Waking Up from a Three-Year Nightmare, Resigned

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I spent three years as a vegetable after a truck slammed into me while I was saving my fiance.

For those three years, she never left my side, even praying on her knees across miles of rugged mountain trails to beg for my recovery.

The day I finally woke up, she spent a fortune on a rare pink diamond at an auction.

She proposed to me in front of millions on a live stream:

"Hudson, whether in life or death, I want to be by your side. Can we have our wedding next week?"

Looking at her tear-filled eyes, my heart felt absolutely nothing.

She had no idea that even in my coma, I could hear everything happening in the room.

I knew exactly how she and another man had been intimate right next to my hospital bed.

1.

The moment I stepped out of the hospital, a swarm of reporters surged forward, shoving cameras into my face.

"Mr. Hudson, we heard you and Miss Rowena are finally tying the knot. When is the big day?"

"Hudson, Miss Rowena's loyalty has moved the entire country. How do you feel about such a devoted love?"

I stood there with a blank expression, my lips sealed tightly despite their persistent questioning.

Now, the whole world believed Rowena loved me more than life itself.

Three years ago, I took the hit from a speeding truck to push her out of the way, leaving me in a persistent vegetative state.

She was devastated, even hinting at wanting to follow me to the grave.

But when the doctors said there was a slim chance I'd wake up, she stepped up and personally cared for me for three long years.

To ensure my safe return, she climbed nine thousand stone steps to a remote mountain monastery on her knees, just to pray for a miracle.

When I finally opened my eyes, she sobbed with joy, clutching me like a long-lost treasure.

She even bought the most expensive diamond ring in the world to propose to me on a national broadcast.

It was a perfect fairy tale.

But in her bubble of happiness, she never imagined one thing.

During those three years of darkness, I had already decided I didn't want her anymore.

This marriage was nothing more than her own twisted delusion.

The reporters grew restless when I refused to answer.

In the chaos, someone shoved me, and I stumbled, nearly hitting the pavement.

Rowena suddenly appeared, pushing through the crowd to steady me while glaring at the cameras.

"Hudson is still recovering! Even a small cough from him breaks my heart, yet you people almost knocked him down!"

"You should be glad he's okay, or I would make every single one of you pay!"

She stood in front of me, her petite frame acting as a shield.

I felt a sudden sense of vertigo, my mind drifting back to a night many years ago.

Back then, my family had lost everything, and I was a scrawny kid being cornered by thugs in an alley.

Rowena had appeared out of nowhere, standing between me and the world, pulling me out of the mud.

Naturally, we fell in love.

Then came the accident that turned me into a ghost in my own body.

Rowena never gave up on me, or so it seemed.

While I lay motionless, she spent her days whispering sweet nothings into my ear.

But at some point, a man's voice began to join hers.

Rowena started confessing her love to me while tangling with that man right there on my bed.

She was so focused on the thrill that she forgot one thing: a vegetative state doesn't always mean a dead mind.

I had been fully conscious the entire time.

I heard everything she did with Logan.

For three years, while my body was frozen, my heart was being hacked to pieces.

Every single day, I prayed to wake up just so I could run away.

Rowena's bodyguards violently cleared the area, leaving us in a heavy silence.

She grabbed my shoulders, checking me over with frantic eyes: "Hudson, I'm so sorry I'm late! I should've walked out with you. Are you hurt?"

The worry in her eyes was so convincing it could move anyone to tears.

I quietly pulled my arm away, my face a mask of indifference: "I'm fine."

Rowena let out a long breath of relief.

My phone buzzed with a notification. I glanced down at a message from my best friend in Brazil:

"Hudson, are you sure about this? I'd love to have you here, but once you step on that plane, you might never see Rowena again."

I knew he was worried because I used to love her more than my own life.

But now, I just wanted to be as far away from her as possible.

Without a second thought, I typed back: "Pick me up at the airport in three days."

2.

"Hudson, what are you looking at? You seem a million miles away."

Rowena's voice snapped me back to reality. I turned off the screen and said flatly: "It's nothing."

"Did those reporters scare you? I'm sorry. I didn't think a simple live stream would cause such a mess."

Her proposal had been broadcast to millions.

She was already a rising star in the tech industry, and proposing to her "miracle" fianc made her go viral.

The irony was that the account she used for the live stream belonged to her little side piece, Logan.

