Died Alone, My Spirit Watches

"We'll release one woman. Your choice, Mr. Shannon."

Facing the kidnappers, my husband didn't hesitate. He pointed at his sobbing high school sweetheart, Flora.

"Release Flora," he commanded, his voice steady. "She's fragile. Adrianne is tough enough to handle this."

I tried to tell him I was bleeding, that I was pregnant with our first child, but he pushed me toward the knife without a backward glance.

"Don't be dramatic, Adrianne," were his last words to me.

I died alone in that cold, dark basement.

But my soul didn't leave. I hovered invisibly, watching as my husband ignored calls from my phone for two days.

He told his friends I was just "playing games" to punish him for saving Flora. He didn't know those calls were from my killers, laughing at his stupidity while his wife lay dead.

It wasn't until my brother dragged him to the morgue and ripped the sheet off my body that his arrogance finally shattered.

"She was carrying your child, you idiot!"

Staring at my pale, lifeless face, the crisis manager who thought he could fix everything fell to his knees, a broken man.

But tears won't bring me back.

And now, he has to pay.

Chapter 1

Adrianne Cummings POV:

The knife gleamed under the emergency lights, a stark reminder that this wasn't a choice, but a sentence. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic bird desperate for escape. Flora Compton, Bradford' s high school sweetheart, was sobbing beside me, her mascara-streaked face buried in her hands. Her body trembled, a fragile porcelain doll about to shatter. I stood still, a cold dread washing over me.

Then I saw him. Bradford. My husband. He burst through the double doors, a whirlwind of tailored suit and panicked authority, his voice booming as he began to negotiate with the armed men. A flicker of hope ignited in my chest, a foolish, persistent flame. He was here. He would save us. He always did.

One of the criminals, a man with a scarred cheek and eyes like chipped glass, stepped forward. "We' ll release one of the women," he snarled, pointing the blade of his hunting knife first at Flora, then at me. "Show of good faith. Your choice, Mr. Shannon."

My breath caught in my throat. A choice. My stomach clenched, a cold knot tightening with each beat of my frantic pulse. Bradford' s gaze swept over us, lingering on Flora' s shaking form, then briefly, almost dismissively, on my own. My chest felt hollow, like a space where a heart used to be.

"Flora," Bradford said, his voice decisive, cutting through the tense silence. "Release Flora."

The words hit me like a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs. I swayed, my vision blurring at the edges. My carefully constructed composure threatened to crack. I looked at him, searching for something, anything, in his eyes that would contradict what I' d just heard. There was nothing but a cold resolve.

"Bradford," I whispered, my voice raw, barely audible. My hand, trembling, instinctively went to my lower abdomen. The dull ache that had been constant all evening intensified, a sharp, twisting pain. "Please. I... I need help."

He didn't even flinch. His eyes, usually so warm when they met mine, were now hard, unyielding. He looked past me, a stranger staring through a pane of glass. My stomach churned, and a wave of nausea washed over me. I felt the sticky warmth of blood against my inner thigh, a fresh, terrifying confirmation of my worst fears.

"Adrianne, you're strong," he said, his voice flat, devoid of emotion. He addressed the criminal, not me. "She's tough enough to handle the pressure. Flora will fall apart. Her mental state... it's too fragile. I'll come back for you, Adrianne. Just hold on."

Tough enough. That phrase, a supposed compliment, had always felt like a curse. It was the reason he always left me to carry the heaviest burdens, to fix the messes, to stand alone. The criminal, amused by Bradford's declaration, let out a low chuckle.

Bradford gestured towards me, his hand a cold, impersonal command. "Take her."

My legs felt like lead. My mind screamed, but no sound escaped my throat. He was giving me away. My husband was handing me over to these men like a discarded item. The betrayal was a shard of ice splintering in my chest.

A secret. A tiny, fragile life growing inside me. He didn't know. He couldn' t know. I had wanted to tell him tonight, after the gala, in the quiet intimacy of our home. But now, it was a silent, desperate scream. The internal bleeding, a cruel consequence of the earlier struggle with one of the robbers, gnawed at me. My vision swam.

"Bradford, I don't understand," I managed to choke out, my voice laced with a confusion that was rapidly turning into disbelief. This couldn't be real. This couldn't be the man I married.

His gaze hardened, if that was even possible. A muscle twitched in his jaw. There was no hesitation, no flicker of doubt. Only a cold, unwavering certainty in his decision.

"It's simple, Adrianne," he said, his tone chillingly level. He shifted his stance, ever the negotiator. "You' ve always been the practical one. The realist. I trust you to make it through this. Flora... she needs me. She always has." He paused, a cruel smirk playing on his lips. "And don't worry. I won't hold it against you if you're 'roughing it' with these men. We both know you've been around the block, haven't you? Unlike Flora, you' re not exactly a delicate flower anymore."

The words, sharp and venomous, sliced through my last vestiges of composure. They were a bitter echo of an old insecurity, a petty grudge he' d always held over my past relationships before him. They implied I was used goods, expendable, while Flora, his "first love," was pure and precious. My body began to tremble, not from fear of the criminals, but from the raw, agonizing wound of his words.

I tried to speak, to defend myself, to explain. "Bradford, that's not... that's not fair. You know that's not-"

But he cut me off. Impatiently, he pushed me forward, forcefully, directly into the waiting arms of the scarred criminal. The blade of the knife, cold against my throat, sealed my fate. I didn't resist. What was the point?

He didn' t look back. Bradford turned to Flora, his face softening with a tenderness I hadn't seen directed at me in months. He murmured reassurances, his hand gently touching her arm as he led her away, past the armed men, towards the exit. The contrast was a physical ache in my chest, a fresh wave of nausea.

"Move it, bitch," the criminal growled, his grip on my arm tightening, his voice a gravelly threat. He shoved me roughly towards a dark corridor. The pain in my abdomen flared, and a choked cry escaped my lips.

"No noise," another criminal hissed, his face inches from mine, his breath foul. "Or you'll regret it."

Bradford's car tires squealed on the pavement outside, fading into the night. He was gone. He hadn't even glanced back. My last shred of hope, that tiny, foolish flame, flickered and died. The realization crashed over me like a tidal wave: I was utterly, completely alone. He hadn't just abandoned me; he had condemned me, thrown me away.

He didn't care about the pain. He didn't care about the blood. He didn't care about the life inside me. I was nothing more than an inconvenient collateral. A bitter, humorless laugh bubbled in my throat, quickly stifled by a gasp of pain. My body slumped, my strength draining away with each passing second. I closed my eyes, accepting my fate. He would never know. He would never choose me.

The laughter of the criminals echoed in the cold, damp basement as they pulled me deeper into the darkness. There was a deeper game being played here, a more sinister plot than a mere robbery. But all I could feel was the icy grip of betrayal, and the agonizing throb in my womb. I offered a silent, defiant smile to the darkness, knowing that the man who claimed to love me, who had promised to cherish me, had just signed my death warrant.