Reborn Before the Great Flood: I Built the Last Ark

Chapter 2

Slap!

Sarah’s palm struck Damian’s face again.

He slowly raised a hand to his burning cheek and stared at his wife.

“Why did you slap me?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “What is wrong with you, Damian? I said move. I’m leaving.”

Damian looked around.

They were standing outside the condominium building where they lived. Several residents had already stopped to watch their argument.

Then the memory returned.

It was their fourth wedding anniversary.

Damian had prepared dinner for the two of them. He had decorated their small living room and used three months of his part-time salary to buy Sarah a gift.

She had not even wanted to look at it.

The gift was cheap, she had said, and a woman like her deserved better. Then she announced that she was leaving to meet her friends.

But Damian remembered what had truly happened that night.

Sarah had gone to meet Adrian Rivers.

In his previous life, Damian had begged her to stay and celebrate their anniversary with him.

This time, he stepped aside.

“All right,” he said. “You can go.”

Sarah blinked.

She clearly had not expected him to let her leave so easily. Only moments earlier, he had been blocking her path and pleading with her to stay.

“Really?” Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of act are you trying to pull now?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to leave?”

His cold tone caught her off guard.

Sarah sneered. “If you think pretending not to care will make me change my mind, you’re wrong. I’m still leaving.”

She threw a small box at him.

It struck Damian’s chest and fell open on the ground.

A plain gold ring rolled out.

His family heirloom.

The dimensional ring he would awaken after the Great Flood.

In his previous life, Damian had offered it to Sarah as an anniversary gift. His mother had begged him not to give it away, but he had been too blinded by love to listen.

Fortunately, Sarah had refused it.

Damian immediately picked up the ring and slipped it into his pocket.

“How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t want that cheap thing?” Sarah demanded. “Why would I want to stay with someone like you? You can’t even give me the life I deserve.”

Damian silently studied her.

In his previous life, those words would have broken him. He would have apologized, perhaps even dropped to his knees and begged her to forgive him for failing to satisfy her.

Now he only felt disgust.

“No matter what I give you, it will never be enough, will it?”

Sarah’s expression darkened.

She raised her hand to slap him again, but stopped when she met his eyes.

There was no desperation in them this time.

No affection.

Only resentment and contempt.

“Tomorrow, go to the family court,” Damian said.

“Why?”

“I’m filing for divorce.”

For several seconds, Sarah could only stare at him.

Then she laughed.

She believed this was another desperate performance. But beneath her amusement, a faint uneasiness entered her eyes.

“Fine. Whatever you say, Damian. You’ll take it back tomorrow anyway.”

She leaned closer.

“And when you do, I’ll make sure you regret saying it.”

Sarah walked away, deliberately striking his shoulder as she passed.

Damian did not move.

He watched her cross the pavement toward a car parked beside the road. When someone opened the passenger door for her, Damian saw Adrian Rivers sitting behind the wheel.

Adrian looked directly at him.

Then he smiled.

Damian’s hands curled into fists as memories from his previous life rushed back.

He had sacrificed everything for Sarah, never realizing that she had been using him from the beginning. If the apocalypse had never happened, she might have abandoned him years earlier.

Damian turned his back on them and entered the building.

By the time he returned to the apartment, the anger he had suppressed was threatening to consume him.

Fourteen years.

Fourteen years of humiliation, sacrifices, and lies.

He had given Sarah everything.

In return, she had arranged his death.

Damian approached the calendar again.

“August 2026.”

The Great Flood would begin in November.

He had a little over three months to prepare.

Three months to protect his family.

Three months to secure everything humanity would desperately need after civilization collapsed.

And three months to take back everything Sarah and Adrian had stolen from him in his previous life.

Damian removed the gold ring from his pocket and closed his fingers around it.

This time, Sarah would never touch it.

This time, Adrian would never take Greyhaven from him.

And this time, Damian Cross would make sure they both lived long enough to regret betraying him.