I Forced Him Into Marriage For Six Years, Only To Witness Him Sacrifice His Life For Me Chapter 01
On the way to our honeymoon destination, the plane went down.
I looked at Linus Fletcher, the man I’d kept in a cage for six years, and laughed.
“We’re about to die, and you’re not even going to leave your first love a message? ‘Sorry I couldn’t marry you in this life. I’ll make it up to you in the next one’?”
Everyone in our circle knew the story. I’d loved Linus for six years, yet I still couldn’t compete with the woman who had just returned from abroad.
I’d gotten the wedding by threatening to do something reckless more times than I could count.
And our honeymoon? I’d gotten that through another desperate ultimatum.
I waited to see hatred in his eyes for trapping him, for making sure he’d never see his true love again.
But when the flames crept into the cabin, he shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around me. His voice was flat.
“Relax. Heaven doesn’t take people like you.”
The plane crashed.
When the rescue team pulled me out, I looked for him first.
In the snow, all that remained was the lower half of his body. He’d used his last strength to drag a massive SOS in the snow with his own blo//od.
He’d traded his whole life for mine.
On the day I was discharged, I stood on the hospital rooftop.
I stared at our photo on my phone, both of us looking grim. One tear slipped down my cheek.
Then I made a choice I knew I couldn’t take back.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I’d forced him to agree to marry me by holding a knife to my own throat.
Linus. You paid me back with your life in the last one.
In this one, I’ll pay you back with your freedom.
…
“Linette, I’ll do it. We’ll have the wedding next Wednesday.”
“Just put the knife down, okay?”
Linus reached toward me carefully from across the room.
His face was exhausted, dark circles heavy beneath his eyes. They were all signs of what my obsession had put him through.
I froze. My mind was still stuck in the previous life.
Right before the fire swallowed the whole cabin, Linus had pinned me beneath him, his voice hoarse.
“Linette. I don’t owe you anything in this life.”
A wave of searing pain hit me.
The knife clattered to the floor.
Linus lunged forward and pulled me into his arms. His whole body shook as he exhaled.
“It’s okay, Linette. You’re okay now.”
“I’ll get your wound cleaned up.”
Blood ran down my arm and pooled on the floor.
I stared at his face, my fingers trembling.
Seeing him again felt like a reunion.
And also like tasting the pain of losing him all over again.
“Does it hurt?”
He crouched before me and dabbed at the wound carefully.
I shook my head. I couldn’t remember how many times I’d done this anymore.
All I knew was that ever since Catherine Mayfair came back, I’d turned into something unhinged and vicious.
It started when he ditched my birthday to pick Catherine up at the airport.
I’d flipped the whole table of food I’d cooked, demanding to know if I still meant anything to him.
Then came the night Catherine got drunk and Linus drove over at three in the morning to carry her home.
The next day, I found a text from Catherine on his phone.
[Linus. I regret it. Can we be official again?]
He didn’t reply.
But he picked up the cigarettes he’d quit for me and smoked on the balcony all night.
Then he asked if I could wait, which meant throwing away our six-year relationship and every promise he’d made.
I completely lost control, convinced there was no other way to make him stay.
I couldn’t stop shaking, and neither could my tears.
“Wait?”
“Linus, are you asking me to wait for you or are you waiting for Catherine to come back to you?”
His silence—that wordless, suffocating silence—was the last push that sent me over the edge.
I came back to the present and looked at my reflection in the glass.
My hair was a mess, my face gaunt. I was completely worn down.
So I finally made my decision. I chose to let go.
“Linus. Forget the wedding.”
“We’re… done.”