We Were Thunder Pretending to Be Lovers in the Storm by Coren Elen Vey

Coma for Five Years: I Woke Up and Ruined My Bastard Husband

The story opens with a brutal act of betrayal that sets the tone for everything to come.

Freya Hill, brilliant scientist, devoted wife, and new mother of twins, has finally reached her breaking point. Out of desperation and humiliation, she secretly sends Vanessa Yale—her husband Felix Pearson’s mistress—abroad to a top-tier international academy. She does it behind his back, hoping to cut off the poisonous relationship that’s been rotting their marriage from the inside.

But Felix Pearson—the cold-blooded CEO known for his ruthlessness in both business and emotion—finds out.

And he explodes.

The Cruel Bargain

The next day, Felix retaliates with a cruelty no sane man should be capable of. To punish his wife, he takes their newborn twins—barely one month old—onto a cruise ship bound for the Arctic. There, on the deck above an unforgiving sea, he uses the babies as hostages to force Freya into submission.

The scene is horrifying.

The ocean wind lashes against Freya’s face; the world spins as she sees her son, Ethan, lifted into the air by Felix’s assistant, held over the waves as if about to be dropped. Her cries tear through the freezing wind, but Felix’s voice remains steady, low, and merciless.

“Honey, you’ve got three minutes left to decide. Otherwise, our son’s going straight to the bottom of the sea.”

Every second is agony.

First minute: Freya remembers the five long years she spent secretly loving Felix before he ever noticed her. She had been nobody—an unremarkable woman from a humble background—while he was heir to one of the wealthiest families in the country. She had worshipped him from afar, never daring to demand anything, content just to stand in his shadow.

Second minute: She remembers how he once chose her over his powerful family. When she became pregnant and the Pearsons refused to accept her, Felix had dragged her to the courthouse and married her on the spot. They had twin babies the following year and, for a while, life had felt perfect.

He had smiled at her then. He had even seemed proud.

Third minute: Freya’s memory flashes to the night he took in his friend’s orphaned niece—Vanessa. On the girl’s twentieth birthday, Freya saw it: the yearning in Felix’s eyes, the tenderness he thought he was hiding. From that moment, Freya’s paradise had begun to crack.

They thought they were subtle, but to a wife who loved too deeply, every secret glance, every accidental touch between them, felt like a dull knife sawing at her heart.

Now, standing on that freezing deck, she realizes that knife was only the beginning.

Love vs. Life

The seconds vanish. Felix’s voice cuts through the roar of the sea.

“Three minutes are up, honey. So you want our kids to die, is that it?”

Freya can barely breathe. The wind stings her cheeks; her heart feels like it’s being ripped apart. She looks up at the man she once believed would die for her.

“Felix, Ethan is your biological son. You’re seriously threatening me with his life?”

His reply is calm, almost gentle.

“But Vanessa is my life.”

Her tears fall freely.
So that’s it—Vanessa is his life.
Then what are she and the children? Just burdens to be discarded?

He tries to justify himself, even now.

“Freya, I told you—there’s nothing between me and Vanessa. She’s just a little girl I helped raise. As long as she comes back, you’re still my wife.”

It’s the same lie he’s been telling her for years. Freya clings to the faint hope that somewhere inside him, there’s still a trace of the man she once loved.

“Felix, I don’t believe you’d actually kill our son over Vanessa. I didn’t even hurt her.”

But his voice turns glacial.

“Fine. Five-second countdown. If you don’t tell me where she is, Ethan feeds the sharks.”

“Five. Four. Three…”

When he actually starts to move, Freya breaks. Her scream shatters the night.

“Vanessa’s at Berkshire Academy in Boston!”

She collapses, shaking, sobbing, the taste of salt and despair thick in her mouth.

He really would have done it. He truly would have sacrificed their own child for that girl.

Felix doesn’t even look at her. He snatches his phone, eyes wild.

“Get the helicopter over here. I’m flying to Boston.”

As he gives the order, Freya watches his face—a face etched with panic and tenderness—but none of it is for her. It’s for Vanessa.

That unfamiliar expression crushes the last remaining pieces of her heart.

