I Was Just A Stopover Novel by Arogina _ Novel





I Was Just A Stopover Chapter 01

In the third year of her marriage to Finnegan Kopinger, Raelynn Dolton survived a horrific car accident. After that, as everyone around them knew, she became a completely different person—the perfect wife Finnegan could find no fault with.
She no longer complained when he stumbled home at three in the morning, reeking of sharp perfume. She stopped staying up, eyes bloodshot, just to make sure he had his hangover cure. Before his business trips overseas, she no longer fussed over him like a nanny, obsessively packing medicine into his suitcase.
Two days ago, Raelynn fainted without warning in her perfume studio.
When she came to, her assistant stood by with tear-filled eyes, clutching a phone. "Ms. Dolton, should I call Mr. Kopinger?"
Raelynn stared at the white ceiling light for a long time. Her mind felt clouded, and her head throbbed with a dull ache.
"No need," she said softly. "He's busy."
On the seventh day, she forced herself back to Juniper Villa—her home with Finnegan. Opening the door, she found him sitting on the couch, legs crossed.
Finnegan tossed a stack of merger documents onto the coffee table and glanced at her, his eyes icy. "Raelynn, aren't you tired of this disappearing act by now?"
Disappearing?
The car crash was taking a brutal toll on Raelynn. Her sense of smell was rapidly fading, and she was plagued by intermittent memory loss and splitting headaches.
She looked at Finnegan in silence. She had loved him for seven years. But now, those cherished memories were being rubbed away like pencil marks under an eraser, leaving only scattered fragments.
Instead, the conversation she'd overheard from around the corner of the hospital corridor—on the very day she woke up after the accident—remained painfully clear.
"Finn, that East Bay project is as good as yours now.
"Raelynn is lucky to be alive, honestly. The passenger side was a total write-off. But Finn, bringing Vivian back and keeping her around so publicly... Aren't you worried that Raelynn will blow up and file for divorce?"
"She would never leave me." Finnegan lit a cigarette, his voice certain and cold. "The crash was an accident, but it worked out in my favor. That hit to the head means she no longer has the energy to go after Vivi now. I'll just wire her the dividends from the East Bay project as compensation."
***
A sharp ringing suddenly pierced Raelynn's ears, and the attending doctor's warning echoed in her mind. "Ms. Dolton, the nerve damage is irreversible. Your memory and senses will continue to deteriorate..."
She bit her lower lip hard, forcing back the surging pain.
Her silence came across as a wordless protest to Finnegan.
He loosened his tie, his voice strained with thinning patience. "I'll say this one last time. There is nothing between Vivi and me. She developed severe claustrophobia while saving my life years ago. There was a thunderstorm and a blackout last night, so I stayed over to keep her company.
"Besides, if you hadn't been so paranoid and tried to grab the steering wheel, would the car have hit that guardrail? Would you have even been hurt?" He stood up, looming over her. "Find some time to go and apologize to Vivi. Then we can put this behind us."
Apologize?
Raelynn almost laughed. She was the one who had three broken ribs and nearly died in that crash, yet she was expected to apologize to the person who had come out unscathed and gained everything?
The headache drained the last of her strength. She didn't even have the energy to argue.
"Alright," she heard herself say.
Finnegan frowned. Since when had she become so compliant? This lifeless version of her irritated him for no reason.
Before he could give it a second thought, his private phone on the coffee table began to vibrate. That specific ringtone belonged to Vivian Philbey.
Finnegan answered. Vivian's voice wasn't loud, but it was clear enough for Raelynn to hear. "Finn... my stomach hurts so much. I think I'm vomiting blood again."
"Just go," Raelynn said without even glancing at him, walking straight toward the stairs.
Finnegan froze, surprise flickering in his eyes—but his hand had already gone for his car keys.
"I'm on my way. What do you feel like eating? I'll have some chicken soup sent over from Lori's Diner."
The door slammed shut.
Immediately after he left, Raelynn's phone rang. It was her lawyer and best friend, Chelsea Fosque.
"Rae, I've secured a bed for you at that neurosurgery hospital abroad. You're set to fly out next month. But I have to be honest with you—the surgery involves an area near the brainstem, so the risks are extremely high. There is no guarantee you'll even make it off the operating table. Are you really not going to tell Finnegan?"
Raelynn stared at the glittering city skyline through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The massive villa felt as cold as an ice cellar.
After a long silence, she replied calmly, "There's no point. I'm divorcing him.
"Once this month is over, I'm done with him for good."

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