When I Went Blind, My Regretful Husband Wanted Me Back

I found myself locked in the darkroom once again. The oppressive blackness surrounded me; the only sound was my labored groans of pain.

Clutching my aching abdomen, I weakly pounded on the door, desperation bleeding into my voice. “Aunt Nori, open the door. I’m bleeding heavily. I need to go to the hospital.”

But from outside came Riley Griffin's same mocking tone. “There are sanitary pads in the room. Handle it yourself, and stop whining. You’re disturbing my drama.”

“Riley, I want to see Vernon.”

“Vernon’s busy in my room, in the middle of a video conference. He doesn’t have time to listen to your sobbing.”

“Please, let me go to the hospital.”

I bit back the pain, lowering myself to beg.

Riley’s voice dripped with disdain. “It’s just cramps. Are you going to die from it?”

“I’m not letting you take painkillers. Too many could mess with your fertility.”

Her words were sharp, like a slap across the face.

——

I touched the blood pooling beneath me, and a deep, gnawing dread surged through my chest.

I hadn’t had my period in nearly three months. Could I be pregnant?

I was struck by panic. My uterus had always been a source of torment, each cycle more agonizing than the last. Vernon Hamilton, my husband, had sought countless doctors to help regulate my condition, hoping it might one day allow me to conceive.

Before Riley came into the Hamilton family, I had at least been able to take painkillers under medical advice to ease the pain. But ever since her arrival, she had forbidden me from even that small mercy.

Every time the pain hit, she would lock me away in this dark room. She knew my fear of snakes, so she would throw in toy snakes and play with the hissing sound on a loop, tormenting me in every possible way, physically and mentally.

The more I thought about it, the more terror gripped me. My body was drained from the excessive blood loss, and I no longer had the strength to keep begging.

Summoning the last of my strength, I crawled into the corner, feeling my eyelids grow heavy. And then, I drifted into a deep, exhausted sleep, my only hope that Vernon would come.

I dreamed.

It was a memory from five years ago. Vernon had already been a rising star in Asheville’s financial world. Young, handsome, and wealthy, he could have any woman he wanted.

But he chose me. A woman with no impressive background.

He pursued me openly and passionately, like a man determined to win. The story of a gentle CEO falling for an ordinary girl was a cliché, but what fresh college graduate could resist? I certainly couldn’t.

Six months later, we were married.

Using work as his excuse, Vernon kept postponing our wedding ceremony, time and time again. After we were married, he took me to countless cosmetic procedures. At first, I thought it was just to help me look better.

After all, in our world, a stunning wife was a statement of status.

But it wasn’t until Riley arrived last year that I learned the truth.

"You think Vernon married you out of love?"

In my dream, Riley looked at me with pure contempt, her eyes cold and mocking.

"He married you because you have the exact same eyebrows and eyes as his first love."

"All those cosmetic procedures were just to make you look even more like that dead woman."

"But me? I was born with this face. You lost, Eloise Howard."

"You don’t even deserve to be a stand-in!"

Riley’s twisted, grotesque face grew closer and closer, her words sinking in like poison.

I screamed, the horror gripping me, and then... I woke up!

"You’re awake?"

Vernon sat by the hospital bed, his eyes bloodshot, his voice soft with something that could have been a worry.

"Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?"

His tone was thick with grievance, blame, regret, and maybe a flicker of concern. But I couldn’t trust it. How could he care?

If he truly cared, he wouldn’t have ignored everything Riley had done to me.

"I didn’t even know myself. How was I supposed to tell you?" I replied, my voice hollow, the fading hope in my eyes betraying me.

"Your period hasn’t come for months, and you didn’t think to take a test?"