Ten Years of Devotion, One Moment of Destruction

As the helicopter blades begin to roar overhead, Freya’s body trembles. She stares at him, seeing memories flash before her eyes—ten years of love, loyalty, and sacrifice collapsing into dust.

She remembers the nights when he was still struggling to build his company. While Felix fought corporate battles, she worked in a laboratory day and night, developing the breakthrough drug that would make Etty Group a global success.

When he achieved victory, he had kissed her neck softly and whispered:

“Freya, you’re my rib—fused into my bones and blood.”

She had believed him. She had believed their story was one of partnership, not convenience. For a brief time, even his powerful family began to accept her, acknowledging the brilliance of her research and her quiet devotion.

She thought she’d finally proven she was worthy of him.

But everything changed when Vanessa entered their lives.

She was nine years younger, bubbly, spoiled, and unashamedly affectionate.

“Felix, I want you to stay with me.”
“Felix, I don’t get this problem—help me.”
“Felix, you have to come to my cello competition. If you don’t show up, I won’t play!”
“Felix, I really like you. I don’t want you to just be my uncle!”

Freya’s love had been quiet, stable, loyal. Vanessa’s was noisy, reckless, and intoxicating—and Felix drowned in it willingly.

Soon, they stopped pretending.
They flirted at dinner.
Their feet tangled under the table.
Their hands brushed a little too long.
Freya would find them whispering in corners—or worse, kissing in her living room while she stood in the kitchen, pretending not to see.

Every moment had been torture.

The Collapse

Now, years later, as the helicopter lifts off the deck, the noise deafens her. Felix doesn’t glance back even once. He climbs aboard without hesitation, consumed by the need to reach Vanessa.

Freya stands on the dock, clutching her phone like a lifeline. She sends him message after message, begging for the return of their children.

[I told you where she is! When can the kids come back?!]

The reply comes minutes later, as cold and dismissive as the man himself:

[In three hours. I only see Vanessa as my niece. Don’t misunderstand.]

The hypocrisy makes her laugh—a sharp, bitter sound.

Then another message arrives.
This time, not from Felix.

It’s from Vanessa.

[Freya, so what if I love Felix? He wants to be with me. He’s wild with me. He’s not into you anymore. You’re the one who won’t let him go.]
[Freya, Felix came to see me at school again tonight. We went to a hotel. He loved the lingerie I wore for him.]

Then come the videos—graphic, undeniable, filmed proof of Felix’s betrayal.

Freya stares until her vision blurs. Her heart, already cracked, finally turns to ash.

The Final Decision

Three hours later, as promised, her son is returned to her.

But by then, something inside Freya has already died.

She moves with eerie calm. No tears, no screams, no questions. She simply takes out her phone and opens a document she had buried deep in her digital vault—a marital contract, signed the day they wed.

Felix had drawn it up himself, insisting it was proof of his eternal love:

If the couple ever divorced, all of Felix Pearson’s assets would go to Freya Hill.

At the time, it had seemed romantic.
Now, it feels like poetic justice.

She unlocks the file, fingers steady, and sends out a new message.

[I’m in. Sign me up for Ocean’s Gate.]

Ocean’s Gate

To the outside world, Ocean’s Gate is a legend: an elite, ultra-secret international medical research program housed in a sealed underwater facility. Only the most brilliant minds on the planet are invited—and once you join, you disappear beneath the ocean for thirty years. No exits, no contact with the surface, no going back.

Freya doesn’t hesitate.

It’s the perfect escape.

Down there, she’ll be unreachable.
Felix will never find her—or the twins—again.

Above all, it means freedom: freedom from humiliation, from love that turned to poison, from a husband who could barter his own children’s lives for another woman’s smile.

End of Chapter 1

The chapter closes with Freya standing alone, phone in hand, the roar of the departing helicopter fading into the distance. She gazes at the endless sea—the same sea that almost claimed her son—and feels nothing but cold resolve.

The woman who once begged, cried, and compromised has vanished.

In her place stands a scientist who will bury her pain under miles of water and rebuild her life molecule by molecule.

She has lost her marriage, her illusions, and her faith in love—but she has found clarity.

When she resurfaces, thirty years from now—or whenever fate allows—Felix Pearson will face not the woman he broke, but the storm he created.