Logan was a small-time influencer she'd been funding for years.

They told everyone they were just friends, and the public swallowed the lie.

She used his account just to give his career a boost.

She had cried such convincing tears during the proposal, looking like a woman hopelessly in love.

Yet that camera lens was a constant reminder of her betrayal.

Rowena didn't notice my coldness. She took my hand, looking into my eyes.

"Hudson, don't you want to see me in a wedding dress? Let's go try some on."

For a second, I felt a ghost of a memory.

I used to dream about her walking down the aisle toward me.

Now, that dream felt like a nightmare I was trying to wake up from.

Before I could refuse, she dragged me to a high-end bridal boutique.

She picked out a few gowns and told me to wait while she disappeared into the fitting room.

Thirty minutes passed, and she still hadn't come out.

The shop assistants started giving me strange, pitying looks.

Sensing something was wrong, I stood up and pushed the fitting room door open.

To my surprise, Rowena was the only one in there.

She looked stunning in the white lace, but her face was flushed a deep, unnatural red.

She jumped when she saw me, trying to act calm: "Hudson! What are you doing in here? I was just about to come out."

Her voice was thick and raspy.

I looked at the massive, puffy skirt of her gownDlarge enough to hide a grown man.

It hit me instantly.

I couldn't tell if she brought me here to see her in a dress or to see how much she could get away with.

My stomach churned with sudden, violent nausea. I bolted for the restroom and threw up.

"Hudson!"

I heard her panicked voice behind me.

She didn't even bother changing out of the dress as she chased after me, the heavy silk rustling on the floor.

"Hudson, are you okay? Please, talk to me! You're scaring me!"

Her eyes were red, and her voice cracked with real fear.

The powerful CEO, who usually never showed emotion, was shaking like a leaf because of me.

I knew her concern in this moment was genuine.

But her betrayal was also real.

I pushed back the bitterness in my throat and avoided her hand as she tried to help me up.

"I'm tired. Let's go home."

As we were leaving the shop, Rowena glanced back. Her eyes met Logan's as he stepped out of the same fitting room.

He smirked and mouthed something to her, making her blush instantly.

She thought I was oblivious, but I saw the whole exchange in the reflection of the glass door.

I felt like I was suffocating.

The Rowena I knew used to only blush for me. Now, she was a stranger.

Love, no matter how deep, can't survive three years of filth.

It was all just a beautiful lie.

3.

Even though her net worth had skyrocketed, Rowena still lived in the modest villa we bought together with our first big paycheck.

She claimed it held too many precious memories to leave.

I didn't doubt she believed that, but I wasn't in the mood for nostalgia.

The accident had wrecked my health. I was awake, but my body was fragile.

The stress of the day caught up to me, and by nightfall, I was burning up with a fever.

Rowena panicked. She called her private doctor and stayed by my side all night, personally giving me my medicine.

Whenever I drifted awake, I saw her red, tired eyes watching over me.

It wasn't until my fever broke the next morning that she finally relaxed.

She collapsed into my arms, her tears soaking my shirt.

"I'm so sorry, Hudson! It's my fault for not taking care of you. I can't lose you again!"

Can't lose me?

If that were true, why did she keep stabbing me in the back?

My phone buzzed. It was that same unknown number again.

I made an excuse about being hungry to get her out of the room, then opened the message with shaking fingers.

It was Logan. Since I'd woken up, he had been sending me constant taunts.

Descriptions of what they did, words I couldn't unhear.

This time, he sent a twenty-five-second video.

The sound of Rowena's moans and the sight of her lost in passion felt like a hot blade in my eyes.

The background was our living room.

The irony was sickening. I thought she had stayed up all night worrying about my fever.

Instead, while I was drifting in and out of consciousness, she was finding her own kind of heat with another man.

The pain expanded until it felt like my chest was going to burst. I watched that video over and over, a form of self-torture.

I didn't stop until my tears were blinding me.

Rowena walked in with a tray of food and froze when she saw me.

"What's wrong, Hudson? Are you hurting? Let's go to the hospital!"

"It's nothing," I lied, wiping my face. "I just realized how lucky I am to be home with you. It got to me."

She sighed in relief and gently wiped a stray tear from my cheek.

"Silley. We're going to be together forever now. Nothing will ever tear us apart."

