chapter 6
Gavin opened his mouth, but Logan stepped in front of me, shoulders squared.
“You heard her,” he said. “Time to go.”
At the same moment, his grandma marched down the steps with a broom.
“You two need to get off my property,” she said. “Now.”
Gavin rolled his eyes. “You’re really going to embarrass yourself like this in front of—”
I slapped him.
Hard.
He staggered back, hand flying to his cheek, eyes wide.
“That,” I said quietly, “is for cheating on me and thinking I was too stupid to notice.”
He lunged like he was going to grab my arm, but Logan blocked him, pushing him back toward the gate. His grandma stepped between us with the broom like it was a weapon.
“Go on,” she said. “Before I start swinging.”
Gavin backed off, muttering curses. Leslie gave me a wounded, saintly look, as if she were the one being wronged, and let him usher her to the car.
As the dust from their tires settled, something finally clicked.
If I’d deleted my account and removed myself from the competition, why was Leslie still so desperate? Why come all this way in person to drag me back into the game?
Unless… without me, she was stuck.
Inside, at the kitchen table, Logan poured me another cup of coffee.
“Okay,” he said. “Ready to tell me what’s actually going on?”
So I did.
I told him everything I remembered—from the first life, the accusations, the breakup, the therapy, the way my story ended. And then the moment my eyes opened again, my finger hovering over the “post” button, like someone had hit rewind.
I told him about the ring in Leslie’s photo. The way my concepts kept appearing word-for-word in her videos. The sick feeling that no matter what I did, she’d always somehow get there first.
I expected disbelief. Instead, his grandma reached over and squeezed my hand.
“Oh, honey,” she murmured. “No wonder you look so tired. You’ve been carrying this all by yourself.”
Logan’s jaw tightened. He didn’t look shocked—just angry on my behalf.
“Before everything blew up,” he said slowly, “did anything weird happen? I mean seriously weird. Not ‘the algorithm hates me’ weird.”