The CEO's Ex Wife Comes Back With Twins

"It's right here in your head. We can't get rid of it because it's in a delicate spot. I'm sorry, Mrs. Hendrix."

The doctor's words hit me like a meteor falling from the sky. I was crushed, utterly devastated. I had just a week left to live before the tumour in my brain took my life.

My hands shook as I held the mahogany table. "Are you sure there's nothing that can be done, Dr. Trevor?"

"It has already spread to all the vital organs in your body. We'd ask that you return home and spend your last days in the care of your loved ones."

Three hours ago, I fainted and hit my head on the handle of the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink. I had been feeling blue on the morning of my wedding, but I had no idea this would be the outcome of my hospital visit. The tumour gave no signs while it ate me up inside out.

Moreover, my husband had left me all night. It was supposed to be our wedding night, but I could tell he was running, giving excuses because he didn't want to have anything to do with me. This flash marriage was his idea. He approached me a few weeks ago while I was handling some tasks in the company. He knew I needed the money and he convinced me to do something as crazy as this.

I grabbed my purse. The nurse behind me helped me settle into the wheelchair. She rolled me out of the doctor's office. Just this morning, I was exchanging vows. Now I'm on my final breaths. Who knows when it will be over?

I thought about throwing his ring away, but I felt I had to speak to my husband, Aaron, about this. I hoped he would want to fight for me, even though the first time we actually got close enough was four weeks ago in that bar down the street.

In reality, I met Aaron Hendrix, the owner of Grey groups one year ago. He was my boss, but the first time I said a word to him was at that bar a few weeks ago. He didn't know who I was, but I knew who he was, and if I wasn't under the influence of alcohol, I would have walked away instead of landing in his bed.

I sighed. My driver helped me into the flashy sedan. He tucked the wheelchair into the front seat while I settled into the backseat. Who had I wronged? Why was this happening to me? I've suffered all my life to just end it this way, without the luxury of a second chance.

So, I cried. I cried hard while the driver took me home and when we arrived at Aaron's grand house, my stomach churned. I wanted to puke. The driver handed me over to the maid, who helped me to the toilet.

I puked and puked until I was sure my insides had found their way into the toilet drain. When I was done, I took a shower and waited in the living room for Aaron to get back. He was probably looking down on me because I was his staff and because I was cheap enough to have had a one-night-stand with him back then. Maybe, just maybe that was why he stayed out tonight.

But if anything, I was grateful for our marriage. I had finally found a way to save Suzy, my sister.

"June."

I heard his manly and confident voice summon me from outside the living room door. I didn't roll the wheelchair towards his voice because I also heard his footsteps approaching.

Aaron walked into the living room after crossing the narrow hallway that came right ahead of the foyer. He looked handsome, still in his tux. When he got a lot closer, he reeked of alcohol.

He held a brown envelope in one hand. I was focused on it. It distracted me and I didn't get to see his reaction to my current pale and fragile state.

"June, what's wrong?" He asked while rooted to a spot.

"I fainted."

He pinched his eyes closed and released a frustrated sigh. Then, he cracked them open and cast me a tender gaze I had never seen before, except on the night he was inside me.

"Talk to me. What happened?"

I had said I wouldn't cry, but I just couldn't stop looking at the envelope in his hands that seemed too serious. My eyes become teary.

"Dr. Trevor said..." I whispered until my voice disappeared, but I tried again, looking at him square in the eyes. "He said I have a tumour in my head. Aaron, I have just one week left."

Aaron gripped the envelope hard, squeezing it in an alarming way. He looked scared, confused. It shocked me when a lone tear rolled down his cheek. Did this mean he cared?

"Jesus, June..." He raked a hand through his dark brown hair, crouching and clutching his skull. "This can't be true."

I rolled the wheelchair closer to him. This felt like the most intimate we've been ever since that night that secretly meant a lot to me than it did to him. I took his hands away from his head as he raised his eyes to me. I was already a crying mess.

"Aaron, I'm dying. I don't have much time left, but you have to be my strength and the strength of my family."

His jaw clenched, and he looked away. I saw the look in his eyes before he averted them. He wasn't here because he was ready to play husband. Aaron came home on our wedding night with this envelope for a reason.

"My sister still needs your help. Suzy needs you when I'm no longer around." I tasted my snot on my tongue.

Aaron stood on his feet and took his hand away. He turned away from me for a long moment. I hated watching his taut back decide. It was too much torture.

