Seven Years of Marriage, Seven Years of Lies

He put the call on speaker so I could hear it.

Robert asked, "Zayne, where the hell are you? Your wife is in critical condition and about to undergo surgery. Get back here immediately."

I had thought that hearing from his superior might make Zayne reconsider.

But instead, his voice came through the phone, cold and dismissive.

He said, "Mr. Jackson? Has Eliza found you and started acting crazy? Don't believe a word she says. She's completely lost it. She's been fighting with me nonstop, and I'm a doctor. I can't just sit around and let someone die because she's jealous, can I?

"If I had been even a little late today, Jodie could have died from blood loss. Her emotions are still unstable.

"Can you tell Eliza to stop bothering me and to handle the birth on her own? If she doesn't want to listen, that's her problem."

Robert was on the verge of exploding.

The veins were popping on his forehead.

Before he could say anything, Jodie's weak voice cut through the line.

She said, "Is that Eliza calling you? Are you going to leave me? I'll be all alone again, right? I know, I should've let you go. It's my fault for still holding onto you. After all, your baby's about to be born."

Zayne abruptly hung up the phone.

Another intense contraction wracked my body, and the world went black as I lost consciousness.

Robert wasted no time and rushed me into surgery.

In the darkness of unconsciousness, memories of my past life flooded back.

Back then, as soon as the accident happened, I called Zayne for help.

He had been on his way to see Jodie.

Upon hearing I'd been in a crash, he turned around and rushed to save me.

He had dragged me out of the wrecked car, cradling me in his arms as he ran into the ER.

I was covered with blood.

He only relaxed once I was out of immediate danger.

However, the shock from the accident caused complications, and the baby wasn't born on time.

After getting me home, Zayne had gone straight to find Jodie, only to discover her cold, lifeless body in the bathtub.

Her wrist was slashed so deep the bone was visible.

He handled her funeral arrangements in silence.

When he came back two days later, he was as calm as if nothing had happened.

He told me about Jodie's death as though it was some distant news story.

He indifferently shook his head when I looked at him apologetically.

He reassured me that he didn't blame me. He said the accident had shown him how unpredictable life could be.

He even proposed to give me the wedding I deserved.

I believed him.

The night before our wedding, he knocked me out and dragged me to Jodie's apartment.

When I woke up, I was bound, curled up in the bathtub where Jodie had died.

There was no love left in Zayne's eyes, only hatred.

He looked like a maniac who had lost his true love.

He had a knife, sharpened to a deadly gleam.

I stared at him in terror.

He spoke slowly. "It was just a car accident. You weren't going to die. But Jodie lost her life.

"Do you know how deep her wounds were? Do you know how much blood she lost that day?

"She was lying here, just like you, blood running down her legs. After all my years as a doctor, I never knew a human body could hold so much blood. So much that it drowned out everything else.

"It's fine if you don't know. You're about to find out."

He placed Jodie's photo at the foot of the tub.

In front of her picture, he began his revenge.

The first stab of the knife was enough to make me wish for death.

But no matter how much I sobbed and pleaded, Zayne showed no mercy.

He gutted me.

Our child, who was so close to being born, took its last breath the moment it entered this cruel world.

I thought that was the end of his vengeance.

But it was only the beginning.

He kept going, the blade rising and falling with each strike, both on me and the child.

He muttered under his breath like a madman, "This deep, this spot, this much blood. Jodie must've been in so much pain. She must've needed me so badly."

Before I finally died, I endured one thousand stabs.

It was an ordeal.

Then he tossed our bodies into the bathtub.

He cradled Jodie's ashes in his arms and held a wedding.

As my soul drifted beside him, I saw the madness in his eyes.

I realized how blind I had been.

But by then, it was far too late.

I should've known this from the call Jodie made at our wedding when she returned from abroad seven years ago.

She had abandoned Zayne and provoked me in the first place.

Still, I stood no chance against her.

In our loveless marriage, I had suffered for seven years.

It only ended with my death.