Chapter 3
The lounge was enormous, elegant, and private.
A new gown and matching jewelry had already been placed neatly on the side table.
Dana lounged on the sofa while I sat on her lap, kissing her because that was what this version of me would do.
Her eyes looked half-lidded and lazy, beautiful in a way that made people lower their guard.
Mine, meanwhile, were hidden against her shoulder while my heart pounded harder and harder.
I was terrified she might start wanting me again.
Then her phone rang.
She reached as if to silence it, but I was already short of breath from the kiss, so I quickly pressed answer for her.
Maybe it was something important.
The next second, a frantic voice burst from the phone.
“Ms. Duan! Miss Shaw—she’s been taken by debt collectors—”
Dana stilled.
She lifted her eyes slowly.
At once, my heartbeat began to settle.
Relief slid through me like cool water.
There it is, I thought. There it is.
I watched her rise.
Trying to stop her without sounding too eager, I placed a hand over my stomach and said softly, “I don’t feel well.”
Her voice dropped at once.
“Stay here. I’ll have a doctor sent in.”
Then she turned and strode toward the door.
I added one more line, just to test her.
“I want you to stay with me.”
Dana looked back.
Those dark eyes landed on me.
“Be good,” she said. “When I come back, I’ll take you to pick out jewelry.”
Then she left.
I sat still until the door clicked shut.
Then I pulled the business card from my purse, took out my phone, and called the number.
The young man from the gala answered after two rings.
“You said if Dana got rid of me, I could call you,” I said brightly. “Were you serious?”
Silence stretched on the other end.
Then, cautiously, “I was.”
“Good,” I said. “Because I’m leaving tonight.”
There was a pause.
No questions. No disbelief.
Just one word.
“Where are you?”
“The far lounge in the private wing.”
When he arrived, he brought a set of casual clothes for me.
He looked me over and frowned.
“Did she dump you already?”
I nodded without bothering to explain.
“Where do you want to go?”
I thought for a moment.
“Is there some tiny place way out in the middle of nowhere? Somewhere so remote you have to make ten turns just to get there?”
He stared at me.
“My ID and passport aren’t with me,” I said. “I can’t leave the country.”
And even if Dana’s attention truly shifted to Bianca, the memories of my first three lives were too heavy for me to risk anything obvious.
If I ran, I wanted to vanish.
He nodded slowly.
Then muttered, “I should never have given you that card.”
I smiled.
“You already did. Might as well be useful.”
There was no time to plan an ideal route.
This chance had arrived in the middle of a dark night while Dana rushed off to save another woman.
If I didn’t run now, I’d be insulting fate itself.
As we slipped out, my pulse beat so fast it almost hurt.
For the first time in four lifetimes, freedom felt close enough to touch.
In the car, I swapped out my phone and SIM card immediately.
The old phone had definitely been tracked.
The man glanced at me while driving.
“My name’s Evan Wu.”
I smiled politely.
“That’s a nice name.”
He looked offended.
“Don’t tell me you don’t remember me.”
I stared blankly.
Through clenched teeth, he said, “You used to bully me in elementary school. You tied my hair into little pigtails and laughed about it.”
I went quiet.
Then I laughed softly.
“Oh. You.”
That had happened in my first life.
Back when I had really been twenty-five. Back when the sea swallowed both Dana and me.
After the resets, everything had started again from the point where my family went bankrupt and Dana took me away.
So those childhood memories had blurred into something distant and unreal.
By now, my mind had been reduced to one thing.
Escape.
The drive was nearly ten hours.
At some point, Evan said, “Sleep if you want. Once we get there, I’ll leave you some money.”
I nodded.
The system could help me with material things if I really needed it, but if he wanted to give me money, I wasn’t about to refuse.
“Thank you,” I said sincerely.
If he hadn’t appeared tonight, I still would have escaped eventually.
Maybe months later.
But he had offered help, and I wasn’t foolish enough to reject it.
Outside the window, the night stretched endlessly.
Inside the car, I was too excited to sleep properly.
Freedom was so close I could almost taste it.
At one point, Evan looked down at his phone, then turned the screen toward me.
It was a group chat.
The name alone screamed old-money social circle.
I scanned the messages.
Dana rescued Bianca. She brought her home and paid off all the Shaw family’s debt. Wow, this is getting familiar. Didn’t she do the exact same thing with Sierra back then? Guess things are about to get messy. Messy? Sierra’s so tame now. Bianca will crush her. Like what happened at the gala tonight.
I stared at the messages and almost laughed.
You have no idea, I thought. I’m already gone.
Then more messages flooded in.
Wait. The gala security footage. Sierra’s missing. What? Seriously? Do you think she ran to kill herself? Can people stop saying that? she’s not jumping into the ocean again.
I went still.
That first life. That death by sea.
Even now, I could still taste the salt and terror.
Another message popped up.
Maybe she’s playing hard to get. Yeah, that sounds more likely. Definitely. Dana’s probably furious already.
I let out a slow breath.
Thank God I had told Evan to deal with the security footage before we left.
Evan glanced sideways at me.
“You know her pretty well.”
I smiled faintly.
“How could I not?”
After four lives of this, I knew Dana better than I knew myself.
Or maybe that was the tragedy of it.
The ride dragged on through darkness and dawn.
By the time we arrived, the sky was just beginning to pale.
Mist still clung to the roads.
When I stepped out, the stone path beneath my shoes was damp.
Evan made a face at the place.
“I did my best,” he said. “Stay here for now. If you need supplies, there’s a county town not too far away.”
I nodded.
“Thank you.”
It would only be temporary.
I wasn’t planning to spend the rest of my life hiding in a tiny remote village.
I just needed to survive the first stage.
Once Dana and Bianca settled into whatever twisted romance she was building, once enough time passed and Dana stopped thinking about me, I could return to a normal life.
At least, that was the dream.
Evan pushed open the door to the little house.
It was simple, barely furnished, but livable.
A narrow bed stood in the corner.
Without speaking, we placed a pillow between us and each took one side.
After the long drive, neither of us had the energy to care much beyond that.
When I woke later, my mind was groggy.
“What time is it?” I mumbled, reaching to nudge the person beside me.
Only then did I notice the pillow divider had somehow been kicked to the floor.
I didn’t think anything of it.
“Evan?”
He rubbed his eyes, voice still thick with sleep.
“Hang on, I’ll check—”
The door exploded inward.
I went instantly, violently awake.
Evan jerked upright.
“What the hell—”
My lashes trembled.
I turned slowly toward the doorway.
Light from outside spilled into the little room.
A tall figure in a black coat stepped inside.
Then her eyes met mine.
Everything in the world seemed to stop.
And I had only one thought.
Apparently, I was about to start life number five.