Chapter 4: Deep Sea
362words
"Michael..." I screamed silently, but no sound escaped. Seawater flooded my mouth and nose, the salty burn accompanied by a crushing pressure in my chest.
Down I went, endlessly sinking.
Time stretched like taffy. I watched the cruise ship's lights above the surface grow distant and blurred, like my will to live, gradually fading away.
"He actually did it..." My thoughts were paradoxically chaotic yet crystal clear. Five years of marriage had just received its final, brutal verdict.
I fought to swim upward, but my evening gown became a lead weight, dragging me deeper. My lungs burned like fire, each desperate attempt to breathe bringing only more seawater and agony.
"Dad..." I thought of my father in his hospital bed, the hope in his eyes as he waited for good news. What would happen to him if I died? What would become of Williams Corporation?
The diamond necklace around my neck snapped in the water, floating slowly toward the surface—a gift from Michael on our first anniversary. How fitting that this symbol of our marriage would abandon me just as my life was ending.
Darkness crept in from the edges of my vision as my struggles weakened. My brain screamed for oxygen, yet my thoughts remained strangely vivid—memories flashing before me like slides in an old projector:
Childhood birthday parties, my father's proud smile, college graduation, first meeting Michael, wedding vows, that rainy night when I discovered the betrayal...
The pressure of seawater crushed my chest, my skin screaming in protest. My eardrums throbbed from the pressure, and spots of light danced like fireflies before my eyes.
I stopped fighting, surrendering to the descent. The water grew colder, yet strangely, a sense of calm washed over me, almost like warmth.
The darkness of the deep embraced me as the final spark of consciousness began to fade.
At the threshold of oblivion, I thought I heard an unfamiliar voice and the roar of an engine—distant sounds from another world.
Then nothing. Complete darkness swallowed everything.
