My Husband's Funeral Was The Beginning Of My Revenge

Elena

I had lost everything in my life. Every single thing. Even the only person I believed loved and cherished me above all else-my beloved husband. Now, my own body was failing me. I lay completely paralyzed on the cold hospital bed, the rhythmic, hollow beep... beep... beep... of the heart monitor the only sound keeping me tethered to the living world.

So when the door clicked open, I prayed to see Lucas, my husband's younger brother. A faint flicker of comfort touched my chest. I thought he was coming to bid me a final goodbye before my organs gave out completely-before I could finally slip away and reunite in heaven with my sweet Adrian.

But it wasn't Lucas who stepped into the room.

A woman walked in, her heels clicking softly against the linoleum. She was dressed in an expensive, tailored cream dress, her long brown hair falling flawlessly over her shoulders. But it wasn't her designer clothes that caught my fading sight.

It was her stomach.

She was heavily pregnant.

My gaze drifted down to the manicured hand resting protectively over her swollen belly. Nestled on her ring finger was a massive, blinding diamond ring. I opened my dry lips to ask who she was, but the door swung open a second time.

My eyes went wide. The air turned to ice in my lungs. I couldn't believe it.

Adrian.

My husband casually walked in behind her, sliding his arm around her waist. He lifted her hand and gently kissed the back of her palm right in front of my face.

"Hello, Elena," he said softly, finally turning his dark eyes toward me. His face wasn't filled with grief or worry; it was twisted with pure, unadulterated disgust as he took in the sight of my dying body. "I didn't expect to find you still breathing."

"A... A..." I choked, my throat working furiously, but my voice was barely a raspy whisper.

"Surprised to see them together?" another voice chimed in from the doorway.

"Mom," Vivian called.

My mother-in-law stepped into the room, a triumphant smile on her face as she lovingly patted the pregnant woman's hand. "How are you, Vivian?"

Vivian.

That name struck my brain like a lightning bolt. Hot, bitter tears spilled over my eyelashes and trickled down my sunken cheeks. Vivian was Adrian's infamous first love-the woman who had supposedly betrayed him, broken his heart, and abandoned him years ago because he was too poor for her.

"How... how can you do this to me?" I wept, forcing the words out through the suffocating tightness in my chest. "Adrian... you are my husband."

"Even now, on her deathbed, she still has the nerve to call my husband hers," Vivian sneered, rolling her eyes. "You are truly pathetic, Elena."

"Don't stress yourself, my love," Adrian purred, leaning down to tenderly kiss Vivian's temple before rubbing her belly. "You shouldn't waste your energy talking to a rotting corpse."

A rotting corpse. The words sliced through my heart like a jagged blade. How could he say that to me? He loved me. We had spent years building a life together before we got married. Or at least... I thought we had.

Adrian turned back to face me, a cold, ruthless smile spreading across his handsome face that made me shiver under the thin hospital blanket. "To be honest, Elena, you weren't supposed to live long enough to witness this."

"I thought..." I gasped, fighting for air as the heart monitor began to beep faster.

"Mother should have finished you off the moment you paid off my debt," Adrian continued casually, as if discussing the weather.

"I put the poison in everything she consumed!" my mother-in-law complained, throwing her hands up in frustration. "Who knew the girl had such a stubborn will to live? I can't believe her body held out for this long."

Another tear fell into my hair as I lay there, entirely helpless. I couldn't move my legs. I couldn't lift my arms. I wanted so desperately to leap off this bed and strangle the three of them with my bare hands, but my useless body wouldn't obey me.

"Adrian and I are happily married," Vivian said, stepping closer to my bed and holding up her sparkling ring for me to see. "I specifically asked to come here today to offer you my deepest thanks, Elena. Thanks to your stupidity, I was able to live the luxurious life of my dreams."

"What... what do you mean?"

Vivian burst into a high-pitched, cruel laugh. "Are you seriously asking me that?"

Adrian placed a warning hand on her arm. "Vivian, that's enough."

"No, darling, she needs to know the truth before she closes her eyes forever." Vivian slid her hand over his chest, turning her sweet, venomous smile back to me. "Your precious husband never loved you, Elena. Not for a single second."

