A Scorching Apocalypse: My Kindness to a Friend Cost Me My Family Chapter 1

In a world devastated by extreme heatwaves, my best friend, Olivia, was thrown out of her husband’s house at 12:30 in the dead of night.

Dressed in nothing but her pajamas, she stood sobbing on the side of the road, begging me to take her in.

I drove 120 miles to pick her up, brought her home, fed her, and bought her new clothes. I even encouraged her to leave her abusive husband.

But three months later, when her life didn’t improve, she tore off my protective heat suit and left me to die under the searing 120°F sun.

Her reasoning?

“If you hadn’t told me to divorce him, I wouldn’t be living such a miserable life!”

“Claire, can you come pick me up?”

The familiar voice on the other end of the phone sent a chill down my spine, freezing me in place.

It was Olivia.

It felt like déjà vu.

This was exactly how it happened in my previous life: Olivia’s husband, Nathan Zhang, had thrown her out of the house late at night, and she’d called me, desperate for help.

Without hesitation, I had driven 120 miles to bring her to safety. I treated her like family, offering her food, shelter, and support.

I had even told my parents, “Olivia is like a sister to me. She’s the family that life gave me, and I’ll always look out for her.”

To me, she was more than a friend—she was my closest confidante. Her problems were my problems, and I treated her with the utmost care.

From the beginning, though, I had a bad feeling about Nathan. He was controlling and manipulative, and I urged Olivia to leave him, but she wouldn’t listen. Instead, she chose to marry him and move far away.

After the wedding, Olivia often called to vent about how Nathan was abusive and unfaithful. I lost count of the number of times I told her to leave him. Every time she swore she’d come to me and file for divorce, but the next day, she’d reconcile with him.

In my past life, I was a fool. When Nathan threw her out, I brought her home and spent weeks convincing her to leave him. After all, who wouldn’t side with her? Being kicked out in the middle of the night, forced to wander the streets—it was unforgivable.

But Olivia was nothing more than a snake in disguise.

Three months later, after living comfortably in my home, she snapped. In a fit of rage, she tore off my protective heat suit and threw me outside into the blistering sun.

I begged her from the other side of the door, pleading for my life, but she glared at me with resentment.

“Why do you get to live happily with your perfect husband while I’m left a divorced nobody?”

Under the relentless heat, I collapsed in the middle of the street. My body was found days later, scorched and unrecognizable.

As for Olivia? She went after my husband.

I had once told him, “Ethan, Olivia is my best friend. Treat her as well as you treat me.”

And he did. He trusted her when she told him there were roses growing outside that he should pick to honor my memory.

Wearing a compromised heat suit she had prepared, Ethan ventured out into the deadly heat. He suffocated in the sweltering air, his body baking under the sun until he was nothing but dried remains.

But now, somehow, I had been given a second chance.

I found myself standing in the same moment as before, Olivia’s voice trembling on the other end of the line.