Rebirth: The New Bride Wants A Divorce-Chapter 283: I couldn’t save our baby

The car rolled along at its usual pace until a sudden bump jolted through the seats. Betty lurched forward with a pained groan.

"Ouch. Sir Kevin, please be careful. At this rate I feel like I am going to throw up," she pleaded, her face turning visibly pale as she pressed a hand to her stomach.

Kevin glanced at her through the rearview mirror, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "No wonder your boyfriend warned me to be extra careful with you." He reached for the drink Shawn had handed him earlier and tossed it back toward her. "Here. Drink this. It will help with the nausea."

Betty caught it clumsily and muttered a quick thanks. Kevin’s attention, however, shifted immediately to the other passenger, who sat unnervingly still.

"Anna, are you okay?" he asked, his tone softening as he watched her stare blankly ahead.

Betty turned to Anna too, swallowing in concern.

Ever since they picked her up, Anna had not spoken a single word. She sat rigidly, her hands resting in her lap, her gaze unfocused. Her silence was not dramatic, yet heavy enough to fill the car. One look at her expression was enough for anyone to see she was regretting every sip of alcohol she had downed the night before.

Her breathing was shallow, her cheeks slightly flushed, and she blinked as if even keeping her eyes open required effort.

Kevin frowned, leaning a little closer to get a better view. "Anna?" he tried again, gentler this time.

She finally shifted, barely, and the small movement seemed to cost her more than it should have.

"Kevin, is there any way you could go back in time and erase parts of your life that you regret doing?" Anna asked suddenly, her voice strangely calm.

Kevin blinked, startled. Of all the things he expected her to say, that was nowhere on the list.

Anna internally winced. It sounded ridiculous, especially coming from someone who already seemed unstable to them. She could practically feel Kevin and Betty mentally labeling her as the girl who had finally snapped. If only they knew the truth. If only they understood that she was not losing her mind. She had been reborn into a life she already lived once.

Kevin let out a quiet sigh. "I think she needs to see a doctor," he muttered under his breath, pity edging into his tone as he glanced at her through the mirror. "She is talking nonsense."

"Maybe a time machine would do," Betty offered thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "But I do not think anyone created one yet."

Kevin gave her a flat look, rolled his eyes, and returned his attention to the road. He felt like the only sane person trapped in a car with two people who had somehow misplaced their brain cells.

But Anna was far from amused.

Her brows creased in deep worry as her mind replayed the night before. Daniel’s hands on her. His breath on her neck. The way he had taken her right there, without hesitation, without letting her catch a single breath.

She had been drunk enough to forget pieces of it. All it took was one push from him, one whisper of his name, and the memories flushed away like water slipping through fingers. She remembered fragments. His lips on her throat. His hands spreading fire across her skin. And then more. Much more. She could not recall how many times he had taken her, only that the world had blurred into the shape of his body over hers.

Her throat tightened. No matter how much she tried, she could not pull the entire memory together. It felt broken, scattered, as if her mind refused to stitch the pieces back.

Anna swallowed hard as her fingers brushed against something crumpled in her pocket. For a second she hesitated, but curiosity tugged her hand deeper until she pulled out the small folded note Daniel had left that morning.

Her heart thudded once, painfully.

She unfolded it with trembling fingers.

Let’s be wild again tonight.

Her breath hitched. The words pulsed in her mind like a whisper she could not escape. Heat crawled up her neck, mixing with a cold dread that curled in her stomach. She did not even realize she had stopped breathing until her chest began to ache.

She snapped the note shut and shoved it back into her pocket as if it were something dangerous. Something cursed. The air around her felt heavier, as though a dark omen had slithered into the car with them the moment she read it.

’Maybe he is teasing me,’ she tried to tell herself, but whatever little she remembered prevented her from believing it.

***

Meanwhile in his office, Daniel tried to focus on the files in front of him, but every time he forced his attention back to work, Anna’s face pushed its way into his thoughts. Her smile. Her flushed cheeks. Her soft breaths against his skin. And then... the tears.

His heart twisted, becoming oddly restless as he leaned back in his chair. No matter how many times he blinked, last night kept replaying in his mind.

[Last night.]

After Anna suddenly woke up, he had been completely taken aback by the tears glistening in her eyes. One moment she had been teasing him, playful and wickedly tempting in her drunken boldness. The next moment, she was crying silently, confusion swirling in her gaze like she was seeing him for the first time.

Why was she crying? Had he hurt her?

Daniel’s jaw tightened as he recalled how rough he had been. He never intended to be, but the combination of her soft pleas, her teasing whispers, and the way she clung to him had ignited something raw inside him. Even knowing she was drunk, he had lost control more than once.

The memory made his chest constrict.

When she cried, something inside him snapped with panic.

"Hey, are you hurt, wifey?" Daniel had whispered, his voice laced with worry as he cupped her cheeks gently. His thumbs brushed her tears, but they kept falling.

Her body trembled in his arms.

Daniel felt helpless. He wanted to gather her close, protect her from whatever fear haunted her, but she wasn’t looking at him. Not truly. It was as if she was staring at a ghost behind him.

"Anna," he breathed, leaning closer. "Tell me what’s wrong. Did I hurt you?"

He remembered the way she shook her head weakly, her lips parting but no clear words escaping. She looked terrified... not of him, but of something he could not see.

Daniel’s heart had hammered painfully.

He pulled her against his chest, wrapping her tightly in his arms. "It’s okay. I’m right here. You’re safe."

But even as he whispered the words, even as he tried to soothe her trembling, Daniel felt the cold dread in her shaking breaths.

It was the first time he realized something deeper was haunting her, but the moment she spoke, his entire world changed.

"Daniel... I couldn’t save our baby."

Anna’s voice broke as the words slipped out, fragile and trembling. She lifted her face to look at him, and Daniel felt the world tilt. Tears streamed down her cheeks, unstoppable and raw, as if she were grieving something real. Something devastating. Something she had lived through.

Not the incoherent ramblings of a drunk woman. Not the slurred nonsense he expected.

This was pain. Real pain.

"Wifey... what—what are you saying?" Daniel stammered, his throat tightening. "Baby? What baby?"

He waited for an explanation, anything, but Anna only shook her head and buried her face against his chest as sobs wracked her body. She clung to him desperately, trembling like someone who had lost everything and was terrified to lose even more.

Daniel wrapped his arms around her, helpless and confused, shaken to his core.

He stroked her back, whispering her name, but she didn’t answer. She only cried until the exhaustion swallowed her and sleep dragged her under once more, leaving Daniel holding her trembling form in a silence that felt unbearably heavy.

But her words... Her words dug into him like claws, refusing to leave his mind.