I raised my hand to knock on my biological parents’ door when Carter stopped me. “Summer, I was wrong. You’re not the Fitzgeralds’ lost daughter.” The certainty in his eyes told me he’d been reborn too. In our past life, Carter helped me find my family. We fell in love. On our wedding day, his childhood friend—the fake heiress—killed herself horribly. Our marriage crumbled. He blamed me for her death; I hated him for loving my impostor. For ten years, we tore each other apart with vicious words. Then an earthquake hit. He shielded me, taking the crushing debris so I could live. Dying, he whispered, “If I’d known she’d die, I’d never have brought you home.” “Next life, I’ll be all the family you need.” I perished in aftershocks, drowning in regret. Now, reborn, I stood again before my would-be family’s door. 1 Carter blocked my path outside the Fitzgeralds’ villa, his face a mask of conflict and grim resolve. I said nothing, but the image of collapsing steel and concrete flashed before my eyes. His mangled, bloody back, and the words he’d breathed against my ear. “If I had known she would die, I never would have brought you home.” So, this was his choice. If he got a second chance, he would abandon me from the very beginning. Fine. The ten years of our marriage in the last life were hell. He hated me, I resented him, and we tormented each other day and night until death finally set us free. To be able to sever it all at the source… I actually felt a wave of relief. I looked at him and nodded calmly. “Okay.” A flicker of astonishment crossed Carter’s face. The speech he had prepared died in his throat. “What did you say?” he asked, almost reflexively. “I said, I understand,” I repeated. “If you made a mistake, then that’s that. Thanks for the ride. I should head back to campus.” I turned to leave. His hand shot out and gripped my arm. “Summer Hines!” His voice was a low growl, laced with a hint of panic. “What kind of attitude is that? Haven’t you always wanted to find your family? I tell you it’s a mistake, and you just give up that easily?!” I turned back to him, finding the situation almost laughable. He had gone to such lengths to lie, all so I would give up. Now that I had done exactly as he wished, he was still not satisfied. “What else am I supposed to do?” I retorted. “Carter, are you telling me you lied? That I am the real Fitzgerald daughter?” The panic in his eyes intensified at my words. His grip on my arm tightened unconsciously. He lowered his gaze, hiding his expression from me. “Let’s just drop this. Don’t ever bring it up again, and don’t go near the Fitzgeralds.” “I understand.” I pulled my arm free, rubbing the red marks his fingers had left on my wrist. “I won’t bring it up, and I won’t go near them. Are you satisfied now, Carter?” He stared at my empty hand, a flicker of bewilderment on his face, as if he’d lost something precious. He didn’t know that I was reborn, too. This time, I would not walk through that door. I would not become the Fitzgeralds’ daughter. And I would certainly not… become his wife. He wanted to protect his childhood sweetheart, to keep their perfect world intact. I was more than happy to oblige. “I’m leaving.” Without another glance at him, I turned and walked towards the bus stop. Behind me, Carter’s voice, edged with frustration, chased after me. “Wait! I’ll drive you back.” Carter didn’t take me back to my dorm. He drove straight to a high-end apartment building in the city center. I watched the city lights blur past the window, a cold clarity settling in my heart. In our last life, after we got married, this was our love nest. It had held our tenderest moments and witnessed our slow descent into bitter resentment, until all that was left was hatred. The car stopped. He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to me. In the dim light of the car, his expression was unreadable, but his tone had softened, no longer as harsh as it was outside the Fitzgeralds’ home. “Get out. We need to talk.” 2 I followed him into the apartment. The decor was familiar—a cool, minimalist design that mirrored his personality: refined and distant. Only this time, I felt none of the heart-fluttering excitement I once had. He tossed me a bottle of water from the fridge and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, lighting a cigarette. The pale smoke swirled around him like a mist, creating a barrier between us. “Summer, I know you’re upset.” He spoke, his voice muffled by the smoke. “I handled the situation with your family poorly. But Amelia’s health… it’s not good right now. She can’t handle any kind of shock.” Amelia again. I lowered my eyes, twisted open the cap, and took a silent