Soul Shattered, No Turning Back

A week before my wedding, my fianc Johnny's late wife's sisterthe one with Storm Syndromeran my car off the road, pinning it against the bridge guardrail.
She rammed me eighteen times at seventy-five miles an hour.
When Johnny arrived with the ambulance, I was being pulled from a heap of twisted metal. But he ignored me. He wrenched open the door of the modified Hummera vehicle that had barely lost its bumperand pulled a trembling Nina into his arms.
"Dr. Croft, she's in bad shape," one of the paramedics said, gesturing to me. "We need to get her to the hospital now."
Johnny blocked my stretcher, his eyes giving me a quick, dismissive scan. "There's not a drop of blood on her. It's just superficial. Nina has Storm Syndrome, and the rain's getting worse. Her condition is more critical. Take her first."
As they left me behind, I curled into a ball, my fingers weakly clutching at Johnny's coat.
He frowned, prying my hand away. "Nina didn't mean to hit you. She was having an episode. You're a doctor, Andrea. You should have some compassion for a patient."
Then, he pulled a legal waiver from his pocket, took my limp hand, and forced my signature onto the paper.
"The next ambulance will be here soon," he said. "Just hang on."

1
I never made it to the next ambulance.
When I opened my eyes again, I was floating in the air. The cold rain soaked the body that lay abandoned below, and I reached out, wanting to hug myself for warmth, but my arms passed straight through.
A bitter laugh escaped my lips.
So, I was dead.
Johnny was right about one thing: I was a doctor. I knew exactly what eighteen impacts at seventy-five miles per hour meant. It meant Nina never intended for me to survive.
And yet he, the renowned Chief of Internal Medicine at Bridgewater General, could determine with a single glance that I had nothing more than a few scratches.
I should have known better than to hold on to any hope. When it came to Nina, nothing else mattered.
Not even my life.
In the distance, the wail of another siren grew closer. Paramedics leaped from the vehicle, sprinting through the downpour towards me. I watched as they loaded my body, limp as a ragdoll, onto a stretcher.
I heard their frantic shouts, the constant injections of epinephrine, the rhythmic whine and shock of the defibrillator. None of it could stop the flat line on the heart monitor.
"Tell dispatch to clear a path!" the lead paramedic yelled. "Notify the hospital to prep for surgery! Patient is critical!"
But the nurse's three calls to the hospital were all rejected. Her eyes reddened with fury and frustration. "What the hell? Isn't Dr. Vance his fiance? How can he divert all hospital resources to a woman who doesn't even have a scratch on her?"
Her voice broke with a sob. "Dr. Vance is dying."
A heavy silence fell over the ambulance crew. They all knew. At the Croft family's hospital, a private, high-end suite was permanently reserved for Nina.
She was the sister of Johnny's late wife. Shed supposedly watched her sister get brutally murdered during a storm while trying to save her, and ever since, shed suffered from severe Storm Syndrome. Every time it rained, she would have a complete breakdown, and only Johnnys presence could calm her.
As his fiance, I had been forced to reschedule our wedding ten times because of Ninas "episodes." I had finally snapped. "She has an 'episode' if it drizzles, another one if there's a clap of thunder. Are you sure she really sees you as just a brother-in-law?"
The sting of Johnny's slap surprised even him. He looked away, his face rigid. "If you can't accept Nina, then this marriage isn't set in stone."
I stared at him, a sharp pain piercing my heart. I tilted my head back, fighting it, but tears streamed down my face anyway.
After three days of his cold shoulder, I caved. I had planned a surprise for him, a way to make up. But on my way to the hospital to find him, Nina had rammed my car until I was dead.
My memories as a soul were fragmented, flickering. I felt like I'd forgotten something important. But my spirit was already drifting uncontrollably, pulled toward Johnny.
In the VIP suite, the room was so crowded with white coats you could hardly see the floor.
"Dr. Croft, the tests show Miss Nina is perfectly fine. You can rest assured," a specialist reported.
But even with a room full of experts guaranteeing her safety, Nina clung to Johnny, her eyes red and puffy as she trembled. "Johnny... the rain is so loud. There are bad people out there... I'm scared..."
