The apocalypse came as a heatwave.
When temperatures soared past anything the world had ever seen, I stumbled into a stroke of impossible luck: a Frost System, bound to me and me alone. It could generate ice to beat the heat and keep food from spoiling.
I told my boyfriend the moment it happened. I thought he'd be relieved. Instead, Owen Gilbert demanded I use the system to save his childhood sweetheart and her entire family.
People show their true colors when the world falls apart. I knew the risks. I refused him on the spot.
Lesley Henson and her family of five couldn't survive the heat. One by one, their bodies broke down, blistered, and gave out.
Owen's family, meanwhile, lived. Because of me. Because of my system.
After the apocalypse ended, he proposed like nothing had happened. We got married.
And on the day I went into labor, he drove me into the desert and left me there.
He stood over me while the sun scorched the life out of my body, and he smiled. That vicious, satisfied smile.
"Wanda Winfield, if you hadn't been so selfish, Lesley's family would still be alive! They were roasted to death under the sun, just like this! You selfish bitch. Today, you can join them in the ground."
I grabbed his wrist. My voice was raw, shredded, barely human.
"Owen, I'm carrying your child..."
He brought his foot down on my swollen belly.
"Lesley was carrying my child too, when she died! Anything born from a woman like you would be rotten to the core. Die."
I died with hatred still burning in my chest.
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in my own house.
It was the day before the apocalypse. The day Owen tried to move Lesley's family into my home.
Through the open front door, I could see him outside, hauling Lesley's bags from the car with the eager attentiveness of a devoted servant.
A cold laugh echoed through my mind.
You love her that much? Fine. This time around, you can follow her straight to hell.
——
"What are you standing there for?! Get out here and help carry things!"
Owen's sharp bark snapped me back to the present.
I glanced at the television. A heat advisory scrolled across the screen in bold red letters, the warnings cycling on repeat.
Then I looked at Owen, arms full of Lesley Henson's belongings, already halfway through my front door.
It hit me like a freight train.
I had actually been reborn.
And I'd come back to the day before everything ended.
Judging by Owen's behavior, he already knew about the Frost System. In this timeline, I must have already told him.
In my previous life, this was the exact moment I'd refused his demand to take Lesley in.
The apocalypse had a way of stripping people bare, and Lesley Henson was the loudest mouth in any room she walked into. If I let her move in, the entire city would know about my Frost System within three days. Every activation drained my energy. If too many people found out and came begging, I'd be worked to death before the heatwave even broke.
And if I died, my family died with me.
So I'd put my foot down. Hard. I refused to let Owen bring Lesley into our home.
That decision kept Owen, his family, and mine alive through three brutal months of apocalypse.
Lesley wasn't so lucky.
Ten days in, she and her family ventured out to scavenge fresh food. The sun killed them where they stood.
Owen had seemed calm about it at the time. After the apocalypse ended, he arranged the funeral for Lesley's family himself. Then he proposed to me, married me, played the part of a loving husband.
Until the day I was due to give birth.
He told me he was taking me to a prenatal checkup. He drove me to the desert instead.
By the time he finally spoke, I'd been baking under the open sun for ten hours. My lips were cracked. My vision was fading. And he stood over me with that cruel, razor-edged smile.
"Wanda, you really are a selfish bitch! If you'd just let Lesley stay with us, she and her family never would have died! Go keep her company in the grave."
I clutched at his hand, begging, pleading with everything I had left.
"Owen, you can't do this. I'm carrying a baby. The baby is innocent..."
Something vicious flashed through Owen's eyes. He lifted his foot and brought it down, hard, on my belly.
