Chapter 1

My fiancé's first love and I were kidnapped together.

Julian stood outside the warehouse for a long time before he chose me — the girl he'd grown up with.

Three days later, Celeste was found dead in a filthy alley. Half-stripped. Barely recognizable.

Julian's face showed nothing, but I knew. He hated me for it — a quiet, rotted hatred that never left him.

That was why, in the eight years that followed our wedding, he never once touched me.

When Ravenport's high society laughed at me, slandered me, whispered that the Ashford heir couldn't stand his own wife — he watched from across the room and did nothing.

I'd resigned myself to it. We'd spend the rest of our lives as a pair of resentful strangers in the same house.

Then came the overseas trip. The terror attack. Bullets in a hotel lobby.

And Julian — the man who had hated me for a decade — didn't hesitate for a single breath. He stepped in front of me and took the round with his own body.

He died smiling in my arms, blood soaking my dress.

"Sparrow," he whispered, using the old nickname he hadn't spoken in years. "I can finally go to Celeste now."

"Next life, Sparrow — promise me. Don't stand between us again. Please."

I nodded. My heart felt like it was being carved out with a dull knife.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back — back on the day we were taken.

The kidnappers were giving Julian his choice.

Only this time, I didn't want him to choose me.

I didn't want to chase him anymore.

This time, I was going to wish Julian and the woman he loved every happiness in the world.

Every happiness — without me in it.

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When I opened my eyes, the sky was on fire.

Just as I remembered. Tied up back-to-back with Celeste Pemberton in the dockside warehouse.

The kidnappers were already forcing Julian to choose.

"One's the childhood sweetheart, one's the old flame he could never forget. Come on, Mr. Ashford. Pick one."

I could hear it in the man's voice. He wasn't in a hurry. He was amused. Genuinely curious which one the Ashford heir would take.

Outside the warehouse, Julian was silent.

But his mother wasn't. Eleanor Ashford was frantic.

"Don't hurt Vera — please, we'll pay whatever you want. Don't hurt her."

Then she turned on her son. "What are you waiting for? Her father died saving yours. Do you want us to owe the Harringtons another life?"

Julian said nothing.

I knew what he wanted. He wanted to save Celeste. He always had. She was the girl he'd kept buried in his chest for years. Even after her death in my first life, he'd kept himself for her like a monk in mourning.

He'd chosen me then only because his mother had pressured him into it.

The kidnapper was losing patience. He glanced at the smoke rising from the far end of the warehouse.

"Tick-tock, Mr. Ashford. Another few seconds and you lose them both."

Julian and I faced each other across the flames.

He was looking at me — but his eyes were full of a sick, tearing struggle.

"Fine. I choose Ver—"

The name was already on his lips, the same as last time.

I lurched up onto my knees and shouted over him with everything I had.

"Save Celeste!"

Julian's head snapped up. His eyes went blank with shock.

Because in all the years he'd known me, I'd thrown a fit over far smaller things than this. The slightest sign that he wasn't putting me first and I made him pay for it.

Let alone handing him to another woman.

Let alone handing him to Celeste Pemberton.

Everyone in Ravenport knew it — Vera Harrington could not stand Celeste.

Julian and I had grown up together. From the time I was old enough to understand anything, I'd decided he was mine. I spent years scaring off every woman who tried to come near him, setting off alarms the moment one looked his way.

But Celeste was different. Celeste was the girl he actually wanted. She was the one who lived in his chest.

I couldn't do anything about her. What I called hate was mostly fear.

A thick, suffocating pressure rolled through me. The sea wind caught the hem of my dress.

I said it again, louder this time.

"Save Celeste."

Don't hesitate.

Julian.

Save the woman you love.

This time I don't want to owe you anything.

I don't want to spend another life being hated by you.