Just as Johnny was about to reply, his phone rang. It was my colleague from the surgical department. The moment Nina saw the caller ID, she shrieked, snatched the phone, and smashed it against the floor.
"Bad people! Andrea is a bad person! She wants to kill me! Help me, Johnny, save me!"
Forgetting the phone completely, Johnny wrapped his arms around the hysterical girl, his heart aching for her. "Shh, Nina, it's okay. Andrea won't come here. I won't let anyone hurt you."
Nina buried her face in his chest, her arms tightening around his neck as she sobbed and laughed. "Don't leave me, Johnny. Stay with me forever. You're mine, only mine. Andrea is trying to steal you. She's evil. She should just die..."
"Alright," he murmured, patting her back, soothing her until she cried herself to sleep. "She's evil. She can die."
Back in his office, he pulled the shattered phone from his pocket, the screen cracked and dark. He pinched the bridge of his nose, exhausted. He was about to use his desk phone to ask about me when a nurse rushed in.
"Dr. Croft, we have an emergency surgery. A car crash victim, multiple organ ruptures. They need you immediately."
Johnny started to stand, then paused. "What's the weather forecast?" he asked.
The nurse checked her phone. "Rain all day. Looks like it'll last for the next two days."
He nodded, settling back into his chair. "Have Dr. Peterson take it. Tell them I have a patient here I can't leave. And cancel all my appointments for the next two days."
"But, sir," the nurse hesitated, speaking softly, "you're the only one here who has successfully performed this procedure."
Johnny's voice turned to ice. "Can this hospital not function without me? Now get out. For the next two days, don't bother me with anything or anyone unless it concerns Nina."
The nurse wanted to say more, but she left, defeated.
I huddled in the corner, blinking. Something warm trickled from my eyes. It felt like blood, or maybe tears.
Trapped in the crushed car, all I could think was: Johnny, this wedding you never wanted just like you wished, it's not happening anymore.
For the next two days, Johnny stayed by Ninas side twenty-four-seven, catering to her every whim, coddling her endlessly. In the quiet moments of the night, he would sometimes pull out his dead phone and press the useless power button.
I knew what he was thinking. I, who had loved him more than life itself, had never gone two days without contacting him. Even during our worst fights, I was always the one to apologize within hours. This loss of control was making him uneasy.
He rubbed his temples, a familiar headache building. He opened his desk drawer, but the custom migraine medication Id learned to make for him from an old herbalist was gone.
He immediately buzzed the nurse's station. "Has anyone been looking for me?" he asked, his voice tight with irritation.
"You canceled all your appointments, sir. No one has come by."
He had given the order himself, but an inexplicable frustration welled up inside him, heavy and suffocating. He slammed the phone down. Shoving the dead device back into the drawer, he slammed it shut.
Walking past the nurse's station later, he paused. He borrowed a nurse's phone and sent me a text.
"Andrea, there's a limit to this drama. You got bumped a few times, you didn't even bleed. How dare you play hard to get with me? If you've got the guts, then never contact me again."
I floated beside him, a bitter smile on my face. It was my own desperate love that had made him so confident, so certain I could never leave him.
But this time, I really was gone for good.
That afternoon, the sky cleared. Nina was back to her normal self, her eyes welling with tears as she played the victim. "Johnny, I swear I didn't know I would lose control and hit Andrea's car. I should go apologize to her. I'll do anything she wants, as long as she forgives me."
"It's fine," Johnny said, his mind elsewhere. "It looked worse than it was. Not a scratch on you, so she's probably fine too. She'll understand it wasn't your fault."
"But... what if she calls the police?"
Johnny smiled, stroking her hair. "Don't worry. I already had her sign a waiver. It's over. You have nothing to do with it."
Nina beamed, rubbing her cheek against his hand like a cat, her eyes full of adoration. "I knew you'd take care of me, Johnny."
Her intense gaze seemed to burn him. He snatched his hand back. "Nina, I'm marrying Andrea soon. You shouldn't call me by my first name like that anymore. You're still my sister-in-law. Call me Johnny. Andrea will be your sister. We'll both take care of you."
Nina bit her lip, a flash of malice in her eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by a mask of sweet obedience.
As Johnny left the room, he overheard two nurses talking. "Dr. Croft is so devoted to his fiance. She gets into a little fender-bender and he mobilizes the whole hospital for her. They're such a perfect couple."
