I looked up. The first snow of the year drifted quietly down, soft and cold, landing on my hair and shoulders. The world felt distant, like I was already halfway gone.
The snow was falling so hard I could barely open my eyes. My body felt like it belonged to someone else, heavy and numb. I fainted in the cold, and the last thing I heard was one of the bodyguards yelling.
“Mr. Hamilton, she’s out cold!”
Lewis didn’t even lift his head. “Wake her. Make her keep kneeling.”
I shivered violently as a bucket of ice water hit my face. My lungs screamed and I coughed until it hurt to breathe. My heart was done. Everything in me ached, but I kept counting the minutes silently, not wanting to waste the last moments I had left before the funeral home came for me.
Inside the ward, Cherry was clinging to Lewis like her life depended on him.
“O-our babies are gone,” she whispered, her body shaking.
Lewis ran his hand through her hair, gentle, soft, like she was the only thing that mattered in the world. “Don’t cry. There’ll be more. I won’t let your pain be wasted.”
She touched her flat belly and burst into more tears. “I have nothing. No name, no status, no child. What am I even living for? Maybe I should just—”
“You can’t say that,” he snapped.
She broke away and looked at him, sobbing. “Lewis, is there any way I can take Addison’s place? Be your real wife in this lifetime?”
I could hear him freeze.
The bodyguard knocked again. “Sir, she’s fainted again. She won’t wake up this time.”
Lewis finally stepped out of the ward and looked down at me sprawled in the snow. My face was pale, lips blue, and my thin white dress clung to me, soaked and heavy. I must’ve looked like a ghost.
“Get a doctor, now!” he barked. “Just don’t let her die.”
Even like this, he still had to punish me. All those years of gentle love had made me reckless, spoiled, and now it would all pay the price.
I was awakened by a needle, barely had time to gather myself before the bodyguards dragged me onto a small boat. My fingers were frozen stiff, but one of them shoved a small urn into my hands. Lewis’s eyes were ice beside me, and Cherry was bundled in a thick jacket, pale and trembling like she might collapse at any moment.
When we reached the middle of the sea, he said, “Start.”
I took a deep breath, legs shaking as I walked to the edge. The wind cut through me, whipping my hair into my face. I looked down at the urn and laughed softly to myself. My life had been so cruel, my body bruised, my soul exhausted. And now they wanted me to carry even this burden.
Cherry sidled up to me, her voice soft and almost sweet. “Addison, how does it feel to scatter our twin ashes yourself?”
I ignored her, lifted the lid, and just as I was about to let it go, she shoved me. The urn slipped from my hands and vanished into the waves.
“My babies!” Cherry shrieked and lunged forward, pretending she almost fell in after it.
Lewis reacted instantly, pulling her back. “Cherry, stop!”
He turned and glared at me. “You did that on purpose!”
I laughed quietly, the sound bitter. “Yes, I did. Just like she bumped into me on purpose.”
Cherry clutched him, tears streaming, about to faint. He held her tight, showing everyone they were untouchable together.
“Pick it up,” he ordered.
I shook my head. “It’s gone.”
“Then jump in and get it!”
I stared at him, calm, unafraid. “Fine.”
The next second, I stepped over the railing. The water swallowed me instantly, my white dress floating for a moment before sinking. Lewis’s shout tore through the air, but it was too late.
Cherry clutched her chest, pale, crying out. “Lewis, I feel so awful!”
He hesitated, looking at the dark sea, and then finally said, “Send a boat to get her. She can swim for now. Get back to shore and call an ambulance.”
I let the water take me. My body went numb. I didn’t struggle anymore. My consciousness blurred. Everything went black.
The sea burial, the punishment, all of it? I was done with it.
Finally, I could leave…