"It's fine. If you don't want to look after them even when I'm dead, then just give Suzy the money to settle her loans-"

"Let's divorce."

His words were a slap in the face one million times. I was thrown off this wheelchair in my head and I was slammed and plastered against the wall behind me. My head began to shake violently.

"No, No, No! You can't do this to me-"

"June, my mind is already made up. Let's end this marriage."

"I just told you I'm dying, and you want to get a divorce?"

He extended the hand holding the brown envelope, stabbing me in the chest with a double-edged sword. I was restless. I couldn't breathe. How could he?

"This can't be happening." I sighed, sobbing out a laugh and sniffling.

"Also, your family won't get a dime from me. I can no longer settle Suzy's debts. You would have to do that yourself." His expression turned to stone. He was no longer the Aaron that walked into our home this evening. They were now two different people.

I shot up from the wheelchair and grabbed his collar, screaming in his face. "No! You can't do this to me. I signed a legal contract and married you on the altar-Aaron, please! They will kill her. Those loan sharks will kill her."

Aaron pulled my hand away from his collar and spat in my face. "I want you out of my house right this minute. Never come back to me, June Kim."

Where had I gone wrong? He had obviously come into our home this evening to deliver this performance, but I ended up shocking him with the news of my impending death. It affected him, so why then was he treating me like trash now?

Aaron went into the master bedroom and took out all the suitcases and belongings I had moved into his room hours earlier. He threw them over the railing of the stairs and then outside the building. I tried to stop him.

I grabbed onto his leg, but he kicked me out the door and flung me across the lawn. What shocked me more was the look of guilt and regret in his eyes. It was like he didn't want to do this, but he was doing this.

"Aaron, please." I called out from where I was grovelling on the hard ground under the night sky before he shut the door of his home. "You-You can't do this to my family and I."

"Don't appear before me again, June. Have a good death."

My heart broke. How cruel was he to have said that? As I took my belongings away from his house, as much as I could carry at a time, I vowed to get my revenge for tonight's humiliation...

The next day, I was summoned to identify the corpse of my sister lying around in the morgue. My life had taken a nosedive for the worst. It was crumbling, and I could do nothing but watch. Aaron's driver assigned to me at least remained with me until the divorce process was complete. His name was Kevin.

Kevin rolled my wheelchair into the morgue that evening. The doctors were speaking gibberish in my front. I couldn't hear a single thing they were saying. They had found her in a back alley. She was bruised, and they suspected a deeper level of physical abuse.

I got into the room alone. It was just me and the corpse splayed out on the surface bed, covered by a white cloth. My hand shook as I raised it to pull the covering away. This was what I feared the most; what I had tried so hard to prevent when flash marrying Aaron.

I rolled the cover away and broke down in tears. I wailed for my baby sister, Suzy. She didn't deserve this. I cried, fisting my chest, and before long, I fainted, rolling off the wheelchair and landing in a lump on the ground.

My world went black, but the next time I woke up, I was in a hospital bed with a lot of machines beeping around me. There was an oxygen mask over my face. Suzy's face popped in my head, and even while lying on my death bed, I began to cry again.

The doctor came in minutes later, after realising I was awake. This wasn't the company's doctor or the man who diagnosed me as a walking corpse. I was meeting a different man in a different building.

"Good day, Ms. Kim." He locked his hands in front of him while smiling.

I wondered if that meant good news. If I was going to survive this and finally take my revenge.

"I'm Dr. Emerson. The neurosurgeon assigned to your case. This hospital is an NGO I started for patients with impossible cases. We are preparing for surgery. It's tricky, but we will do our best to save you and your child."

Doctor Emerson's smile no longer comforted me. I was shaking in anxiety. The rhythm of the beeps had changed. As soon as my heart rate picked up, they did, too. I was scared. I was also pregnant for a man who abandoned me.

He rushed for me, trying to stabilise me after the news, but there was no way. When a nurse came, he had asked them to get a sedative.

I was sedated and sent back into that world of black.

The next time I opened my eyes, it was Thursday. A week after my wedding. The day I was supposed to die. A tube was sticking out of my mouth. There were people around me, all focused on my brain. I guessed this was it.

My eyes fluttered weakly. I also heard the sound of the monitors beeping again. I felt like sleeping forever, so I closed my eyes, and the last thing I heard was the sound of the ECG machine flat lining.

Time of Death: March 16, 2019.

Name: June Kim.

