My Husband Begged to Leave Me for His Dead Ex on My Deathbed Chapter 12

My Husband Begged to Leave Me for His Dead Ex on My Deathbed Chapter 12

It was Nina.

She looked ruined. Her hair was dry and brittle.

She’d seen me on TV. I was alive. She’d been tortured for nothing.

She wanted us both dead.

Waves crashed below.

I kept calm.

“Nina. If I die, you’ll go to prison.”

“I don’t care.”

“Jason threw me out. He gave me to Ryan, the gambler. He knew how he treated me last time.”

The knife pressed deeper.

“Let her go!”

Jason knew I didn’t want to see him. He’d kept his distance, not wanting to push me. He’d only come up to bring dinner—and walked into this. He wanted to move closer, but he was afraid to make things worse.

“You hurt me, Stella dies.”

She laughed.

“You love her, right? Then feel what it’s like to lose the one you love!”

“I soaked the deck in gasoline.”

She was drenched in it. She’d poured it all over herself too.

She couldn’t understand why she still couldn’t win, even in a second life. Fine. If that was how it was, no one would survive.

But I was different. My life had just started. The will to survive made me grit my teeth and tackle her to the center of the deck.

She laughed even as I choked her.

“Didn’t know you were scared of dying too! Let’s go together! Maybe if we die, it’ll all reset and I’ll beat you next time!”

My heart pounded. Then I felt it—she was soaked. The reek of gasoline.

This lunatic.

In my stunned eyes, she smiled and flicked the lighter.

I ran.

And then I was in someone’s arms—a faint, cool scent.

“Stella. I won’t let you die.”

Jason. In the last moment before the ship exploded, he put a life jacket on me and pushed me into the emergency lifeboat.

The James bodyguards had followed him. His mother, seeing him rush out, had sent them after him. But they were too late.

Behind me, fire lit up the sky.

Jason didn’t make it out in time.

The shock knocked me unconscious.

I woke in a hospital. My body was fine.

Nina was dead.

Jason was in the ICU. Still unconscious.

His mother came to me.

“Stella, I know it’s you.”

The perfectly preserved society wife had aged ten years overnight. Silver streaked her hair. Her pride was gone. Her voice broke.

“I’m begging you, as a mother. Go see him. Please.”

I nodded. There were things that still needed to be said.

He’d been in a coma for a week. Still on a ventilator.

I brushed my fingers over his thin eyelids.

His dark pupils moved beneath them. Slowly, his eyes opened and met mine.

He was awake. I turned to call for help.

He grabbed my hand, faster. His voice was a rasp.

“Don’t.”

The movement was too sudden. He coughed.

He’d thought I’d never come.

“Stella? Is it really you?”

“Yeah.”

“When I was unconscious… I saw things. We had a past life. We were married. Weren’t we?”

I toyed with the tassel on the flower arrangement.

“Yeah.”

“Was I awful to you?”

He’d seen it—Stella crying through chemo. She cared so much about how she looked, but she chose a surgery with a low success rate just to stay with him longer. Her hair was shaved off. Countless treatments had worn her down to nothing.

I threw the question back. “What do you think?”

He thought about it. “It must have been bad. If it had been good, you wouldn’t have left me this time.”

I smiled a little. “Actually, you were good to me. In every way. You just didn’t love me.”

“In that life, you held me as I died. You said you’d repaid your debt. You said you were sorry to Nina. You wanted to be with her next time.”

The light in his eyes died.

He pulled his lips into something like a smile. “Oh. Then he was an idiot. How could he say that to you?”

I was tired of his self-pity.

“Your mother asked me to come. Now I’ve come. Anything else?”

His fingers curled. He remembered the most important thing.

“The red string. I got a new pair made.”

He had someone bring them in. A beautiful box. This time, the string was strung with glittering gems. Stunning.

I laughed, bitter, and dropped them in the trash.

“We’re done, Jason. Understand? There’s no going back.”

His heart hurt again.

“Can I at least see you? As a friend?”

It was laughable.

“You should know—I’ve never needed friends.”

His lashes trembled. He wanted to hold on to her. But he had no right. She didn’t want his red string. She didn’t want him to beg. She truly didn’t want any of it.

The tug on my sleeve faded.

Silence was the only answer I needed.