Chapter 3

And my rebirth was because of Leon.

Seven days after Sofia died, he rushed toward the sea like a madman, screaming himself hoarse,

"Wait for me! Let's start over and do it right!"

I tried to pull him back.

But he was too strong, and in the struggle his hand slipped and he knocked me into the sea.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back thirteen years in the past.

I was in the body of that five-year-old girl again.

In front of me, Sofia was spreading a blanket over my bed.

Sunlight fell across the side of her face, so young, so lovely.

I jumped up from the bed and, using the most natural-sounding excuse a five-year-old could think of, shouted,

"I want to go to the Vane Bookshop!"

Sofia's hands went still, and she slowly turned her head to look at me.

"How do you know about that place?"

I slid off the bed, walked up to her, and looked up earnestly into her eyes.

"Because a nice man told me the fairy-tale books there are the best."

Sofia crouched down and held my shoulders.

"Lola, what do you know? Did your mom tell you, or your dad?"

In her eyes was the fragility of someone whose deepest secret had just been touched.

I reached out my little hand and laid it over the back of her cool one.

"Neither of them told me. It's just that I want that nice man to be my daddy, and you to be my mommy."

After coming back to this point, I'd slipped off to the Vane Bookshop once behind Selena's back.

Back then Simon just took me for a lost little girl.

He gave me a few candies and was about to hand me over to the store security.

But when I rattled off a string of little stories from his past with Sofia, his face changed at once.

"Who are you really? What do you want with Sofia?"

I held out my little hand and put the candies back in his palm.

"I'm the one who's going to make you both happy."

I told Simon everything from my last life.

When I finished, he was silent for a long time.

By the time he'd taken it all in, his eyes were full of trust.

"As long as it keeps Sofia alive, I'll do anything."

I smiled, satisfied.

Thirteen years early was actually just right.

So I said to him,

"You just have to be yourself. And don't tell anyone I come from the future."

Simon agreed.

And today, I'd finally brought Sofia here.

The moment they saw each other, both of them flushed.

I walked right between them and looked up at Sofia.

"I heard it. Leon is going after the Belmonte family. He wants to use the port debt to make you obey him for the rest of your life."

Sofia startled.

These were things she hadn't found out until much later in her last life.

Then I turned to Simon.

"He's also looking for ways to keep Sofia from getting pregnant. That way she'd have no child of her own and would have to keep taking care of me, playing the obedient stepmother for the Moreno family. If you don't believe me, check the tea in the drawer a week from now."

This was also something Sofia only learned when she was diagnosed with her terminal illness.

It turned out Leon had been having the housekeeper at the old house slip a slow-acting drug into her tea.

Not deadly, but enough to destroy her body bit by bit.

Hearing this, Sofia gripped my shoulders hard.

"Why are you telling me all this? Who told you to say it?"

I pressed my cheek against hers.

"Because my natural mother doesn't want me, and my dad only pretends he wants to raise me. Nobody loves me except you."

Sofia froze.

"Why me?"

"Because..."

For a moment I couldn't come up with any reason to explain this absurd situation of mine.

Just then Simon spoke up, scooping me into his arms with a smile.

"This little one is a regular in the kids' section of our shop. Her mom often drops her off here to pass the time, and now and then I mention you to her."

Simon put Sofia's doubts to rest for me.

It was too much for Sofia to take in at once. She cried for a bit, then laughed for a bit.

Then she took my hand and asked softly, carefully,

"If your dad and I really split up, who would you go with?"

Without hesitation, I threw my arms around her neck.

"You, of course, Mommy."