The Price of a Life Vest

The flight was going down. Ethan, my fianc and the captain of this doomed flight, handed the only emergency flotation device to his high school sweetheart.

I didn't scream. I didn't cry.

I accepted it with a terrifying calmness.

Why?

because I had the memories of my past life.

In that previous timeline, faced with this same life-or-death choice, Ethan had given the equipment to me, his pregnant fiance.

The result?

The plane crash-landed in the water.

His first love, Chloe, died on impact because she had no protection. Later, I married Ethan as planned.

But on our wedding night, he dragged me into the basement.

He used a baseball bat and beat me until the life inside me was gone.

"If you hadn't used that pregnancy to force me, if you had just given the vest to Chloe, she would still be alive!" he screamed.

He forced me to kneel in the snow in front of Chloe's grave for hours.

He made me repent for my "sins."

He forced me to get pregnant over and over, only to make me lose the babies, claiming it was my atonement.

My mind shattered under the torture. I eventually ended it all.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back here. And I remembered everything.

This time, I would give him exactly what he wanted.

The cabin was chaos. We were ten minutes from impact.

I clutched my heavy, seven-month-pregnant belly, pressing myself against the seat. My face was drained of color.

Liam, the First Officer, looked just as pale as he distributed the emergency vests.

There was only one left. In the last row, it was just me and Chloe Morgan without one.

Chloe was the one who got away. The one Ethan never stopped loving. The cockpit door slammed open. Ethan strode out.

The moment she saw him, Chloe's eyes welled up with tears.

"Ethan, I'm so scared..."

Chloe was beautiful.

Her almond eyes filled with mist, looking like a fragile doll.

Ethan didn't even glance at me. He pulled Chloe into his arms.

"It's okay, baby. Don't be afraid. I'll protect you."

He cooed at her in his gentlest voice, completely forgetting that his heavily pregnant fiance was sitting just a foot away.

It wasn't until Liam cleared his throat that Ethan seemed to remember I existed.

When he looked at me, his brow furrowed. His voice dripped with icy disgust.

"I told you a pregnant woman shouldn't fly long-haul. You just had to be stubborn. Now look, you're a burden to everyone on this plane. Are you happy now?!"

Ethan was a star pilot, trusted by everyone.

Hearing his words, the terrified passengers found a target for their panic.

They started cursing me, damning me and my unborn child.

A little boy, maybe five years old, threw a heavy die-cast metal plane at me.

The sharp wing sliced my forehead. Blood trickled down immediately.

Seeing the crowd turn on me, a flicker of triumph flashed in Chloe's eyes.

She choked back a sob.

"But Ethan... there's only one vest left. What do we do?"

Huge tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Maybe... you should give it to Emma. She is carrying your baby... As for me, as long as I die in your arms, I have no regrets..."

Ethan's eyes turned red. He hugged her tighter, kissing her hair.

"No, Chloe. Never. Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. I won't let you die."

He snatched the vest from Liam and strapped it onto Chloe with efficient, practiced movements.

People actually started clapping.

They were moved by this display of "great love."

Only Liam spoke up for me.

"Captain, what about your fiance?! We have two minutes to impact. She's pregnant! She can't survive the crash force without support!"

Ethan glared at me, his eyes cold.

"She's doing this on purpose. She's using the pregnancy to force my hand, trying to kill Chloe! Do you know Chloe is a prima ballerina? She has a future!"

"Emma, you can't dance anymore, so you want to ruin her career too? You vicious woman. I won't let you win!"

His hysterical shouting pierced through the screaming alarms of the diving plane.

I remained strangely calm.

Having died once already, I finally saw the true face of the man I had loved for over a decade.

He never loved me.

So, I had no more illusions.

This time, I would disappear from his life forever.

At the last second, Liam tried to take off his own vest to give to me. I stopped his hand.

I looked up at Ethan, who seemed stunned by my silence.

Right before we hit the water, I mouthed the words:

"Ethan, I'm done with you. And I'm done with your child."

I let go of my protective hold on my belly.

The massive impact hit, and gravity crushed me into darkness.

Then, the freezing ocean water swallowed me whole.

It felt like the shockwave shattered every bone in my body.

My swollen belly now had an unnatural dent. My eardrums had burst from the pressure, leaving me deaf to the chaos.

The world went silent.

Warm blood gushed from my head, feeling scorching hot against my freezing cheeks.

The dark blue water turned red around me. I drifted alone among the debris.

Through blurred vision, I saw the Coast Guard helicopter hovering above the wreckage.

The ladder dropped. Ethan was frantically carrying a completely unharmed Chloe up the ladder.

Liam, bleeding from his head, tried to stop him.

I squinted, reading their lips.

Liam was screaming, "You bastard! Your wife and kid are freezing in the water, and you're saving your ex-girlfriend?!"

Liam really tried to fight for me, even though we weren't close.

Thank god he survived this time.

Ethan looked furious.

"Chloe twisted her ankle! Do you know how fatal that is for a dancer?! My family matters are none of your business!"

He sneered at Liam.

"Or do you have feelings for my wife? Is that why you care so much?"

Even knowing how cold-blooded he was, his cruelty still stung.

Liam turned pale with rage.

He tried to insist on getting me medical help first.

