Regretting The Wife He Threw Away

Briony stared out the window as the sky loomed overhead, heavy and oppressive, like a black hole caving in on the world.

From her phone, the howl of wind cut through the silence.

A man's trembling voice, thick with tears, came through the speaker again. “Bryn, I'm sorry. Meeting me in this life has only brought you pain. If there's another life after this, don't let us cross paths again."

Briony's grip tightened around her daughter.

She said nothing.

Carl clung to the steering wheel, his eyes rimmed red.

Crystal held up the phone, uncertain what to do.

Even she could sense something was terribly wrong-how could Briony not know?

Yet Briony remained silent.

Stewart's voice came again, rough with emotion. "Bryn, I left a few things for the kids at Southcreek Manor. In the years ahead, I'm counting on you. Please, on their birthdays, take them there to collect what's theirs."

At the mention of the children, Briony finally replied, her answer soft and even: "Alright."

Just one quiet word, but it made Carl's tears fall silently down his face.

"Bryn," Stewart's voice was almost lost in the wind, "do you still blame me?"

Briony's lashes fluttered.

moment,

Crack-

split the sky, and rain came crashing

the car in a

The light turned green.

gas, and the Maybach

phone disappeared

buried her face in her mother's arms, sobbing, her cries for Daddy coming out in broken

so unlike her a sign, perhaps, of something

her daughter close, silently stroking

quietly against

into her embrace as well,

sealed car blocked out the raging

long-abandoned pier, a violent blast had erupted over

M9 was torn to shreds by the roar, reduced to twisted wreckage that tumbled into the waves and disappeared

Nothing survived.

high-rise, a man watched through

the earth without a trace-it was a sight he'd waited years for, one that filled

as dramatic as he'd

Maybach rolled into Skybreeze