The Death He Remembers.

Rebecca’s POV

I went completely still.

Davis had not said he dreamed of me dying. He had not said he imagined losing me.

He had said he remembered it.

I stared into his eyes, and the fear I saw there made my chest tighten. For weeks, I had convinced myself that my memories belonged to a future I could change. But Davis was describing something he had never experienced in this life.

Was my second chance no longer mine alone?

“Davis,” Harper said, stepping closer to him. “What did you see?”

He barely seemed to hear her. His eyes remained on me, as if he was waiting for me to tell him something I couldn’t say.

“Tell me exactly what you remember,” I said.

Davis swallowed. “Fragments. A wedding. You and me arguing. You were crying, and I knew I had done something wrong.”

My fingers curled against my palms.

He continued, his voice growing quieter. “I couldn’t understand what was happening. I kept trying to reach you, but you looked at me as if you hated me.”

I looked away before he could read my face.

That was how I had looked at him in my final moments. I had wanted him to understand what he had done to me, but he had waited until it was too late.

“Do you remember where we were?” I asked.

“No.” Davis rubbed his forehead. “I can’t remember what happened before the argument. I don’t even know what we were arguing about.”

“Then how can you be sure it happened?”

His eyes snapped back to mine.

“Because I remember how I felt.” His voice tightened. “I remember looking at you and knowing I had failed you. I remember being terrified that I couldn’t fix what I had done.”

For a moment, I couldn’t speak.

Davis took a step toward me. “Rebecca, why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you know something I don’t.”

I forced myself to meet his gaze. He looked frightened, but beneath the fear was something else. He was trying to understand why his memories seemed to hurt me as much as they hurt him.

I wanted to tell him everything.

I wanted to tell him that he had already lost me once, that I had died believing he would never love me, and that I had returned to this life determined never to become his wife again.

But what would happen if I told him?

Would he believe me? Or would he start questioning my memories, treating me like someone who couldn’t tell the difference between the past and the present?

I couldn’t risk it yet.

“Your memory doesn’t prove you caused my death,” I said.

Davis stared at me.

“Do you honestly think I’m capable of hurting you like that?”

“I think you’re frightened by something you don’t understand.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“And I can’t give you an answer based on a memory you can’t even explain.”

He looked away, his jaw tightening.

I knew my words had hurt him. Part of me wanted to take them back, but I couldn’t afford to comfort him every time the truth became uncomfortable.

Davis had once been the man I trusted most. I had given him every opportunity to choose me, and I had spent years paying for that decision.

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake because he looked at me with frightened eyes.

After a moment, he nodded.

“Fine,” he said. “I won’t ask you to trust me just because I’m scared.”

His voice was steady, but I could see how difficult it was for him to accept my answer.

Harper moved closer.

“There is something else you need to know.”

I turned toward her.

She looked between Davis and me before speaking. “I witnessed part of the final confrontation in your first life, Rebecca.”

My stomach tightened.

“What confrontation?”

“The one before you died.”

Davis stepped toward her. “You saw Rebecca before she died?”

“I saw part of what happened,” Harper replied. “I arrived after the damage had already been done.”

I struggled to keep my voice steady. “What did you see?”

Harper hesitated.

“I believed that telling you everything would expose someone who was still in danger.”

“Who?”

“I can’t answer that yet.”

I stared at her in disbelief.

“Yet?” I repeated. “You watched my marriage fall apart. You knew something about what happened before I died, and now you’re telling me you still can’t answer my questions?”

“Rebecca, I need to make sure the threat is gone before I tell you more.”

“No.” I pushed away from the table. “You don’t get to do this to me again.”

Harper flinched.

“You keep telling me that you’re protecting someone. You kept information from me before, and now you’re asking me to wait while you decide what I’m allowed to know.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to do.”

“Then what are you trying to do, Harper?”

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

I shook my head.

“Do you know what happened to me in my first life? I trusted people to tell me the truth. I believed that if something affected my marriage, my family, or my future, I had the right to know about it. Instead, everyone kept making decisions around me.”

My voice broke, but I refused to look away.

“And when I needed answers most, I was alone. Keeping people ignorant doesn’t protect them. Sometimes, it leaves them helpless.”

Harper’s face crumpled slightly.

She didn’t deny it.

Davis moved between us, but he didn’t turn toward me or tell me to calm down. He faced Harper instead.

“I’m not going to let you leave this room with another half-explanation,” he said. “Answer one question. Did you know Rebecca was in danger before she died?”

Harper’s lips parted.

Then she looked toward the window.

The movement was small, but I noticed it.

So did Davis.

“Harper,” he warned.

She remained silent.

My heart began to pound. Whatever she was hiding, it frightened her enough that she couldn’t answer a simple question.

Finally, she turned back to us.

“I received a warning shortly before Rebecca died.”

I gripped the edge of the table.

“From whom?” I demanded.

“It wasn’t from Orvayn.”

Davis frowned. “Then who sent it?”

“I don’t know if I can tell you without showing you the message.”

“Then show us,” I said.

Harper reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. Her fingers trembled as she unlocked it and searched through an old record.

Davis came to stand beside me. His shoulder brushed mine, and I felt the familiar pull between us.

This time, I didn’t move away.

I was too focused on the phone in Harper’s hands, but I could feel Davis watching me from the corner of his eye.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.

I looked up at him.

“No,” I whispered. “But I need to see this.”

He held my gaze for a second before nodding.

“Then we’ll see it together.”

The words caught me off guard. In my first life, I had spent too long facing problems alone while Davis stood on the other side of them.

I couldn’t let a single sentence change what I knew about him. Still, the fact that he had offered to stand beside me without demanding anything in return made it harder to keep my heart completely closed.

Harper stopped scrolling.

“I found it.”

She turned the phone toward us, but her hands were shaking so badly that the screen kept moving.

“What is it?” Davis asked.

Harper drew a shaky breath and steadied the phone.

“This is the message I received the night you died,” she said, looking directly at me. “And the person who sent it was inside your own pack.”