The Man Who Hated Me Most

Synopsis

"Emily, I'm done playing around." "Just find yourself a decent man and marry him. I'm begging you." It was Christmas Eve, at Ryan Lancaster's birthday party. We'd been in a secret relationship for seven whole years, and we'd agreed that tonight, we'd finally tell everyone. The lights were bright, the room full of polished smiles and expensive perfume. He moved through the crowd, accepting congratulations, never once looking my way. Not until it was time to cut the cake. Everyone cheered and told him to make a wish. He smiled, blew out the candles, and swept his gaze across the room until it landed on me. Then he walked over. He smelled faintly of alcohol as he bent close to my ear. His breath was warm against my skin, but the words he spoke were cold enough to freeze me. "Emily, I'm done playing around." "Just find yourself a decent man and marry him. I'm begging you." The noise around me seemed to vanish all at once. I looked at his face from inches away. Those eyes that always seemed to carry a teasing smile now held nothing but careless indifference. I didn't feel the stabbing pain I thought I would. Only numbness. I met his eyes, gave the slightest nod, and said, "Okay." My voice was so calm that even I was surprised. After all, in my last life, I almost died trying to marry him. I cried until I broke, threw away every bit of my dignity, and in the end, all I got was ten years of a cold marriage and a call from the delivery room that no one ever answered. So now that I'd been given another life, what was this little humiliation worth?