•••

Almost everyone seemed to believe there was a second life. Most times, you would hear people say things like; in my second life, I want to be something else or I want to look this certain way. It was not a proven fact, but everyone believed that death was not the end, including I, June Kim.

The noises in my ear sounded like incoherent voices springing in multitudes. When it stopped, I gasped awake, shooting up from a bed. My hand went over my chest as I struggled to calm my heartbeat.

I looked around me and noticed the ring on my finger. I froze, frowning hard at the shiny diamond ring. It was strange. Then I heard the soft sigh at my side. A muscular hand reached out for me. The instant he gripped me, I jumped out of the bed, alarmed.

The man on the bed woke up. He seemed alarmed, too. I began wondering how I got here. Did I have a one-night-stand with a stranger? But then I was dressed in this really short silk nightgown, which didn't add up.

He was in nothing but boxer briefs, approaching me with very cautious steps.

"Verity, it's just me. Don't be afraid."

I frowned, looking scared. "Who's Verity?"

My question seemed to baffle the man. His face pinched into a deep frown, but he quickly recovered and continued approaching me. I lowered my head in thought. What the hell was going on?

I said with teary eyes. "Where am I?"

"This is our home, Verity. I'm your husband. We've been together for so-"

I rushed into the door on my left before he could grab me. I was so scared and shaking. My name wasn't Verity. I'm June, so what the hell is happening? I began to understand when I held the edges of the bathroom sink and looked at my reflection in the mirror.

My memories flooded back. The surgery room. The beeping of the monitors. My fight with Aaron Hendrix. Our marriage. Every single thing about June Kim came back to me, except my face. I held my cheeks, pinching my skin because I was dreaming.

I didn't have long black hair anymore. My hair was ginger red. My eyes weren't pale blues anymore. They were hazel and unfamiliar. My skin. It was pale, so pale I also couldn't recognise it. I guessed who I was looking at now was Verity. The owner of this ring and that man's wife.

I heard keys jingling at the lock on the other side. He had brought a master key. I didn't want to look at his face, so I slid to the ground and hid my face in my hands while sobbing like a baby.

"Verity." He knelt before me. The feel of his cotten shirt as he hugged me made me realise he had finally put on some clothes. "Love, please look at me. I'm so confused about what to do right now."

The only reason I looked at him was because, even though I might have ended up in someone's life, this was still Verity's body. I couldn't tell anyone I was a different person. This was her husband, and I had to play along.

He held my cheek. I saw the fear in his eyes as he thumbed my tears away. This man looked burly and hardened. He had impressive biceps and a broad shoulder. The way his body felt against mine suggested he was ripped in the right places. He was hot, the kind you'd bring out of a magazine or the comic book male leads girls like me swoon over.

"Are you calm now?" He patted my ginger red hair down. "I'll call a specialist."

He kissed my forehead and was about to leave the bathroom, but I tugged at his wrist before he could. He faced me again, and I asked.

"What's today's date?"

He paused for a beat. "March 16, 2018."

It was the same day one year ago. The day I sent in my application to Grey groups and the same day my fate with Aaron Hendrix was born. I froze in terrifying realisation. If I don't do something, dying on that surgery bed will happen again. Maybe fate gave me this chance to change everything.

"Verity, what's wrong? You're scaring me with that look on your face?" He asked, walking back to me, but before he could see my intention to flee, I shot to my feet and raced out of our bedroom.

I didn't know where I was or the interiors of this house, but I saw the long staircase and skipped down in seconds. My luck shined when I saw the double door ahead. I raced for it, even while knowing Verity's husband was hot on my tail.

I reached the end of the steepy driveway, still running past the gate and gunning for the main road. A cab stopped for me, and I hopped in with no idea what city I was in and with no money. I saw the BMW behind, and I knew he was already right behind me.

"Hey, do you think you can speed up?"

The driver looked at me through the rear view mirror and grunted.

I grabbed his shoulder blade from where I sat and said, "That car must not catch up with us, or else we will be in serious trouble."

As we crossed the streets, I realised we were still in the city I know. New York.

"Take me to Park Avenue."

He listened and rammed his foot on the gas, gaining ground over the car that followed us closely behind. It took us twenty minutes to get to the Kim's household. This is where June and Suzy lived after their parents died.

I jumped out of the car after the driver pulled to a stop. Our home was a townhouse part of a row. It had no fencing, just concrete tiled pathways to get to the front steps. The driver called for me behind, but I paid no attention to him as I pushed myself up the stairs, lurching for the front door.