Looking into her gentle eyes, I felt my own soul turn to ice.

She had no idea that "forever" was about to end.

She had cooked a massive feast of all my favorites to encourage me to eat.

She looked at me like a puppy seeking approval, asking if it tasted good.

Rowena came from a wealthy family; she used to never even step foot in a kitchen.

She learned to cook because my stomach was sensitive and I hated takeout.

Memories of our early years flashed by like scenes from a movie I no longer wanted to watch.

The old Rowena loved me purely. This Rowena loved me with a side of betrayal.

I couldn't bring myself to take a single bite.

My mind was filled with those twenty-five seconds of her with someone else.

Suddenly, her phone lit up.

She glanced at it, then quickly put it face down, looking guilty.

"Hudson, the wedding planner needs me to go over some details at their office..."

She was always a terrible liar.

The high-end company she hired would come to her if she snapped her fingers. A CEO doesn't go to them.

I knew exactly where she was going.

I gripped my fork until my knuckles turned white, then forced a smile. "Go ahead. Don't worry about me."

She looked visibly relieved.

She leaned in to kiss my cheek, but I turned my head just in time to avoid it.

She was in such a hurry she didn't even notice.

"I'll be back before you know it, baby."

I didn't answer. I watched her leave, feeling a cold void in my chest.

I opened my phone to find a new message from Logan.

It was a screenshot of his chat with Rowena from a minute ago.

Logan: "It's your fault I'm sick today. You were too wild last night and didn't let me get dressed. I have a fever now."

Logan: "Want to feel what a hundred-and-two-degree heat feels like inside me?"

He attached a photo of a thermometer.

Rowena didn't reply, but her departure said everything.

I clutched my chest. After the crushing pain came a hollow sense of confusion.

I didn't even recognize the woman she had become.

If she was this desperate for someone else, why keep up the charade of loving me?

Did she really think she could hide it until we were in our graves?

I laughed bitterly to myself, stood up, and scraped all the food she cooked into the trash.

I threw away our seven years of history along with the leftovers.

4.

Rowena didn't come back until the following afternoon.

She was wearing a completely different outfit.

When she saw me, she looked away guiltily. "Work was crazy yesterday. Something came up and I had to stay late... I ended up spilling coffee on my clothes and had to change."

Her lies were getting pathetic.

What kind of emergency ruins a whole outfit?

She realized she sounded suspicious and tried to change the subject, but I cut her off.

"It's fine. You don't have to explain."

Seeing that I wasn't angry, she relaxed and wrapped her arms around me. "You're the best, Hudson. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

I didn't say a word. There was no "later."

The boarding pass was already on my phone. In two hours, I would be gone for good.

"Hudson, today is our seventh anniversary. Do you remember?"

"I have a surprise for you!"

I should have felt something, but my heart was dead.

Rowena leaned her head on my shoulder, looking blissful. "I went to the doctor this morning. Hudson... I'm pregnant."

"You're going to be a father. We're going to be a real family of three. Aren't you happy?"

My world shattered in an instant.

Since I woke up, we had only been intimate once, and it was brief.

The chances of it being mine were almost zero.

I remembered Logan's message from earlier.

"She's pregnant. She doesn't want to get rid of it, so she's going to use you to give the kid a name."

"Hudson, she can love you all she wants, but she's carrying my legacy."

I thought I had felt all the pain I could, but my heart found a new way to bleed.

I forced my hands to stop shaking, keeping my voice steady.

"Is that so? That really is a huge surprise."

Rowena took my hand and placed it on her flat stomach.

"With you and the baby, I have everything I ever wanted."

Is a life built on lies really everything?

I pulled my hand back gently. "You gave me a surprise, but I haven't given you yours yet."

"I don't need a gift, Hudson. You're the only gift I need."

I looked at the love shining in her eyes and felt a wave of disgust. I shook my head with a faint smile.

"No, we need to celebrate properly."

"Wait here for me. I have something special to get for you."

She hesitated, looking worried. "Where are you going? I'll go with you."

"No." I gave her the same smile I used to give her years ago. "Stay here. I won't be long."

Her phone buzzed again, and she stopped arguing.

"Be careful. Come back soon."

I didn't say another word. I turned and walked out of the house that was once my home.

Rowena had no idea that an hour later, I was on a flight to the southern hemisphere.

And I was never coming back.