My Ex-Wife wanted Money, The Apocalypse wanted Everything

Chapter 1

White hot agony tore through Ethan Carter’s abdomen.

A rusted, serrated blade was chewing through his flesh, carving him open inch by bloody inch. His sight flickered.

Through the haze, a familiar face appeared above him. The face of the woman he had once trusted more than anyone in the world.

Victoria Bennett Carter. His wife.

There was no sorrow in her eyes. No fear. No pity. There was only a terrifying, hollow hunger.

“Don’t hate us, Ethan.” Her voice shook, though he could not tell whether it was from the cold or excitement. “It’s fifty degrees below zero. We need something to eat.”

Ethan stared at her, his mind unable to process what he was hearing. His lips parted but no words came out.

The woman he had spent years loving, years protecting, years bleeding for, was looking at him the way a butcher looks at livestock.

“She’s right.” A male voice drawled from behind her, sickeningly casual. “You’ve kept us alive this long. You won’t mind being useful one last time, will you?”

Derek Hayes stepped into view, his arm sliding around Victoria’s waist like it belonged there.

The same Derek that Victoria had repeatedly sworn was “just a friend.” Out of love and blind trust, Ethan had never pushed the issue.

He had swallowed his doubts every single time because he wanted to believe her. Because believing her was easier than facing what was right in front of his eyes.

Now, right in front of Ethan’s dying gaze, Victoria turned her face toward Derek and kissed him. Not a quick peck. A slow, familiar kiss that told Ethan everything words never had.

“Time to eat.” Derek muttered against her lips, breaking away.

He glanced down at the small figure huddled in the corner of the frozen shelter. “Come here, buddy. Hold the bowl steady, and catch it while it’s still warm.”

“Okay, Daddy.” Little Noah stepped forward obediently, his tiny hands gripping the chipped bowl.

Daddy?

The word hit Ethan harder than the blade in his gut. Why was his son calling Derek that? His vision blurred, and it was not from the blood loss.

Victoria watched the truth dawn on him, and a cruel, satisfied smile touched her lips. She crouched down beside him, bringing her face close enough that he could smell the staleness on her breath.

“Noah was never yours, Ethan. He’s Derek’s.” She tilted her head, studying his crumbling expression the way someone watches an insect twitch under a magnifying glass. “Now that you have nothing left to live for…”

She raised the knife high above her head.

“You can die in peace.”

The blade hacked into his thigh, severing a slab of meat. Ethan tried to scream, but his damaged throat produced nothing more than a wet, broken hiss.

Having grown up an orphan, he had been desperate for a family. So he had always treated them like his whole world.

Before the apocalypse, he had handed over every paycheck, let her parents and deadbeat brother move in, and catered to their every whim.

When the great freeze hit, he repeatedly braved the wasteland to scavenge for food and medicine, nearly dying more times than he could count.

He had thought he was being a devoted husband. It turned out, he had been nothing more than a dog to them, kept alive solely to defend their shelter and fetch their food.

Now that they had consumed everything he had collected, they had decided to consume him as well.

“I swear…” Ethan forced the words through his ruined throat. Every syllable filled his mouth with blood. “Even if I die… Even if I become a ghost… I will come back for every last one of you!”

Ethan poured the final trace of his strength into the curse. Then the darkness swallowed him. Completely.

“Sir?”

A gentle voice drifted through the void.

“Sir, are you all right?”

Ethan jerked upright. His chair screeched against the polished floor as he lunged backward, nearly knocking it over. He gasped for air, looking wildly around.

There were no frost covered walls. No faithless wife and her lover carving flesh from his body.

Only a bright, spacious office. Sunlight poured through the floor to ceiling windows. Cars moved along the street below, while cool air flowed quietly from the central ventilation system.

Across the desk, a female bank manager stared at him with wide, alarmed eyes.

Ethan froze. His hands were shaking so hard he could barely control them. He fumbled his phone out of his pocket and the screen lit up.

August 10, 2026. 2:30 p.m.

His pupils contracted. That was impossible. Ethan checked the date again and again, terrified the numbers would melt away into a hallucination. He touched his own abdomen. No wound. No blood. Warm, unbroken skin beneath his shirt.

A laugh burst from his throat. “I’m alive! I came back!”

His laughter echoed through the office, wild with relief, madness, and the exhilaration of a man who had just crawled out of hell.

The bank manager looked ready to call security, but Ethan couldn’t have cared less.

He had returned to three months before the global freeze. In exactly ninety two days, an unprecedented solar storm would tear through Earth’s magnetic field, sending temperatures across the planet into a sudden, deadly plunge.

Civilization would collapse within weeks. Ninety five percent of humanity would die from cold, starvation, or disease. And the survivors would butcher one another for a scrap of moldy bread.

But right now, the sun was still shining.

“Mr. Carter…” The bank manager studied him warily, her fingers hovering near the phone on her desk. “Would you still like to proceed with the loan?”

That’s right. On this exact day in his previous life, Ethan had come to the bank to mortgage his childhood home so he could borrow money for Victoria’s younger brother, Ryan Bennett.

Ryan had sworn he was launching a tech company and that success was practically guaranteed.

Before Ethan could speak, the office door swung open.

“What on earth is taking so long?” A woman strode in like she owned the building. Silky hair framed her delicate, flawless features. Her skin glowed in the sunlight, and her designer dress clung perfectly to her elegant curves. A sweet, practiced smile rested on her lips.

But all Ethan could see was the rotting monster hiding beneath the skin.

Victoria.

His heart clenched. For a split second, phantom teeth tore into his flesh. A sharp, paralyzing agony shot from his abdomen to his neck, stealing the breath from his lungs.

He gripped the armrest of his chair so tight his knuckles went white.

Victoria didn’t notice. She never noticed anything about him unless it served her purpose.

“Ethan, sign it now.” She walked right up to him and pushed the pen toward his fingers, her tone flat, as if she were telling him to take out the trash. “It’s not like we’re taking your house. Ryan’s company is going to be huge. Think of it as an investment opportunity.”

Her eyes were cool. Detached. The kind of warmth a person shows a stranger holding the door open for them. Just enough politeness to keep the machinery running.

An opportunity. Ethan almost laughed out loud.

He had heard those exact words the first time this happened. And like a fool, he had believed them.

Then within one month, Ryan had taken the money straight to a casino and lost every cent.

The company had been nothing more than a gambler’s lie. And when the dust settled, Ryan walked away scot free, leaving Ethan to drown in the debt.

That would not happen again.

Under the confused gaze of the bank manager and the impatient stare of his wife, Ethan slowly picked up the loan agreement.

He looked at it for a long moment, feeling the weight of everything he had lost in a life that had not yet happened.

Then, he ripped it cleanly in half.

The shredded paper fluttered onto the mahogany desk.

Victoria’s perfect, sweet smile instantly vanished.

“Have you lost your damn mind?!” She shrieked, her voice cutting through the quiet office like glass shattering on stone.