It was late at night, yet I confidently banged on someone's door about to say something utterly crazy. I didn't give myself the chance to think about it. I was just acting on impulse.

The door opened, and my jaw rolled off the floor. I came face-to-face with myself. With June Kim. I was silent, thinking she should know who I was, but then, I remembered my face was an entirely different person. A stranger.

Me said to me, "Who are you?"

Immediately, I heard his voice behind me. It was no longer just the driver shouting at me. He was here, too.

"Verity!"

I gasped, turning and grabbing June's hand while rushing my words. "Listen to me, this might sound crazy but it's the truth. Go to your desk. You have two job applications waiting to be sent out on your computer. Do not pick Grey groups. Pick the latter. If you chose Grey, you won't survive-"

Hands hooked around my waist, and my back slammed into a hard chest as my feet began to lift from the ground. I thrashed about, but his hold on me was like a vice.

I heard him apologising. "I'm so sorry about this, Miss. My wife isn't in her right state of mind. I apologise again for the disturbance."

June said in an uncertain tone, "I don't mind. Goodnight."

He handed the cab driver his fare, and the man still cursed at me until he drove away from the premises. Verity's husband threw me inside the passenger side of the car. We drove home in silence, and when we got back, a specialist was waiting to examine me.

I didn't protest. I didn't resist. The doctor sat me down in my bedroom and peeped into my eyes with a tiny torchlight. He tugged the skin underneath them downwards for a better view.

Verity's husband said, "Tell me. What's wrong with my wife?"

"She suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. That is the most likely cause of her sudden memory loss." The doctor responded.

"Will her memories return? How long am I expected to wait until my wife remembers who I am?!" He lost his cool on the last statement, pacing up and down the room.

"Wayan." The doctor called with more familiarity and less formality. "Calm yourself."

I realised that was his name. The man who I was going to share a bed with from now on. The man who I was going to kiss and pretend to love was him. Wayan.

Wayan gestured wildly with his hands. "I can't possibly be calm. Look at her. Look at what they did-"

"Her memory loss isn't permanent, okay? She will remember everything soon. Let's have faith."

The doctor arranged his suitcase, and Wayan's assistant came to show him out. The assistant's name tag pinned to the breast pocket of his blazer, said exactly who he was, including his name.

I gulped and said, "Wayan."

It shocked him to hear me call his name. It seemed earlier on that I had forgotten that as well. He rushed to my side on the bed, brushing a lock of my hair away from my face. Wayan was kind, unlike Aaron.

"Ver, I'm sorry for my outburst. I didn't mean to scare you."

"You do not scare me." I assured him.

I noticed how my words comforted him. He liked hearing my voice. It was a way to convince him I was fine and not on my way to self-destruct.

"I'm glad." He interlocked our fingers and stared at them for a long moment. "Something bad happened a week ago, and it was my fault. Do you remember our last case?"

I shook my head, utterly confused. "I can't remember a thing."

He already had that devastated look on his face, detaching his hand, but I quickly linked them back.

"But you can tell me everything about us," I said, sparing him a tender look. "I want to hear the sweetest part first. Only talk about us. The good parts of our relationship."

"You mean marriage?"

I spared a nervous smile. "Sorry, it was a slip up."

Wayan held the tip of my chin and smiled, showing me that he didn't take that to heart. I smiled back, anxious to hear about it. What kind of relationship did Verity have with Wayan.

In a few minutes, he did. He told me about the first day they met. He said something tragic had happened, but because I wanted only the good parts, he skipped the tragedy and filtered the story. I could see they were so in love. O wondered how things would be from today.

Suddenly, a weird bell sound spiralled through the air. It rang twice before it stopped, and it was so shrill I had to cover my ears before it would split.

Wayan sighed. "It's time for the other side of our lives."

I watched him grab his jacket slung across the arm chair's back rest in a haste.

"Where are you going?"

"Stay here and rest. I'll inform the others that something came up at home."

Wayan walked to the wall next to the bookshelf in the wide bedroom. Before my eyes, the closed wall rolled away, revealing an elevator behind it. When he said the "other side of our lives", what had he meant by that?

"No!" I shot to my feet.

He turned to me, backing the elevator. His eyes questioned me, and I continued. "Take me with you."

If I was going to be Verity, then I needed to know what exactly I was in. I needed to know what I was about to face with this second chance at life fate had given me. Would I end up regretting it?

