Chapter 2

The first thing I felt was air. Cold, sharp, and biting. It filled my lungs in a rush, making me gasp as though I had been underwater for too long and had finally broken the surface. My body jerked upright, my chest heaving as I coughed and sputtered. My head throbbed, my vision swimming in and out of focus. The faint hum of a ceiling fan above me came into view, its blades slicing the air in a rhythmic, monotonous sound.

I blinked rapidly, trying to orient myself. The dim light filtering through the curtains of my bedroom cast long shadows across the walls. My bedroom. My apartment. I was in my bed. I stared at the worn wooden nightstand beside me, the faint scent of lavender from the candle I had left unlit the night before hanging in the air. A wave of disorientation swept over me, so strong I thought I might vomit.

I was supposed to be dead.

My fingers instinctively gripped my arms, running over my skin, checking for wounds, for bruises, for any sign that I had just fallen from a balcony. But there was nothing. My body was whole. No pain, no bleeding, no evidence of the impact I had felt shatter me in my last moments of consciousness. I touched my face, my hair, my chest... everything was intact.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed, my bare feet brushing against the cold hardwood floor. My breaths came in short, shallow bursts as I tried to piece together what was happening. The memories hit me like a freight train. Lili’s voice, Jarem’s laughter, their betrayal. The confrontation. The fall. The wind rushing past me as I plummeted. The darkness that had swallowed me whole.

I was dead. I was certain of it. I had felt the life leave my body, felt the numbness take over as I hit the ground. I had died. So why was I here? Why was I breathing, shaking, alive?

The sound of my phone buzzing shattered the silence, making me jump. I turned toward the nightstand, where the screen of my phone lit up, vibrating against the wood. My heart stopped when I saw the name on the caller ID.

Jarem.

Anger surged through me like a wildfire, hot and unstoppable. My hands trembled as I reached for the phone, my breath catching in my throat. What kind of sick joke was this? Why was he calling me? Why now? I hesitated for a moment, my thumb hovering over the screen. But I didn’t need to think about it for long. With a sharp inhale, I swiped to answer the call and pressed the phone to my ear.

“What?” My voice was cold, the word laced with all the fury and heartbreak I felt.

“Wow, Tasia,” Jarem’s voice came through the line, smooth and annoyingly familiar. But there was a hint of irritation in his tone, the exasperation that had become all too common in our recent conversations. “What’s with the attitude? You’re the one who stormed off this morning. I’m just trying to talk to you.”

This morning? His words hit me like a slap to the face. My mind raced as I tried to comprehend what he was saying. My eyes darted to the calendar on my phone screen, and my stomach dropped. The date stared back at me, mocking me with its impossibility. It was the day before everything had fallen apart. The day before I had caught them together. The day before I had died.

Was this some kind of twisted prank? A dream? A hallucination? But it felt too real, the cold floor beneath my feet, the steady hum of the city outside my window, the weight of the phone in my hand. It was real. It had to be.

“Tasia?” Jarem’s voice snapped me out of my spiraling thoughts. “Are you even listening? I’m trying to talk to you, but you’re always so damn demanding. You don’t give me any space. It’s exhausting, you know that?”

The words were eerily familiar. He had said the same thing to me that morning. The morning of the day I had discovered his betrayal. I remembered the way the fight had escalated, how he had twisted the blame onto me, how I had ended up apologizing for wanting him to care. But not this time.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself. My grip on the phone tightened as I suppressed the urge to scream at him, to let all my anger and heartbreak pour out in a flood of rage. Instead, I forced my voice to remain calm, controlled, icy.

“Are you done?” I said, cutting him off mid-rant.

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line. I could almost picture the confusion on his face, the way his brow would furrow as he tried to process my uncharacteristic response.

“What?” he finally said, his tone wary, uncertain.

“You heard me,” I said, my voice steady. “Are you done?”

Another pause. I could tell he didn’t know how to respond. He had been expecting me to argue, to plead, to take the blame like I always did. But not this time. Not anymore.

“I—uh—I guess,” he stammered, his confidence faltering.

“Good,” I said, and without another word, I ended the call.

I stared at the phone in my hand, my chest rising and falling with uneven breaths. The adrenaline that had been coursing through me since the moment I woke up was finally beginning to ebb, leaving me drained and trembling. But beneath the exhaustion, a new feeling was beginning to emerge—determination.

I didn’t know how or why I was alive, why I had been given this second chance. But one thing was clear, I wasn’t going to waste it. The memories of my betrayal, my death, were still fresh in my mind, raw and painful. I couldn’t let history repeat itself. I couldn’t let Jarem and Lili destroy me again.

If fate had given me this opportunity, I was going to use it. I was going to rewrite my story, take control of my life, and carve out a new path. One where I wasn’t a victim. One where I wasn’t blind to the lies and manipulation of the people around me.

I stood from the bed, my legs shaky but firm. The reflection in the mirror caught my eye as I moved to the window. My face was pale, my eyes wide and haunted, but there was a spark of resolve in them.

As I stared out at the city below, the morning light casting a golden hue over the skyline, I made a silent vow to myself.

This time, things would be different. This time, I would rise above the pain, the betrayal, the heartbreak. This time, I would change my fate.

And it all starts now.