Rebirth: The New Bride Wants A Divorce-Chapter 282: Why am I crying

Daniel woke to white ceilings and the steady beep of monitors.

The smell of antiseptic filled his lungs as reality rushed back in, cruel and sharp.

"Where are my wife’s belongings?" Daniel asked immediately, his voice raw, barely audible, yet filled with urgency.

Henry stepped forward at once. "They’re here," he said gently, placing the bag into Daniel’s hands.

Daniel clutched it to his chest like a lifeline, fingers curling around the fabric until his knuckles turned white. His breath broke, chest heaving as the pain surged back in full force.

He turned his face away from everyone in the room.

"Privacy," he said firmly.

The authority in his voice left no room for argument. One by one, the doctors, nurses, even Henry stepped out, quietly closing the door behind them.

Alone at last, Daniel opened the bag.

Her phone. Her scarf. A small hair clip he had once teasingly complained about losing under the couch before her parents.

His breath hitched violently.

"She was cold," he whispered into the empty room, clutching the items tighter. "And I wasn’t there."

His shoulders shook as silent sobs tore through him, the kind that ripped straight from the soul. He pressed the bag against his heart as if holding onto what little of her was left.

"I should’ve protected you," he said brokenly.

The machines continued to beep steadily beside him.

But Daniel felt nothing but the unbearable quiet of a world where Anna no longer existed.

Daniel went through her belongings one by one with trembling hands.

The sight of her clothes streaked with dried blood nearly broke him all over again. He pressed his lips together, forcing himself to keep going, as if stopping would mean losing her twice. When he reached her phone, his fingers hesitated before unlocking it.

Her gallery opened.

Pictures from that day filled the screen. Smiling faces. Forced smiles. The ones they had taken when her parents arrived, trying so hard to look normal when nothing had been.

A small, painful smile curved his lips.

"You were trying so hard," he whispered.

But his tears never stopped.

He kept scrolling, aimlessly at first, until something made his thumb freeze mid motion.

The smile vanished.

His breath hitched as he stared at the screen again, then again, his heart beginning to pound violently. Daniel’s hand tightened around the phone as realization struck him all at once, sharp and unforgiving. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

On the screen was a picture he had never seen before.

Him and Kathrine. Too close. Their bodies angled in a way that, at first glance, looked intimate. Damning.

Daniel’s fingers trembled as he brought the phone closer, eyes scanning every detail with ruthless precision. The angle. The lighting. The timing.

They were not hugging. He knew that with absolute certainty.

The photo had been taken from the side, cropped just enough to cut out context, twisted cleverly so it suggested something it was not. A lie frozen into an image. A lie meant to wound.

"Who could have sent this to her?" he muttered, his voice hollow, dangerous.

His jaw tightened as another realization punched through the fog of grief.

This was not accidental.

Someone had wanted Anna to see this. Wanted her to doubt. To hurt. To believe something so vile that it would shatter her from the inside.

His thumb swiped again.

More edits. More images. Same moment. Different angles. Each one crafted carefully to tell the same false story.

Daniel’s tears stopped. Something far colder took their place.

"If she saw this..." he whispered, his chest constricting painfully. "If she believed it..."

The weight of it crushed him. The guilt. The rage. The unbearable what if.

He clenched the phone so tightly that his knuckles turned white, making him even more miserable.

[Present]

The next morning, Daniel jolted awake from another nightmare, his chest feeling unbearably heavy, as if something were pressing down on him from the inside.

He should have been accustomed to these dreams by now. The ones that came without warning, ripped him apart, and left him exhausted before the day had even begun. Yet this time, something caught him off guard.

Tears.

They were still slipping down the sides of his face.

"Why am I crying," he muttered hoarsely, lifting a hand to wipe them away. His fingers came back damp, and for a moment he simply stared at them.

Henry’s words from long ago echoed faintly in his mind. About how he cried in his sleep. Back then, Daniel had brushed it off, assuming it was an exaggeration born out of concern.

Now he knew better.

Just as he tried to steady his breathing, something shifted beside him.

"Umm..."

Daniel’s head snapped to the side.

Anna was curled against him, her body instinctively moving closer in her sleep, her face nestled against his chest as if it were the safest place in the world. Her arm tightened slightly around him, seeking comfort even in dreams.

And just like that, the shadows of the nightmare vanished.

The suffocating grief, the haunting images, the fear clawing at his chest all retreated in the presence of her warmth. Daniel’s breathing slowly evened out as he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer without waking her.

"I’m here," he whispered to no one in particular.

Anna stirred faintly but did not wake, her steady breathing anchoring him to the present. Daniel closed his eyes again, this time not to escape, but to hold onto the reality in his arms, grateful for the quiet reminder that she was alive, safe, and right there with him.

He stayed still, barely daring to move, afraid that even the smallest shift might wake her or break the fragile calm settling over him. Anna mumbled something unintelligible and tucked herself closer, her fingers fisting lightly into his shirt as if he might disappear if she let go.

He closed his eyes and rested his chin gently against her hair, breathing her in. Warm and real and let the sleep take over him again.