The Tragic Void: Why Readers are Obsessed with Lucas Sterling’s Regret
The viral sensation titled I'd Been Dead For Three Whole Years Yet My Husband Wanted A Divorce To Be With His First Love has tapped into a primal nerve of the modern reader: the desire for the ultimate 'post-mortem' justice. We have all seen the ads on TikTok and Facebook where a cold billionaire husband finally calls his neglected wife after years of silence, only to find out she is already gone.
This specific story, often found on platforms like GoodNovel, thrives on the 'Billionaire Regret' trope. Readers aren't just looking for a sad story; they are searching for the precise moment Lucas Sterling realizes the magnitude of his cruelty. They want to see the mask of the stoic CEO crumble as he learns his wife, who he thought was hiding out of spite, actually died because of his neglect.
However, many readers find the original endings of stories like I'd Been Dead For Three Whole Years Yet My Husband Wanted A Divorce To Be With His First Love to be profoundly unsatisfying. When the protagonist stays dead, the 'revenge' feels hollow because she isn't there to witness it. When she comes back as a ghost, it feels too ethereal to be cathartic. This is why we are executing a 'Revenge Rebirth' rewrite—to give the protagonist the physical agency to dismantle the man who broke her.
The Blueprint for Justice: The Rebirth Strategy
In our reimagining of I'd Been Dead For Three Whole Years Yet My Husband Wanted A Divorce To Be With His First Love, we move away from the 'Insane Husband' trope where he simply spends his life in a mental ward. Instead, we pivot to a strategic 'Reincarnation' framework.
Psychologically, justice is most satisfying when the villain is defeated on their own terms. Lucas Sterling values power, reputation, and his 'first love' Chloe. To truly 'fix' this ending, the protagonist must return as someone more powerful than him, using her internal knowledge of his business and Chloe’s manipulations to strip him of everything.
Below is the scene the original author failed to write—the moment of total confrontation and the unveiling of the fraud that started it all. This is the closure that fans of the She-novel version have been begging for.
The Scene: The Coldest Winter in Sterling Tower
The mahogany doors of the Sterling Group boardroom swung open with a violence that startled every executive present.
Lucas sat at the head of the table, his face thinner than it had been three years ago, his eyes shadowed by a permanent, haunting fatigue. He didn't look up at first, his fingers tracing the edge of a divorce decree that had never been signed by the woman it was intended for.
'I told the secretary no more interruptions,' Lucas said, his voice a dry rasp that sounded like dead leaves skittering over a grave.
'I’m not an interruption, Lucas. I’m the new majority shareholder,' a woman’s voice rang out, sharp and cold as an arctic wind.
Lucas froze. That voice. It was impossible. It belonged to a woman who had been buried in a nameless plot while he was busy buying diamond necklaces for another woman’s 'illness.'
He looked up and saw a woman standing there, dressed in a sharp, tailored suit of midnight blue. She looked nothing like the soft, timid girl he had ignored for years, yet her eyes held a fire that he recognized in his nightmares. This was Evelyn, the daughter of the rival Vane family, a woman he had never met until this moment.
'Who are you?' he whispered, his heart hammering a frantic, erratic rhythm against his ribs.
'The woman who is buying your soul,' she replied, tossing a thick dossier onto the table. 'And the woman who just signed the warrant for Chloe’s arrest.'
Lucas’s gaze darted to the papers. They weren't business contracts. They were medical records—Chloe’s original records from four years ago.
He felt a chill seep into his marrow as he read the words: Simulated symptoms. Bribery of oncology staff. No evidence of malignancy.
'She was never sick, Lucas,' Evelyn said, stepping closer, her scent—jasmine and rain—triggering a memory so sharp he almost choked. 'While you were forcing your wife to undergo bone marrow tests for a fake illness, she was dying of the very real cancer you refused to acknowledge.'
'How do you know this?' Lucas stood up, his chair screeching against the floor. 'How can you possibly know the details of my marriage?'
Evelyn leaned over the table, her face inches from his. 'Because when she died alone in that hospital room, she didn't leave her heart to you. She left her memories to me.'
Lucas reached out, his hand trembling, wanting to touch her cheek, to see if the warmth was real. 'Is it you? Did you come back to me?'
'I didn't come back to you,' she spat, her voice dripping with a beautiful, righteous venom. 'I came back to take the Sterling name and drag it through the dirt, just like you did to hers.'
Behind them, the television on the wall flickered to life. A news report showed police escorting Chloe out of her penthouse in handcuffs, the 'dying' woman looking perfectly healthy and screaming obscenities at the cameras.
'You believed her lies because you wanted an excuse to be cruel,' Evelyn continued, her voice dropping to a whisper. 'You wanted to be the hero in a tragic love story with Chloe, so you made your wife the villain.'
'I’m sorry,' Lucas sobbed, the sound breaking from his chest like a physical wound. 'I’ll give you everything. Just tell me you forgive me.'
Evelyn smiled, but there was no warmth in it. 'Forgiveness is for the living, Lucas. And your wife? She’s been dead for three whole years.'
She turned on her heel, the silk of her suit whistling as she walked away. Lucas collapsed back into his chair, surrounded by the empire he had built on the bones of a woman who had loved him, realizing that the only thing left for him was the cold, echoing silence of a life wasted on the wrong ghost.
He grabbed the phone, dialling the number he had called a thousand times since the funeral—the number that never picked up.
'Please,' he whispered into the dial tone. 'Just one more minute.'
But the only answer was the steady, mechanical hum of a world that had moved on without him, led by a woman who looked exactly like his greatest regret.
Deconstructing the Catharsis: Why This Ending Works
The reason this 'Rebirth' ending provides more closure for readers of I'd Been Dead For Three Whole Years Yet My Husband Wanted A Divorce To Be With His First Love is rooted in the concept of 'Restorative Justice.' In the original narrative, Lucas’s suffering is internal and passive. He simply feels bad.
By introducing a reincarnated or 'reborn' version of the wife, we allow the reader to experience the downfall of the villains (Lucas and Chloe) through the eyes of the victim. It transforms a tragedy into a thriller. The exposure of Chloe’s medical fraud is a crucial 'Beat' that satisfies the reader's frustration with the 'First Love' trope.
Ultimately, stories like I'd Been Dead For Three Whole Years Yet My Husband Wanted A Divorce To Be With His First Love are popular because they reflect our own fears of being undervalued. By 'fixing' the ending, we validate the protagonist's worth and ensure that the billionaire’s regret isn't just a fleeting emotion, but a total systemic collapse.
FAQ
1. Does Lucas Sterling ever find out Chloe was faking her illness?
In most versions and our rewrite, yes. The revelation usually happens after the protagonist's death, serving as the ultimate 'gut punch' that triggers the husband's descent into madness or ruin.
2. Is there a happy ending in 'I'd Been Dead For Three Whole Years Yet My Husband Wanted A Divorce'?
The original ending is typically tragic (a 'Bad Ending' or BE), where the husband lives in permanent regret. However, in 'Rebirth' fan versions, the protagonist gets a happy ending with a new, better love interest after ruining Lucas.
3. Where can I read the full story of Lucas and Chloe?
The story is available under various titles on micro-fiction apps like GoodNovel and She-novel, often titled 'After my death, my husband who had wanted to divorce went insane.'
References
goodnovel.com — GoodNovel: After Three Years I'm Choosing Divorce
m.she-novel.com — She-Novel: After my death, my husband went insane