Dominic stood in the lab doorway, his voice cracking. “Audrey, no. Are you seriously considering putting yourself in the cryogenics experiment? You could vanish for God knows how long, or worse, you could die.
”
“Yes,” I said. He didn’t know I had already signed the papers. He didn’t know why. Three days later, on our third wedding anniversary, I was supposed to be at the gala he’d built for me—Audrey’s Haven, a monument to our love.
Instead, I was being wheeled into a cryogenic chamber, leaving behind a death certificate and a note that told no one the truth. I had discovered everything. The affair with Susan. The years of lies.
The way he’d smiled at me while giving her the same promises he gave me. “If you ever cheat on me,” I’d told him once, “I will vanish so completely that they’ll wonder if I was ever real. ”
He laughed then. He swore he never would.
He was wrong. I had planned my disappearance carefully. I told no one except my brother Julian. I asked him to announce my death publicly, to let Dominic believe I was gone forever.
Then I climbed into the chamber and let the cold take me. I woke up ten years later. Julian was there, sitting beside the chamber, his face older but his eyes the same. “Audrey?
How do you feel? ”
“Julian,” I whispered. “What are you doing here? ”
“You’ve been asleep for ten years,” he said.
“And I’ve been here watching you the whole time. ”
I couldn’t process it. Ten years. My entire life had been put on pause while Dominic moved on, married Susan, had children, and never once looked back.
“Wherever you are is my home,” Julian said. I didn’t know what to say to that. The world had changed while I slept. My cryogenics experiment had been a success, and the medical community was finally ready to accept the technology.
Julian had spent years organizing my data, preparing a media event to announce the breakthrough. He’d poured everything into making sure I was safe. “Are you two dating? ” someone asked me once.
“Julian is like family,” I said. “He always has been. ”
But I saw the way he looked at me. I felt the hope in his voice.
And I wasn’t ready. Dominic found out I was alive. He saw me on the news and came running, desperate, begging for forgiveness. “Audrey, I’m sorry,” he said, reaching for me.
“Please, just forgive me. ”
I looked at him—the man I’d once loved more than anything—and felt nothing. “Do I know you? ” I asked.
He crumbled. But he didn’t stop. He divorced Susan, publicly admitted his infidelity, and tried to win me back. He showed up at my lab, at my interviews, at my home.
He wouldn’t leave me alone. “You stole her from me! ” he screamed at Julian. “You homewrecker!
”
Julian stood between us, calm and steady. “You don’t deserve her. ”
“You don’t get to decide for her! ”
“If you ever come close to Audrey again,” Julian said, his voice low, “I promise I’ll make you disappear.
Forever. ”
I thought Dominic would back down. I thought he’d finally accept that we were over. I was wrong.
One morning, after an interview, I was walking out of the TV station when I heard footsteps behind me. “Audrey! I finally found you! ”
I turned.
Susan was there, her eyes wild, a gun in her hand. “You ruined my life,” she spat. “I won’t let you get out of this alive. ”
“Dominic, look, we’re done,” I said, backing away.
“We’ve been done for a long time. Please, leave me alone. ”
But it wasn’t Dominic. It was Susan.
“Eat my bullet,” she screamed. “Die, you—! ”
The gun went off. I heard Julian shout my name.
I felt something slam into me—not a bullet, but a body. Julian had thrown himself in front of me. He fell to the ground, blood spreading across his chest. “Audrey, hold on,” he gasped.
“Are you okay? ”
“Julian, no,” I sobbed. “Stay with me. Please.
”
Susan was arrested on the spot. Julian was rushed to the hospital, fighting for his life. I sat by his bedside for weeks, holding his hand, begging him to wake up. “Julian, you have to be okay,” I whispered.
“Please. For my sake. ”
He finally opened his eyes. “Did you mean it?
” he asked weakly. “When you said you’d be my girlfriend? ”
I had said it in the chaos, desperate to keep him alive. “I heard it, Audrey.
Agreement accepted. ”
I laughed through my tears. “You won’t let me forget that, will you? ”
“Never.
”
Dominic never woke up. He had a heart attack in the hospital, alone, after learning I was marrying Julian. I didn’t cry for him. I didn’t feel anything at all.
Julian recovered. We got married on a quiet afternoon, with no cameras, no gala, no grand gestures. Just the two of us. “I never thought I’d be happy again,” I told him.
“You deserve this,” he said. “You deserve everything. ”
I finally believed him.