"I know, right? I heard a car crash victim was brought in two days ago, organs completely shredded. Didn't even have anyone to sign the paperwork for the body. It just goes to show, some people have all the luck."
Johnny frowned, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest. "The patient in that room," he said, his voice strained, "is not my fiance."
He paused, then added, "My fiance is Dr. Andrea Vance, from Surgery."
He froze, surprised by his own words. He was Johnny Croft, a man who had never cared for gossip and never bothered to explain himself. Because of that, everyone in the hospitalexcept for a few colleagues in our respective departmentsthought I was just some pathetic, shameless woman clinging to him.
His admirers had given me cruel nicknames, thrown hot soup on me. They once cornered me in an empty restroom and dumped a bucket of live frogs over my head, laughing at my screams. They called me a shameless gold-digger reaching for the stars.
Countless times, I had begged Johnny to just say something, to clarify our relationship. He always brushed me off. "It's just words, Andrea. You're not going to melt. Stop being so dramatic."
But when a new intern had offhandedly remarked that Nina's Storm Syndrome seemed "a little fake," that intern vanished from Bridgewater the next day.
Thats when I learned that he knew how to protect someone. It just wasn't me.
I clutched at my empty chest, laughing silently until tears streamed down my face. How ironic. The public acknowledgment I had craved my entire relationship, I received so easily in death.
Johnny ignored the nurses' shocked faces, pushing down the rising panic in his chest as he hurried toward his office. He needed to confirm something. Urgently.
He nearly collided with Dr. Peterson at the door.
"Johnny, you look like you're in a hurry. Off to see Dr. Vance, I presume?"
Johnny froze for a second. Peterson's words lifted the crushing weight from his heart. His expression hardened into a sneer. "You were the one who took her case?"
Dr. Peterson nodded, sighing. "It's been a while. You should probably go deal with it."
"Deal with what? The fact that she's milking this for all it's worth?" Johnny scoffed. "I've given her too much slack. It was a minor accident. Nina, who's a hundred times more fragile, is perfectly fine. Andrea's built like an ox and she's pretending to be on her deathbed? She made Nina cry with guilt, and now she has the nerve to send you here to plead her case?"
Dr. Peterson stared, dumbfounded. It took him a moment to process what Johnny was saying. A storm of fury gathered in his eyes. He grabbed Johnny by the collar. "I thought you were just quiet, a man of few words. I assumed you at least had a shred of human decency. I never realized you were such a monster."
"You're an animal, Croft. Andrea falling for you was the worst luck of her life."
"Do you have any idea what happened in that crash? Do you know that Andrea is already..."
Johnny shoved him away, disgusted. "Already what? Don't tell me you're going to say she's dead?"
Dr. Peterson stood frozen.
Seeing his reaction, Johnny's face twisted into a knowing, sarcastic smirk. "She'd better be. If she thinks pulling a cheap stunt like this will stir up drama and upset Nina, then I hope her wish comes true."
He straightened his collar. "Go tell her she made a mistake and she needs to face the consequences. If I don't see her apologizing to Nina by tomorrow, the wedding is off."
With that, he turned and left, shattered phone in hand.
Dr. Peterson stood behind him, his face pale with rage, and muttered, "Good. A monster like you never deserved a woman like Andrea anyway."
Fuming, Johnny dropped his phone at a repair shop, paid triple the price for a one-hour fix, and went home.
"Andrea..."
The apartment was silent. No familiar aroma of dinner cooking, no gentle voice answering him. A chilling emptiness wrapped around him as he stood in the doorway.
Without even taking off his shoes, he bolted for the bedroom.
He saw all my clothes, my skincare products, everything exactly where it should be. Only then did he slump to the floor, a wave of relief washing over him. A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched his lipsthat familiar, confident smirk I knew so well.
He was so sure of my love for him, so certain I would never, ever leave.
He pulled out his newly repaired phone and, as if bestowing a great favor, sent me a text. "You're the one who's been lying and playing dead, Andrea. Come home and apologize properly, and I'll forgive you."
The message was met with silence.
His face hardened. He sent another. "Reply in thirty minutes, or the wedding is canceled."
