Chapter 30 – Sinking
ATHENA
I’ve read so many articles about drowning, but no one has ever given it justice.
No one ever explained what it really feels like.
They wrote about the silence, the stillness–but not the agony.
No one warned us how the cold water would punch the air from your lungs the second you hit the surface.
The first thought that comes to my mind is that i can’t swim.
I open my mouth to scream, but all I taste is water.
Panic explodes in my chest. I thrash wildly–arms flailing, legs kicking–but the dress clings to my skin like a vice, dragging me
down. My hair fans out around me, floating like a dark halo as I sink deeper.
The muffled sounds of the party above me fade. With how loud the music is, no one will find me.
If only Alex would change his mind and look back, turn to look for me. Maybe I’ll get a chance to live.
But every second that passes is a cruel reminder.
He’s with Leah.
He won’t notice.
No one will see me.
My lungs burn, a searing pain growing with every second. The need to breathe becomes unbearable–an animalistic instinct
overriding everything–until my body convulses, demanding air.
But there is none.
My ribs contract painfully, as if trying to wring out the water filling my lungs. It hurts–God, it hurts more than I thought
possible.
I fight.
I claw at nothing, kicking harder–harder–until my limbs grow heavy, sluggish. The pool lights blur, growing dim as the weight
of my body pulls me down.
This is the second time I’ve fallen this month.
Was it the alcohol? Did I slip?
Or… was I pushed?
1/5
Not that it matters now.
I think of my parents.
Would they be proud of me? Will they be sad when I meet them again and tell them that I drowned alone in a pool and couldn’t
become a surgeon?
Tears blend with the water.
And then- my thoughts drift to my husband.
Even at the brink of death, he’s still inside my head–inside my soul–like a cruel ghost that refuses to leave.
Will he mourn me? Will he regret the words he said before I died?
Or will he celebrate–sweep the love of his life into his arms and disappear on some perfect honeymoon while I rot beneath the
water?
I tried.
God, I tried so hard to love him, to be enough. But maybe I never was.
Maybe if we had met first–before Leah, before everything–he could have loved me back.
Would it have made a difference?
Or would he still have looked at me the way he did tonight–with disgust, with hate–like I was nothing?
The pain in my chest becomes unbearable, like fire and ice all at once. My body jerks, my mouth opens in a desperate gasp, but
there’s no air–only water, flooding in, stealing the last bit of life from me.
Tiny bubbles escape my lips, floating upward–like a silent scream no one will hear.
The cold isn’t just a feeling anymore–it’s a presence, suffocating, dragging me deeper into the dark.
The world fades at the edges.
The fight leaves me.
I don’t want to die.
But the water doesn’t care.
They say water is life, but right now, it’s my enemy and drowning out every breath in me.
It claims me–filling me, consuming me–until there’s nothing left.
The last thing I feel is the silence.
And then–nothing.
2/5
ALEX
Anger doesn’t cut it.
It’s something darker–something venomous–as I storm out of the house party.
I heard her calling my name but I couldn’t bring myself to look back. My control was hanging by a thread, and if I didn’t rush out,
it would have driven me to insanity.
The air reeks of sweat and cheap perfume. Normally, I wouldn’t go within three feet of a place like this–hell, I wouldn’t even
“Alex, I’ve been searching everywhere for you. I’m done,” she says softly. “Where are you?”
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