My Husband Begged to Leave Me for His Dead Ex on My Deathbed Chapter 01

My Husband Begged to Leave Me for His Dead Ex on My Deathbed Chapter 01

Everyone said the heir to the James empire, Jason James, adored his wife more than life itself.

On my graduation day, he built an entire artificial starry sky in my name.

When I was diagnosed with brain cancer, he shaved his head and sat through chemo right beside me.

He even filled a bottle with sleeping pills, ready to go with me.

But I didn’t hear the truth until I was dying.

His head rested in my lap, his face twisted in pain.

“Stella, I’ve repaid everything I owed you in this life.”

“Next life… let me be with Nina, okay?”

That’s when I understood.

He had always loved Nina Zane—the girl who saved him years ago and died young.

He married me just to repay the debt of me staying by his side for over a decade.

I closed my eyes with him, a tear slipping down.

I whispered, “Okay.”

******

When I opened my eyes again, noise crashed around me.

I squinted, letting my eyes adjust to the harsh sun off the sea.

“Mr. James, please come home! Your mother is worried sick!”

“I don’t know you!”

“Back off, or I’m calling the cops!”

A tanned, wiry girl shielded the furious boy behind her.

But the boy’s skin was pale. Even in rough linen, his bearing screamed old money.

No matter how they begged, he didn’t budge.

Jason’s hand curled at his side—the tell he was about to snap.

The bodyguard didn’t see it. He reached to shove the girl aside.

I ran up and pushed him back.

Jason pulled his hand in the second he saw me.

“Mrs. James! Thank God!”

They all exhaled. They looked at me like I was their last hope.

I was the only one who’d ever made Jason listen.

But that was before the accident.

He eyed me warily, still shielding the girl.

“Who are you? Here to drag me back, too?”

This Jason didn’t have the icy control of the thirty-year-old CEO he’d become.

Every emotion showed on his face.

He was scared of me.

He didn’t remember me.

He just saw another person trying to cage him.

This was the turning point last time.

We argued in the car. He crashed and went over a cliff.

They found him a month later. He had no memory.

And he’d fallen for Nina, who ran a little diner by the sea.

I fought to bring his memories back. I won.

He remembered the promise—we’d marry after graduation.

But after the wedding, he never touched me.

I blamed it on nerves. We’d known each other too long; it felt awkward.

Then I found his studio. Covered wall to wall in paintings.

Nina. Every single one.

She married someone else after Jason married me—an abuser who beat her to death.

She became his ghost.

This time, I wanted to let them be.

So I shook my head.

“No.”