chapter 2
The first thing I heard was shouting.
“What do you mean the cord is wrapped around her neck?” a man roared. “If anything happens to my wife, this hospital is done. Do you understand me? Save my wife first. I don’t care what else you have to do.”
I almost laughed.
So this was my father.
Billionaire king. Tyrant in a tailored suit. Madly in love with his wife.
Honestly? My mother had hit the jackpot.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, both of them froze.
My father’s shouting stopped.
My mother’s cries caught in her throat.
They stared at each other in shock.
I smiled inside the warm darkness of the womb.
So it worked.
My inner voice could be directed exactly where I wanted.
Last life, my sister had no idea she had this ability, and the default audience had been this family. When my father said, Save my wife first, she had gone on a furious rant inside the womb, accusing him of being fake, cruel, and probably unfaithful. She had planted poison before she was even born.
I wouldn’t make that mistake.
Instead, I sent them the sweetest thought I could shape.
Oh no… are Mommy and Daddy crying because of me? That can’t happen. I have to be brave. I have to fix the bad thing all by myself so they won’t be scared.
At the same time, I turned in the womb, reached with all the strength in my tiny limbs, and worked the cord loose.
Once.
Twice.
Free.
The ultrasound room exploded.
“The cord’s off!”
“Oh my God—”
“Mr. Carter, Mrs. Carter, your baby just moved herself out of danger!”
My mother burst into tears.
My father looked between the screen and my mother like the universe had cracked open just for him.
The doctor’s voice shook. “This is unbelievable. It’s like she knew what was happening.”
Of course I knew.
I was in my third life.
My father pulled my mother into his arms and laughed like a man on the verge of breaking down. “Did you hear that? Our daughter is protecting you already.”
Then, because he was exactly the kind of man he appeared to be, he turned to the entire medical staff and barked, “Everyone in this hospital gets a bonus.”
Apparently one second they were all supposed to die with him and the next they were getting showered in money.
That, too, was very on-brand.
Then, from the delivery room next door, I heard a familiar scream.
“Get me your best specialist! Do you even know who I am? If something happens to me, I’ll ruin this hospital!”
My sister’s mother.
Right on time.
In our last life, we had been born in neighboring rooms too.
I sent my voice through the wall.
Hey, little sister. Why are you still in there? Don’t tell me you’re waiting for me to go first again.
The response was instant.
A violent, furious kicking fit from the next womb.
The actress screamed and cursed the baby inside her.
I could practically feel my sister losing her mind.
I adjusted my own position, then cheerfully sent one more thought to my parents.
Don’t worry, Mommy and Daddy. Your baby is coming now.
And then I did exactly that.
I pushed.
Slid.
And dropped into the doctor’s hands so cleanly and quickly the whole room went silent for a heartbeat before I let out a loud, healthy cry.
My mother was still staring in dazed disbelief.
“That’s it?” she whispered. “She’s… already here?”
No one in the room had ever seen a birth go so easily.
My father looked at me like I had fallen out of heaven.
When my mother took me, I stopped crying almost instantly and blinked up at her with a smile.
She burst into fresh tears.
“Evan, look. She smiled at me. She knows me.”
My father’s eyes turned red. “She didn’t even want her mother to suffer.”
That was how I was named.
Claire Carter.
A jewel. A treasure. A gift.
Before the day was even over, my father announced a charity fund in my name and transferred five percent of his personal shares in the Carter Group to me.
“My daughter deserves a reward,” he said.
Across the wall, my sister nearly kicked her mother into a surgical delivery.
And when she was finally born, the whole hospital was already whispering.
One room had produced an angel baby.
The other had produced trouble.