Dear Ex Wife, Please take me back novel Chapter 34

ATHENA

My chest aches.

I can’t breathe.

Everything feels wrong. Too loud. Too bright.

I blink, and the world feels… foreign. Unfamiliar. My head spins, like I’m coming back from somewhere far away, somewhere cold, and the weight of the air is too thick. I try to move, but my body doesn’t respond. It’s like I’m trapped under something, unable to get out.

The feeling of drowning is still in my throat, in my lungs, like I never really came up for air.

Am I dead?

I try to focus, to make sense of what’s around me.

The loud beeping sound of the machine and a deep voice that keeps calling me pulls me back.

But the weight in my chest, it's not just the air.

It's the memory.

The bubbles, lack of oxygen, and the pain I felt from my nose go all the way to my chest.

I don’t know where I am.

I don’t know how I got here.

My heart races, and I try to breathe, but the air feels like it’s suffocating me. I gasp, my body jerking with panic, desperate for a full breath.

I feel like I'm falling. Sinking deep in the water, making it hard for me to breathe.

I gasp, but it doesn’t feel like it's enough. The air is there, I know it is, but my lungs won’t take it in. My throat burns, my body seizes, and for a terrifying second, I swear I’m still underwater.

The weight of the water crushes me, pressing down on my chest, filling my lungs with nothing but panic. My fingers claw at the sheets, gripping them like a lifeline, but they slip through my hands like water. Like I’m sinking all over again.

No. No. I can’t go through this again please!

A loud beeping sound fills my ears, but it’s drowned out by the rush of water in my head. My pulse hammers, the sound loud, distorted. The memory swallows me whole.

I see it.

The water.

Dark, endless, pulling me down.

I can feel it. The way it burned as it forced itself into my lungs, the way my body fought, then slowed, then gave up.

A strangled sound leaves my throat—half a sob, half a desperate gasp for air that won’t come.

Hands grip my shoulders. Warm, firm. They shake me, grounding me in the present, but I can’t focus. I can’t breathe.

I hear a voice, deep and commanding, but the words don’t make sense.

I’m still drowning.

Still lost in that cold, black abyss.

The pressure in my chest builds. My heart slams against my ribs, fast and frantic, like it’s trying to escape.

Then suddenly, my lips feel like they're being pressed against something soft that tastes like mint. My brain wrecks as I try to figure out what it is when I realize I'm being kissed.

My eyes fly open, the world tilting violently. The too-bright lights. The blurred figure above me. The air, thick and suffocating, but there.

I choke, gasping as reality crashes in. I’m not underwater.

I’m not dying.

But I don’t.

I don’t know him.

“Who… who are you?” I croak, the words coming out slightly broken from how dry my throat is.

His eyes flash, something flickering again.

Frustration?

Hurt?

I can’t tell.

But I don’t know him.

If I knew a guy as good looking as him, I'd never forget it.

“I'm not going to hurt you. Please don't pull away from me.” His deep voice pulls me back.

“Do you know me?” I ask.

He nods.

I bite my lip, not knowing what to say.

“What happened?” I ask.

Well if he knows me and I don't remember him then it's only fair he tells me what I'm missing.

But a part of my brain keeps nagging and wondering if I can really trust him.