Chapter 1: Memories of Death
345words
Blood gushed from the wound in my chest, mixing with the rain and spreading across the cold pavement. Richard Carter towered over me, his eyes gleaming with mockery and indifference. Beside him stood Sophie Wilson—once my closest friend—now watching me with a cruel smirk.
"God, Emily, you're so damn naive," Richard's voice slithered into my ears like poison. "Did you honestly think I loved you? Please. You were nothing but a stepping stone to the Montgomery fortune."
I tried to speak, to fight back, but my throat filled with blood.
I wasn't a bad person. Just... Christ, I was stupid. Blinded by love.
As death closed in, my parents' desperate faces flashed before me. Just a month ago, they'd been framed for fraud and thrown behind bars. Dad couldn't take it—he hung himself in his cell. Mom snapped and ended up in the psych ward. All of it—every single tragedy—orchestrated by Richard and Sophie to isolate me, to make me their perfect little puppet.
My kid brother, Mike—just sixteen—had to quit school to work. Then came the "accident." Bullshit. Richard's thugs made sure of that. They'd taken everything from me, and now they wanted my life too.
Darkness swallowed me whole. My last thought? If only I could go back...
I jolted awake, biting back a scream. The ceiling. My bedroom. Even that stupid crystal lamp I'd always loved. Holy shit. I was back.
My hands trembled as I touched my face, my neck, then my chest—where a knife had pierced my heart, now whole again.
The calendar read: May 15, 2018.
Five days. Five fucking days before everything went to hell. Mom and Dad—alive. Mike—breathing. My family—intact. And Richard Carter? Still my boyfriend of three months. The man I'd once thought hung the moon.
I laughed until I cried, mascara probably running down my cheeks. The universe had thrown me a lifeline—a shot at revenge. This time around, I wouldn't be that lovesick idiot.
This time, I'd flip the damn chessboard before they made their first move.