She scoffed before talking again. "I left Adrian years ago because he had nothing. I married someone else and thought I had moved on. But after my divorce, Adrian came looking for me again. By then, he was already married to you. We began seeing each other in secret, and I became pregnant with his child. That's when Adrian decided he wanted to leave you behind and start a new life with me. So, he took out a massive loan using your name, swapped the debt onto you, and sold you out to Mr. Kane to cover it. We used every cent of that money to build our dream family... while you rotted away working to pay it off."

"You..." I gasped, my chest heaving as the terrifying truth settled into my bones. Three years ago? I stared at her swollen belly in utter horror. "That baby..."

"Oh, this?" Vivian giggled, stroking her stomach. "This is our second child, sweetie."

"You monsters!" I screamed with every ounce of strength left in my fading soul, my whole body shaking violently against the sheets. "How dare you do this to me? How dare you?!"

"Blame yourself for being a desperate, gullible fool," Adrian spat, his gaze burning with icy hatred. "I never loved you. I only married you because of the inheritance your parents left behind after they died. Vivian is my true soulmate." He pulled her tightly against his side. "She is the only woman worthy of bearing my children."

"What do you mean she's the only one fit to bear your children?" I sobbed, the memory of my endless failed pregnancies flashing before my eyes.

Adrian sneered down at me, leaning over the bed rail to deliver the final, crushing blow. "Because I made damn sure you could never carry my child, Elena. Those daily 'vitamins' I lovingly handed you every morning?" He chuckled sinisterly. "They weren't vitamins. They were specialized fertility-blocking drugs. I made sure your womb was a barren wasteland so you could never trap me with a child."

Elena

"I will kill you..." I wheezed, my throat burning as tears choked my voice. "I will kill every single one of you..."

"Kill me?" Adrian smirked, leaning down over the bed rail. "Look at yourself, Elena. You already have one foot in the grave."

His mother let out a shrill, mocking laugh. "You really thought you were something special, didn't you? You actually believed you were worthy of my brilliant son? Stop dreaming and just die already."

Before Adrian could speak again, the door swung open, and his father stepped inside, accompanied by his younger brother, Lucas.

"What is taking you all so long?" the old man grunted, adjusting his suit jacket.

"Dad, you came too?" Vivian asked sweetly, pressing her cheek against his shoulder.

They were all in on it. Every single one of them. The entire family had orchestrated this nightmare, systematically ruining my life while making a complete fool out of me.

I had loved this monster. I had cherished him and treated his family with devotion and respect. When his mother claimed she had a fatal kidney condition, I didn't hesitate-I sold a property my late father had left me to fund her private treatment.

Is this how they repaid my sacrifice?

"Lucas..." I rasped, looking toward my brother-in-law in desperate pain. Lucas had always been kind to me. Even after my husband supposedly "died," Lucas was the only one who seemed to treat me like a human being.

"I can't believe the proud, arrogant Elena Hart is reduced to lying on a deathbed like a helpless dog," Lucas said. His voice was calm, but a dark, sinister malice dripped from every word.

He stepped closer, staring down at my sunken cheeks. "I thought you would have died long before you became this pathetic. But I suppose I got everything I wanted from you first."

"What do you mean?" Adrian asked, frowning slightly at his brother.

"Well, you ran off, brother," Lucas scoffed, throwing his hands up in defense. "You can't blame me. Elena was far too pretty to pass up, so I helped myself to her while you were gone."

I thought my heart had already been broken into a million pieces. I thought the pain couldn't possibly get any worse. But I was wrong. The one person I thought was my ally-the only person who had offered me a shred of comfort-was casually admitting to violating me.

"You shameless rascal!" his mother barked, grabbing Lucas by the ear. "How did you manage to do that behind my back?"

"You know how she was, Mother," Lucas laughed, shaking her off. "She was always pathetically loyal to anyone who showed her a little bit of warmth. All I had to do was act like a caring brother, and she trusted me completely."

"You actually slept with her?" Vivian gasped in fake disgust before turning to sneer at me. "How cheap."

"Thanks to her simple, naïve mind, it was remarkably easy," Lucas bragged, stepping up to my pillow. "I slipped something into her milk every night. She thought I was helping her sleep. She had no idea what was happening to her after she closed her eyes."

The warm milk flashed through my mind-every single night, after I stumbled home exhausted from working three backbreaking jobs to pay off Adrian's fake debt, Lucas handing me that glass, telling me to rest well.

It was all a trap. A twisted, repulsive trap designed to drug me so he could assault me in my sleep.