sip of water. The cold liquid slid down my throat but couldn’t quell the bitterness churning inside me. He had said the same thing in our last life. He told me Amelia had been frail since childhood, prone to depression, and that I should be more considerate of her once I was reunited with my family. And I listened. I yielded every bit of Carter’s favoritism to her. I even chose to retreat and stay silent during her endless, unreasonable provocations. But she used her own suicide to sentence our marriage to a decade-long life sentence of misery. Seeing my silence, Carter must have thought I was still sulking about not being able to meet my family. He stubbed out his cigarette with a sigh of resignation. He turned, walked over, and knelt in front of me, looking up with a pleading expression. “Don’t be mad at me, okay?” His voice was soft, and his large hand enveloped mine as I held the water bottle. “I admit, I messed up today. I got your hopes up for nothing.” “Tell me what you want as compensation. Anything. As long as it’s within my power, I’ll give it to you.” He paused, his tone growing more earnest. “But for now, let’s just… not think about the Fitzgeralds, alright?” He had humbled himself completely, his love for me practically spilling from his eyes. I could see it clearly. He was terrified of me being angry, terrified of me leaving him. But that love was conditional. The price was my identity. I looked up, met his gaze, and suddenly wanted to laugh. “There’s nothing I want.” I calmly pulled my hand away. The movement made the light in his eyes dim for a moment. “Don’t worry. Even if the Fitzgeralds begged me to come back with all their wealth, I wouldn’t give them a second glance.” “And you don’t need to apologize. You don’t owe me anything. Let’s just end things between us.” Carter’s brow furrowed tightly. He shot to his feet, his face instantly turning cold. “End things? Summer, are you throwing a tantrum? Is this some kind of game? Because I wouldn’t let you meet your family, you’re playing hard to get?” He leaned in, his hands braced on the sofa on either side of me, trapping me in his space. “I just said you can’t go to the Fitzgeralds! I never said I wanted to break up with you! We can be just like we were before. No, I’ll treat you even better than before!” I looked at him and suddenly felt so tired. He thought that by stripping me of the identity of the “true Fitzgerald heiress,” we could go back to the beginning, that we could love each other without any problems. But he didn’t understand. The root of the tragedy was never about whether I returned to the Fitzgeralds or not. “Carter,” I said, pushing him away and standing up, creating distance between us. “I’m tired. I want to go home.” Without another look at him, I walked straight to the door. This time, he didn’t stop me. 3 In the following days, I threw myself into the final preparations for my study abroad application. Soon enough, I received an acceptance letter from a university overseas. My departure date was set for next month. The day before I was scheduled to leave, I was stopped by two men in black suits as I walked out of the library. “Miss Hines, Mr. Gould would like to see you.” I was forced into a car that sped through the city, finally stopping at the top floor of a skyscraper overlooking the river. “Mr. Gould is busy. Please wait here.” A bodyguard escorted me into a glass room, then turned, left, and locked the door behind him. The room had a spectacular view, with one entire wall made of a massive pane of glass. Across from the glass was the city’s most exclusive rooftop garden restaurant. At that moment, the restaurant was brightly lit and bustling with activity. A grand birthday party was in full swing. The guest of honor was Amelia Fitzgerald. She was dressed in a stunning gown, the center of attention. And the man standing beside her, placing a birthday tiara on her head and gazing at her with tender affection, was Carter. I watched as Carter took Amelia’s hand for the first dance. They spun, drew close, and whispered to each other, looking every bit the perfect couple. The guests applauded, their faces beaming with blessings. I suddenly wanted to laugh. To laugh at how foolishly I had clung to him in my past life. Was it worth it, squandering my entire life for a man who didn't love me? I closed my eyes, unable to bear the sight any longer. But the image of Carter’s mangled, bloody face from the earthquake, the memory of his trembling spine as he shielded me, surfaced in my mind, unbidden. He hated me, yet he saved me. That debt was a vast net, trapping me, leaving me unable to move.
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