Ethan cut him off. "Liam, you're a trainee. I'm your evaluator. If you keep this up, find a new career."

Liam didn't back down.

Ethan lowered his voice.

"You don't care about your job? What about Olivia? Your girlfriend in air traffic control?"

Liam froze. His face went white.

Ethan smirked, satisfied with the blackmail.

He glanced down at me floating in the water, a look of pure charity on his face.

"Don't be fooled by her act. She's a liar. She faked being attacked by thugs years ago just to make me miss Chloe's competition."

"She plotted to get pregnant to force this engagement. Now she wants to play the victim? Let her freeze for a bit. It'll cool off her scheming head."

He didn't look back.

He carried Chloe, whose cheeks were rosy and healthy, into the helicopter.

The rotor wash kicked up massive waves. I had no strength left.

The last wave hit me, and the darkness finally took me.

Ethan and I weren't always like this.

Before high school, I was his treasure. His passwords were all my birthday.

Everything changed when Chloe, the housekeeper's daughter, transferred to our expensive private school.

Two weeks later, I fell down the stairs and broke my leg.

I was training for the Youth America Grand Prix finals.

Chloe took my spot.

That's when I learned she danced too. And she was good.

Ethan thought so too.

While I was recovering, Ethan asked to sit next to Chloe.

He had "saved" her from my friends bullying her in the bathroom.

He became her knight.

And I became the villain in their romance. The jealous, evil obstacle.

In my past life, I fought for him. I acted jealous.

When Chloe framed me, I couldn't prove my innocence fast enough.

Ethan hated me for it.

He eventually blocked me and told our parents he would never marry me.

Brokenhearted and depressed, I went to Europe for college.

When I came back four years later, I found out Chloe was in Paris studying at the Opera Ballet School.

Ethan was miserable. I comforted him.

I encouraged him to become a pilot because Chloe wanted to travel the world to dance.

I was ready to give up on him.

But the night Chloe broke up with him, Ethan got drunk. He forced himself on me.

Later, he found sedatives in the wine bottle and accused me of drugging him to trap him.

I didn't do it. I didn't know who did.

But I got pregnant.

Under pressure from his wealthy parents, the Anderson family, he got engaged to me.

Then Chloe returned. Ethan stopped coming home.

He spent every night at her apartment.

Driven mad by jealousy in my past life, I booked a seat on this flight to catch them together.

When the plane went down, I waved the prenup in his facethe one saying he'd lose his inheritance if I died.

That was the only reason he saved me last time.

But he never loved me. And he never loved the baby.

Thankfully, I get a do-over.

Time to cut my losses.

I woke up to a white ceiling.

I was in the ICU, on a ventilator.

"Ten broken ribs, ruptured eardrums, fractured skull, punctured lung..." the nurse said, amazed.

"It's a miracle you're awake."

It took weeks to recover.

Ethan never came. Not once.

His father, Mr. Anderson, called him dozens of times.

Ethan ignored them, claiming I was just manipulating his parents again.

"Emma is full of schemes. I have more important things to do."

He was busy escorting Chloe to parties, using the Anderson family name to launch her career.

The day I was discharged, I was in a wheelchair.

The doctor told me my leg was shattered. I would never dance again. I'd be lucky to walk without a limp.

Mrs. Anderson fainted.

I was calm.

I comforted them.

"It's okay. At least I'm alive, right?"

Unlike last time. I didn't die by Ethan's hand.

I decided to hold a small memorial service for my lost baby.

I sent Ethan a text:

"Today is the memorial for the baby. Come say goodbye. The doctor said it was a girl. Also, bring a pen to sign the divorce papers."

We hadn't had a wedding, but we had signed the papers at City Hall when I got pregnant.

Many of my high school classmates came to the memorial.

They looked somber.

That's when Ethan walked in.

He looked glowing.

There was a hickey on his neck. His shirt was buttoned wrong.

Everyone knew what he had been doing before coming to his daughter's funeral.

The guests looked at him with disgust.

Ethan ignored them. He smirked, throwing a stack of papers at me.

"Chloe has a friend in the hospital. She checked your records. There is no record of a miscarriage! You only had minor scratches. No broken bones."

He shook his head, looking revulsed.

"You are shameless. Faking a funeral for sympathy? Cursing your own child?"

He turned to the crowd.

"Don't fall for it! She's a psycho. She's obsessed with me. Leave before she scams you out of gift money!"

He spoke with such conviction.

If people hadn't already seen the urn and the horrifying scar on my stomach, they might have believed him.

Mr. Anderson tried to grab him, furious.

Ethan shoved his father away.

"Dad, Mom, I told you she was toxic! Look at this circus! She's ruining the Anderson family reputation!"

"Ethan, stop."

I wheeled myself over to him.

He looked down at me with a sneer.

"What? Scared of the truth?"

I pulled the real medical reports and the divorce papers from my bag.

"I just didn't want your parents to be ashamed of you."

He laughed. "You think I'll believe your forged papers?"

I calmly lifted my shirt.

The jagged, ugly scar ran across my abdomen.

"I didn't have a life vest, Ethan. When we hit... my stomach was ripped open."

I sighed.

"I didn't lie. The baby is... gone."

Ethan's face turned the color of ash.