Rebirth: The New Bride Wants A Divorce-Chapter 292: Everything about my feelings

[Flashback]

Daniel woke with a throbbing ache pulsing behind his temples, the familiar burn of alcohol still lingering in his veins. He groaned softly, lifting a hand to his forehead... but froze the moment he turned.

Anna lay curled in his arms.

His eyes widened. Her bare skin pressed against his chest, her breathing soft and steady, her body instinctively seeking his warmth. The shock in him evaporated almost instantly, replaced by something warm and disarming. His entire body melted under her touch, the tension draining from his muscles as if she had unknowingly soothed a pain buried deep within him.

He closed his eyes briefly.

Last night... he had not drunk because of Katherine. He had not mourned the wedding that never happened or a love that never truly existed.

He drank because yesterday marked the anniversary of the night he lost everything.

The night his world shattered beyond repair.

His father had died in prison. A so called suicide. The very same night he was wrongfully detained for a crime he never committed. The system that was supposed to protect them had crushed him instead. And by dawn, when the news reached home, Daniel’s mother had taken her own life, unable to bear the weight of the truth.

He had been a boy then. A boy holding his report card, eager to show them how he had topped his exams. He had walked into the house with hope in his eyes, only to learn that hope had no place in his life anymore.

From that day, vengeance became the air he breathed. Justice became the only language he understood. The people responsible would pay. All of them.

And life... cruel, ironic life... placed Anna in his path.

The daughter of the man he married into the family he wished to destroy.

A replacement bride. A pawn in a deal he never wanted. Someone he intended to use, to hurt, to break if he needed to.

But then he learned the truth.

Anna was not Hugo’s daughter. Not a part of the bloodline he despised. Not the enemy he believed she was.

And something inside him shifted.

He looked at her now, curled against him, her innocence stark against the darkness that lived in his chest. Her hair spread across his arm like silk, her breaths steady, trusting, unaware of the storm inside him.

She had come into his life by accident. Yet somehow, she was becoming the only part of it that felt real.

Daniel exhaled softly, brushing a stray curl away from her face.

He had meant to hurt her. Instead, she was the only person who had touched a part of him he thought long dead.

And lying there in the morning light, with her body pressed against his, Daniel realized something unsettling.

Last night he had drunk because he lost his family. This morning... he felt terrified of getting distracted because his heart was already swaying away from the one thing that had kept him alive and distraction was the last thing he wanted at this moment.

"Just hold on a little longer, wifey," Daniel whispered, his voice barely audible in the quiet room. He lowered his lips to the crown of her head, pressing the softest kiss. "Once I avenge your family... once everything is over... I will tell you everything about my feelings."

The words trembled inside him, fragile but sincere.

He held her closer, letting her warmth seep into the cold corners of his soul. For the first time in years, the heaviness in his chest lightened just a little. Anna’s presence had done that. Her soft breaths against his skin, her trust, her innocence—everything about her contradicted the darkness he carried.

For a fleeting moment, Daniel allowed himself to imagine a future. A future where revenge was behind him. A future where he could love her openly, without fear, without restraint.

He stayed that way for a long time, simply holding her, memorizing the peaceful rise and fall of her breath. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Then Anna stirred.

Her fingers twitched against his skin, her eyelashes fluttering. Daniel’s breath halted. Panic pricked through him. She could not see him like this. Vulnerable. Unmasked. Broken in ways he had never confessed to anyone.

He carefully loosened his hold, easing himself away from her warmth even though every part of him wanted to stay.

He stood from the bed quietly, taking one last look at her sleeping form—soft, trusting, unaware of how deeply she had already carved herself into him.

Daniel slipped out of the room.

He thought distance would protect him, thought hiding his feelings would keep her safe and thought he had more time.

But he was wrong.

Two months later, when he lost her when her lifeless body was torn from his arms and buried under the weight of someone else’s cruelty—Daniel realized the truth with brutal clarity.

Leaving her that morning was the first mistake. Believing he could shield her by staying silent was the second. And regretting every moment he had wasted... became his lifelong punishment.

[Present]

Neither Daniel nor Anna knew how much time had passed. The world outside their rooftop haven had vanished, leaving only the soft glow of candles, the cool night air, and the quiet rhythm of their breaths.

After their shared intimacy, they simply lay together beneath the open sky. Anna rested her head on Daniel’s bicep, her fingers lazily playing with his hand, tracing the lines of his knuckles and the warmth of his palm. Daniel held her close, his arm draped protectively around her waist.

For a while, there was peace. A rare, fragile kind of peace. But after a long stretch of silence, Anna felt something shift.

Daniel had not spoken. He had not moved. He was staring at the stars with an expression she could not read.

Curious, she turned her head slightly to look at him.

And froze.

A single tear slipped from the corner of his eye, trailing down his temple and disappearing into the pillow beneath him. He did not blink. He did not wipe it away. He did not even seem aware it had escaped.