"You... you will all rot in hell!" I screamed, my body convulsing violently against the sheets. The heart monitor went completely berserk, its loud, frantic beeping filling the room. My entire life had been a lie. My marriage was a lie. Their affection was a lie.

"Look at the bright side, Elena," Lucas added with a smug grin. "You lived a fulfilled, sacrificial life."

Fulfilled life, my ass.

How could I die like this? How could I possibly close my eyes and rest in peace knowing the monsters who destroyed me were going to walk away with my money, my dignity, and my life?

I wanted to tear my own soul out of this paralyzed body. I wanted to drag every single one of them down to hell with me!

"It's time to rest now, my dear Elena," Adrian spoke softly, stepping up to my IV line. "It's time to go."

He pulled a thick syringe from his coat pocket. Through my tear-blurred vision, I saw the clear liquid sparkling inside the barrel.

"Thank you for everything, Elena," Adrian whispered, a bright, handsome smile spreading across his face. "May we never meet again in any lifetime."

He jammed the needle into my neck and plunged the poison into my veins.

Instantly, my vision began to go dark. My body vibrated with a terrifying, icy numbness. As the cold darkness swallowed me whole, the last thing I saw was the family standing over my body, throwing their heads back and laughing so cruelly that the sound echoed in my ears...

"Gasp!"

I sat bolt upright, air violently rushing into my lungs as cold sweat drenched my skin. My heart was hammering against my ribs-not like a failing organ, but with raw, booming life.

I blinked frantically, gasping for breath as I looked around the room, my mind still tangled in the fog of the poison, the laughter, the needle in my throat.

Wait. Was I... alive?

There were no white hospital walls. There were no heart monitors beeping in the background. The smell of disinfectant was gone, replaced by the faint, familiar scent of expensive rose perfume and warm sunlight. I looked down at my hands-they were smooth, healthy, and completely unbruised. No IV needles. No sunken skin.

What is happening to me?

My hands shook as I fumbled for my phone on the nightstand, my thumb trembling as I unlocked the screen. I stared at the date in the corner, certain I was reading it wrong.

It couldn't be right. It wasn't possible.

Three years. I had gone back three entire years, to the exact afternoon Adrian's family had staged his death.

My breath caught somewhere between a sob and a laugh. Was I dreaming? Had the poison finally driven my mind somewhere it couldn't come back from?

But my heartbeat was too real, the sunlight through the curtains too warm, the ache in my healed body too solid to be a dying hallucination.

Then it hit me-clear and undeniable. I had been wronged too badly, too completely, for this to be some cruel trick of my dying brain. Fate, or whatever force still had a shred of justice left in it, had given me something no one deserved twice.

A second chance.

A slow, dark, wicked smile spread across my face as a wave of pure, unadulterated power flooded through my veins.

I am back. And this time, I won't be their fool. I'll be their worst nightmare.

Elena

I stood up from the bed and walked slowly toward the floor-length mirror in the corner of my master bedroom. I turned around, checking my reflection from every angle in disbelief.

My skin was radiant, smooth, and full of life-not the gray, sunken, hollow mess I had died with in that hospital bed.

I gently cupped my cheeks, admiring the face I had once taken for granted. I was never the type of woman who stared at herself in the mirror, but today, seeing my healthy self again felt like a miracle.

I glanced back down at the phone still clutched in my hand, my thumb swiping the screen awake to check the time.

1:58 p.m.

I knew what today was. Today was the day my mother-in-law was scheduled to barge into my bedroom, sobbing fake tears to announce that her son had "died" in a tragic car accident. It was nearly 2:00 p.m., and by 2:30 p.m., the curtain on their grand lie would rise.

Barely thirty minutes. Thirty minutes to steady myself, to think, to prepare for the performance of my life before the first act even began.

Before I dealt with them, I had a far more urgent priority: I needed to verify whether the poison was already running through my veins.

I threw on a crisp dress, grabbed my handbag, and marched toward the driveway where my luxury sedan should have been parked, only to stare at the empty pavement. I had forgotten. I had already given Adrian my car to "sell" when he claimed his company was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Soon, he would fake his own death in a staged accident, using the proceeds from selling my car and the loan he'd taken out under my name-my stolen identity, my signature forged-to disappear and start a new life with Vivian, who was already carrying his child.

Was I really this much of a fool in my past life? Handing over my car, letting Adrian's name sit on the deed, never once thinking to read the fine print of anything I signed.