Thirty minutes passed.
An hour.
The silence in the apartment felt thick, heavy, like waterlogged cotton, pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe.
Just when I thought his patience had finally run out, he stood up, opened the fridge, and started cooking. Half an hour later, three of my favorite dishes were on the table.
He took a picture and sent it to me.
"I told you I had to help Nina first because she was having an episode. You were barely touched, but she was terrified. Can't you see what's more important?"
He took a deep breath, as if making a monumental concession. "You don't have to apologize this time. But don't let it happen again. We're about to be married, Andrea. Stop being so childish. Come home. We'll eat, and then we'll go get the marriage license."
The moment he sent the text, a call came through. It was Nina, her voice a piercing shriek. "Johnny, Andrea's trying to kill me! Get away! Help! Aaaah!"
When Johnny burst into the hospital room, it was in chaos. A speaker on the nightstand was playing the white noise of a rainstorm on a loop. Nina was huddled in a corner, screaming hysterically anytime someone got near.
Johnny rushed over, gathering her into his arms, his heart aching. "Nina, don't be afraid. I'm here."
Her face was ashen, streaked with tears. "Andrea called me a whore, a homewrecker! She said my sister deserved to die! She sent me this audio, she said if I don't stay away from you, she'll make sure I die just like my sister did, tortured and..."
"Johnny, I'm so scared! Am I a homewrecker? Are you going to leave me, just like my sister did?"
I stared at Nina, stunned by the sheer artistry of her performance. She was the one who had killed me, and now, after my death, she was dragging my name through the mud. I could still see her eyes through the shattered windshield as she slammed the acceleratorcolder and more venomous than a snake's. She wasn't having an episode. She was perfectly lucid. She wanted me dead.
I looked at Johnny, praying that our three years together meant something, that even if he never chose me, he at least knew I wasn't capable of such cruelty.
But I had forgotten. When it came to Nina, I was worth nothing.
Johnny's face was terrifyingly calm. He turned off the white noise and stared at the phone number the text had supposedly come frommy number. His eyes grew colder and colder. He gently lifted Nina, placed her on the bed, and wiped away her tears with a tenderness I had never seen.
"You're not the homewrecker, Nina," he said softly. "Andrea is."
With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the custom diamond ring wed chosen together, the one meant to symbolize our one true love, the one we were supposed to exchange at our wedding in three days.
Without a moment's hesitation, he slipped it onto Nina's ring finger.
"From now on," he declared, "you will be my bride."
Nina tried to hide her triumphant glee, feigning panic. "But... Andrea is your fiance. She's been waiting to marry you. If I wear her ring, won't she hate me even more?"
"She dares?" Johnny sneered. "If she has the audacity to insult your sister and threaten you, then shed better be prepared for the consequences."
"Not only am I not marrying her, I'm going to have her blacklisted from the medical community. A person as vile as her doesn't deserve to wear that white coat."
He immediately pulled out his phone.
He sent me one last ultimatum. "You have five minutes to get here and kneel before Nina to apologize."
When no reply came, Johnnys patience finally snapped. A cruel smile spread across his face. The man who had always disdained using his power and influence was, for Nina, now pulling every string he had.
Bypassing all official channels, he used his authority as the heir to the Croft Corporation to issue a nationwide industry ban against me.
My entire life's workcountless sleepless nights, years of relentless effort to earn the career I loved more than anythingwas gone. Erased by a single, careless command.
Nina finally broke into a radiant smile, nestling contentedly into his arms. "I knew you'd always choose me, Johnny."
Johnny didn't answer. His hands were clenched around his phone, his face a dark mask as he stared at the screen. He thought this would be enough to force me out of hiding.
He didn't know.
I was never coming back.
I looked at my translucent hands, fading in the wind. I tried to laugh, but tears flowed like a broken dam, unstoppable.
In the end, I had lost my life, my reputation, and now I was nothing but a lost soul, a ghost unable to even escape his orbit.
How pathetic.
The hospital room was filled with celebration. Everyone was applauding this perfect resolution, offering their congratulations.
But then, the door flew open, and a figure stormed in.
Before anyone could react, a sharp crack echoed through the room as a hand struck Johnny's face.
"Andrea is already dead! Why won't you just leave her alone?"

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