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