Not this time, I swore to myself. I will tear their dream life apart piece by piece.

I pulled my phone from my bag and dialed a number I hadn't called in years-the best friend Adrian had manipulated me into cutting off.

The call connected. "Who is this?" a guardedly cold voice asked.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, letting out a soft sigh. "I'm so sorry, Roxy."

Silence stretched over the line before she scoffed. "You're sorry?"

Roxy was the only person who had stood by me when the rest of the world turned its back on me in my past life. Even after I pushed her away, she was the one who helped me find work to pay off the debt faster. In this second chance at life, I was going to fix every single mistake I had made-starting with her.

"Yes," I whispered. "Please... forgive me, Roxy."

"Where are you right now?" she demanded, the sharpness in her voice instantly softening into concern.

"I'm standing outside my house," I said. "Are you free to pick me up?"

"Don't move. I'm on my way."

I stood by the gates, waiting. Within fifteen minutes, a sleek red hatchback pulled up to the curb, screeching to a halt right in front of me.

"Hop in," Roxy called out, unlocking the passenger door.

I opened the door and slid into the leather seat.

She turned to stare at me, her eyebrows furrowed. "Alright, what is going on with you?"

"Nothing," I murmured, leaning over to look at her. "I just missed you."

Roxy rolled her eyes dramatically. "Do you honestly expect me to buy that after years of ghosting me?"

"I know I was an idiot for listening to that bastard," I confessed softly.

SCREECH!

Roxy slammed her foot on the brakes so hard the tires squealed against the pavement, nearly sending us both through the windshield. She threw her car into park and immediately pressed the back of her hand against my forehead.

"Okay, your body temperature is normal, but I think your brain has finally rotted-"

"Say no more," I cut in, grabbing her hand and holding it tight. "The Elena who was an easily manipulated fool is dead. The Elena sitting next to you right now is wide awake. I am so, so sorry for everything, Roxy. I was a complete idiot for believing Adrian's cheap lie that you were just jealous of my marriage."

Roxy stared at me as if I had suddenly started speaking an alien language. I pouted, exaggerating a cute, pleading expression I hadn't used since our college days.

Without saying another word, Roxy let out a loud sigh, pulled me into a fierce, bone-crushing hug, and buried her face in my shoulder.

"You know I can never stay mad at you when you act like a pitiful puppy," she grumbled into my hair, holding me tight.

I hugged her back just as hard, letting the warmth of a real friend wash over my soul.

"Let's go to my apartment," Roxy suggested, pulling back and starting the engine again.

"Before that... take me to the central hospital," I requested softly.

Roxy froze, her hands tightening on the steering wheel. "What?! Are you sick? What hurts?" She began frantically examining my arms and face.

"Nothing hurts right now," I assured her. "I just need to run a quick test."

Without pushing me for details she knew I wasn't ready to give, Roxy nodded, put the car in drive, and sped off toward the medical center.

Minutes later, we stepped into the bright, sterile lobby of the hospital. Roxy stood right beside me, her eyes wide with shock as I walked up to the reception desk and addressed the nurse on duty.

"I need a blood draw done immediately," I said. "A toxicology screen-heavy metals and common poisons-and a full hormone panel. Tell whoever reads it I want anything abnormal flagged and rushed, whatever that costs."

The nurse studied me for a moment before nodding and handing me the intake forms. "We can run a rapid toxin screen today-that part's fast. The hormone panel usually goes out to an outside lab, so that one will take a couple of days. But if anything on it comes back critical, we can flag it for an expedited read."

"That's fine," I said. "Just make sure it's flagged."

A phlebotomist drew several vials of my blood and asked us to wait in the private lounge.

We sat side by side on the vinyl chairs in total silence. Roxy read the heavy aura surrounding me, breaking the quiet with a gentle voice.

"You've changed, Elena," she whispered, reaching out to squeeze my hand. "I won't force you to tell me what happened... but whatever war you're fighting, I'm standing right beside you."

Tears blurred my vision as I looked at her. Roxy.

We wrapped our arms around each other in a silent pact. Just as I pulled back, the harsh, buzzing ringtone of my phone blasted from inside my handbag.

I pulled it out and looked at the flashing screen. I didn't even need to check the caller ID to know who it was.

2:30 p.m.

My mother-in-law was calling. The game was on.