"Ver, it's not safe for you-"

"Why not?" I walked forward with crossed arms. "Being around family and friends always does the trick, rather than being stuck in an empty bedroom. Take me to this other side, Wayan."

He lowered his voice, holding my stare with darkened eyes. "You are lucky you are my wife. No one can speak to me in that tone and get away with it."

I stepped into his personal space, looking at him from beneath my eye lids. "Take me to the other side. It's what your wife wants most."

Wayan nodded once and grabbed my hand. He pulled me onto the lift and pressed a button. The box sank by so many feets, but I couldn't tell how many. When the doors slid open again, a tunnel was before us. It was lined with tracks, and when I saw the two carts fixed on them, I understood what this was. A secret passage.

"After you, my darling wife." Wayan helped me climb into my cart and got into his next.

The carts zapped into motion at the press of a button. I screamed. We were going too fast. I was afraid we would crash. I was afraid of death again, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. The carts rode the rail tracks for thirty minutes before stopping before an arched entrance under the ground.

Wayan helped me out again. He noticed my hands were shaking, and my skin was pale, but I crossed the entrance before he could ask me what was wrong.

After the dark entrance and the ernomous door rolled open by a lever on the side wall, I came in contact with a well-lighted and furnished warehouse. It had everything a detective's corner should have and more.

I sighted a cadaver and mortuary cabinets. A filing section. The crime case drawing board and lastly, a lounge. What alarmed me was that there were people already here. The 'others' Wayan had mentioned.

I said, "Am I the only girl?"

A guy dressed in a casual sweater and jeans and seated on the arm rest of a settee stood on his feet and said, "No, you are not, Verity. I'm Tyler. Mr. Davenport gave us a heads up on your condition."

Another voice said, "There's no need to be so formal, Tyler. It's Verity Adams. Not a newbie."

I turned in that direction and met a pair of eyes hidden behind a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. This man crossed his legs elegantly as he sat. He was clad in a well-cut suit, and I could tell he was the kind of person who obsessed over perfection.

"You are one to talk, Reece. It's like I'm walking on eggshells." Tyler withdrew his steps and returned to his spot on the settee. His eyes scrutinised me like binoculars.

Wayan finally broke his silence. "What's the status?"

"A new case just popped up on our radar, boss." Reece answered, uncrossing his legs out of respect. "It's them."

Wayan said nothing. He walked over to the case board without carrying me along. I stood awkwardly before the two strangers. Tyler tried so hard not to stare too much, but it was an epic fail.

I heard the ruckus and darted my eyes to Wayan. He had shed off the remnant pieces of the last case on the board, leaving it blank.

Tyler suggested. "Reece and I drafted an attack plan, boss. It starts with the Grey pack's base and ends at the Alpha's seat."

My mind muddled up the more. I peered at all of them in confusion until another voice came again.

Wayan checked his watch and said to them, "Where the fuck is Suzy?"

I frowned on instinct. It couldn't be the same Suzy I knew. It just couldn't. I was overthinking. There's no way the Suzy I know would be involved in criminal cases and secret underground investigations. I don't even know where I am yet. Fuck...

"What's this place?"

They all stared at me like I had grown three heads. Tyler ran hand over his mouth. I had truly lost all of my memories and knew nothing. It was like a nightmare, and that was why he had been staring so much.

Wayan diverted from his previous question and responded in a calm voice. "This is the headquarters of the Paranormal Intelligence Agency. I'm the founder, and you are the co-founder."

My heart sank. "Paranormal?"

Reece rolled right on. "Yes, Verity. As in ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and all there is out there."

I froze, thinking they had to be joking. This wasn't real. I thought about bursting into laughter, but the look on their faces had me thinking otherwise. They weren't bluffing. Ghosts and werewolves existed.

If that was all...

The elevator pinged loudly on the other side, and after a few minutes, someone walked into the warehouse.

I heard heels and the feminine voice that came next.

"Boys, you called."

My eyes widened in shock. That voice. I knew it like the back of my palm, but how could it be possible?

Tyler scoffed. "Took you long enough, Suzy."

When the clap of those heels stopped right beside me, I raised my eyes, dreading what I was about to discover.

It was her. My sister, Suzy, stood there, looking like a totally different person.

Instantly, I began to question everything. Did loansharks really murder my sister? Was she ever really in debt? The people she had to run from, where they even loansharks?

Was everything a lie?