and business trips. Being busy was normal for him.
So I learned to accept it.
I accepted it when he forgot about my birthday.
I accepted it when he missed the different holidays we could use to spend time with each other.
I accepted it when he came home late night after night without even looking at me.
I always told myself the same thing, over and over again trying to understand from his perspective.
He's just busy.
But tonight was different.
Tonight was our anniversary.
I had spent the entire day preparing for it. Cooking dinner myself even though we had chefs in the mansion.
Decorating the dining room with candles and flowers.
Even wearing the white dress Dominic once casually mentioned looked good on me.
I waited for him at the dining table.
Seven o'clock.
Eight.
Nine.
The hands of the clock was still ticking as I waited.
By ten, the candles had already melted into small puddles of wax.
The food had gone cold.
And Dominic still hadn't come home. My chest tightened slightly at the memory. The rain outside grew heavier.
My eyes drifted to the phone again.
Still nothing.
I forced a faint smile.
Maybe he was on his way now.
My fingers loosened slightly on the steering wheel as I continued driving down the empty highway.
Then suddenly–
My phone vibrated.
The sound made my heart jump as I quickly reached for it, almost dropping it in my hurry.
The screen lit up in my hand.
One new message. From Dominic Blackwood.
Warmth flickered briefly in my chest without knowing the context of the message but I was happy.
Maybe he finally remembered.
Maybe he was finally coming home.
My fingers trembled slightly as I opened the message.
Then I read it.
And the warmth from finally receiving a message from him disappeared instantly.
"Stop causing trouble, Vanessa was attacked tonight. I'm at the hospital".
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe. The rain continued to pound against the car windows, but the sound seemed distant now.
Vanessa.
Vanessa Crowe.
Dominic's childhood friend.
The woman he always protected. The woman who had somehow always stood between us.
I stared at the message for a long time. My lips slowly curved into a small, bitter smile.
Even now...
Even on the night of our fifth anniversary..
Dominic still believed I was the kind of woman who would fake something just to get his attention.
My grip on the phone tightened slightly.
Five years.
Five years of trying to be a good wife.
Five years of loving him
quietly, hoping that if I waited long enough, he might eventually see me.
But to Dominic..
I was nothing more than a nuisance.
Another flash of lightning tore across the sky, briefly illuminating the empty road ahead.
I blinked, suddenly realizing tears were sliding down my face. I didn't remember when they started.
Maybe they had always been there and I just didn't notice.
Memories began to surface in my mind.
The first time I met Dominic.
The moment our families arranged our marriage. The way my heart raced when he placed the wedding ring on my finger.
I had always believed then that if I tried hard enough, I could make our marriage real. I believed love could grow with time.
But now I understood how foolish that thought was.
Dominic Blackwood had never loved me.
And he never would, at least not in the last years and definitely not in the years to come.
The bright headlights of an approaching truck suddenly appeared through the rain.
They were blinding against the darkness.
For a second, I stared at them without reacting. My mind was somewhere else entirely.
Back in the empty dining room, with the candles and flowers that no one saw, the version of myself who waited like a fool.
The truck's horn suddenly exploded through the storm.
A loud, deafening sound.
My eyes snapped forward instantly after coming back to my senses.
The truck was too close. Way too close.
My heart slammed against my ribs as panic surged through me. I jerked the steering wheel trying to move away from it's way.
The tires screeched against the wet road. The car spun violently.
Everything happened too fast.
The headlights grew larger.
The horn screamed again.
Then–
The world exploded.
Metal crashed against metal with a horrifying sound.
Glass shattered around me like rain. Pain tore through my body as the car slammed into the guardrail.
The impact knocked the air from my lungs.
Everything spun.
Then suddenly....
Everything stopped.
For a moment, there was only silence.
The storm still raged outside, but inside the wrecked car, everything felt strangely distant.
I lay slumped against the seat, unable to move as I felt something warm slid down the side of my face.
Blood.
My breathing came out in shallow gasps. Each breath burned like fire inside my chest, my vision slowly blurred.
The shattered windshield revealed the stormy sky above me. Rain poured endlessly from the dark clouds.
My phone had fallen onto the floor beside me. The screen flickered faintly as if it was mocking me.
Dominic's message was still there.
"Stop causing trouble."
A weak laugh escaped my lips.
Even now...
Even as I was dying..
He still thought I was lying.
My eyelids grew heavy. The pain slowly faded, replaced by a cold numbness spreading through my body.
'So this was how it ended', I thought.
Five years of loving Dominic Blackwood.
Five years of waiting for him to love me back.
What a foolish dream.
My gaze drifted toward the storm outside. The rain continued falling endlessly.
I whispered his name softly.
"Dominic...."
But this time, my heart felt empty.
No love. No longing. Only exhaustion.
"If there is another life.."
My fingers twitched weakly.
"I will never love you again".
Darkness slowly swallowed everything around me as I felt my eyes closing softly.
The storm had faded, the pain disappeared.
And my final breath slipped quietly into the night.
Then–
I gasped.
Air rushed violently into my lungs as my eyes flew open.
I sat up abruptly, my heart pounding wildly.
Sunlight streamed through the curtains beside the bed.
Warm light filled the room.
I froze.
This room...
I knew this room.
My hands trembled as I touched my face. My arms. My chest.
There was no blood. No pain.
Nothing.
I looked around in shock.
The familiar furniture, the soft pink walls, my childhood bedroom.
My breathing quickened.
That was impossible.
The door suddenly opened.
"Seraphina, are you awake?",
My mother's voice.
My entire body went still.
She stepped into the room with a warm smile.
"You shouldn't stay up late before such an important day".
My throat felt dry.
"...Important day?"
She laughed softly.
"Did you forget already?"
She looked at me with excitement.
"Tomorrow is your wedding with Dominic Blackwood".
My heart stopped.
Tomorrow.
'My wedding'.
My fingers slowly tightened around the bedsheets as different memories came to my head.
The accident. The storm.
My death.
Understanding hit me like lightning.
I had died.
And somehow..
I had come back to life.
Back to the day before I married Dominic Blackwood.
A long silence filled the room as my mother continued talking about the wedding preparations. But I wasn't listening.
My gaze slowly lowered to my trembling hands.
Five years of love.
Five years of humiliation.
Five years of waiting for a man who never cared that eventually lead to my death.
But that life was over now.
Slowly, I lifted my head.
A cold calm settled inside my chest.
This time...
I would not repeat the same mistake.
This time–
I will never love Dominic Blackwood again.