CHAPTER 002

I looked around the room still having a hard time believing what I was seeing.

Yellow curtains. Beige carpet. The hairline crack running diagonally across the ceiling above the wardrobe. My room, the one I had slept in before I was married, before any of it happened. I sat on the edge of the bed with my hands pressed flat against the duvet and looked at everything slowly, letting the feel of the cotton against my kin determine if this was reality.

I could hardly believe that I had truly been reborn. The betrayal by Dorothy and Alexander was absolutely no dream. I had felt every second of it with every fiber of my body. The hands around my throat. The open window. The fall. My life leaving me with each second I struggled to draw breath. Alexander's face above mine. All of it had been real. And now I was sitting here in morning light I had not seen in three years, on a bed that smelled of fabric softener, in a room that should not have existed for me anymore.

My digital clock sat on the nightstand. The time. The date. Three years back, exactly.

I'm here. I'm really here.

As I descended the stairs to the living room, I was met by a familiar scene. My parents and Dorothy.

All three of them laughing happily. My mother's bright high pitched chatter filled every corner of the room. My father laughed as well, his shoulders at ease as he looked at Dorothy, affection overflowing from both their gazes. My sister sat at the centre of it all, her long wavy black hair cascading over her chest, her face open and glowing.

Deep inside my chest an uncontrollable urge to cry pushed itself upward. Right up until the moment of my death I had never once received such unconditional love from them. Not once in ten years had they looked at me the way they were looking at her right now.

I came down the remaining stairs and walked toward them, step by step, closing the distance between myself and the very person who had murdered me and my unborn child not an hour ago in another life. Dorothy turned the moment she heard my footsteps. Her face broke into a wide warm smile and she held a small wrapped bottle out toward me with a playful wink, her long hair sweeping forward as she leaned in.

"A gift for you, sis."

A beautifully wrapped bottle of lily perfume. White lilies on the label, pale tissue paper folded neatly around the glass, a small ribbon tied carefully around the neck of it. It would have been lovely if I were not allergic to lilies.

"I'm allergic to lilies." I made no move to take it from her hand.

My mother hurried immediately to Dorothy's defense, turning to me with that familiar look of quiet reproach. "Your sister didn't mean any harm. She had no idea you were allergic to lilies."

"No, she knew perfectly well." I kept my eyes on Dorothy. "She stuffed lilies into my schoolbag before. She has always known."

My father looked at me with the particular disappointment he reserved for moments when I failed to perform the gratitude he expected of me. "How could you possibly think your sister would intentionally try to hurt you? We are a family. Dorothy has never had a malicious bone in her body."

Every single time. Every conflict, every deliberate cruelty, every carefully constructed wound, and they always found a way to sand it down to an accident, an oversight, something I had misread or blown out of proportion.

I had had enough of that.

"I truly didn't know you were allergic!" Dorothy's eyes had already filled with tears, right on schedule. She pressed her fingers to the corner of her mouth, her bottom lip trembling with practiced precision. The crocodile had already begun to shed her tears. "How could you think such things of me?" She shook her head, "I'm your sister, and I love you!"

"Don't call me sister." I took a slow breath in and let it out. "We have never been sisters. And you have never once treated me like one!"

"Maeve!" My father practically barked my name at me.

"I am merely stating the facts." I watched a small smug flicker move across the very corner of Dorothy's mouth before she rearranged her face back into hurt. I saw my mother's expression crumple. I saw my father turn his gaze toward me, his eyes heavy with disappointment. "We loathe one another and we will never be reconciled." I looked at all three of them and did not drop my gaze. "I'm done pretending otherwise."

I did not flinch. I did not take back a single word. A tear slid down my cheek as I looked away, gritting my teeth so hard my gums burned with protest.

Ring, ring, ring. The familiar ringtone reached my ears.

Only then did I realize it was my own phone ringing. I had actually forgotten that I was currently working at Alexander's company. HR was calling to inquire why I had been absent without notice.

"I'm on my way right now," I told the caller and then hung up, not bothering to go upstairs to change as I began to head out.

"Where do you think you're going?" My father's voice rose behind me, hard and sharp. "How did I end up with such a rude daughter?"

"Maeve, you can't just leave like that."

I wiped my face with the back of my hand and walked straight out of the house. I would never cry for them again.

As I stepped into Alexander's company, memories of the past came flooding back before I was ready for them. I used to take such pride in the fact that Alexander had allowed me to stay by his side as his assistant. I had told myself it meant he cared about me. That it was his quiet way of choosing me, keeping me close on purpose, wanting me near.

The giant screen in the lobby was displaying a poster for the Hagreeves family company's most prized piece, the diamond ring called the Eternal Heart. I stopped in front of it for a moment and looked at it. He had used that very ring to propose to me. He had stood before the priest and vowed that he would love only me for the rest of his life.

It had all been a lie…

I took a slow breath of my own and walked to the elevator.

Alexander's office was on the top floor. I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Black hair, blue eyes, a crisp grey three-piece suit.

I held my breath, watching his broad shoulders flex ever slightly as his fingers danced over the keyboard and flipped pages simultaneously, every movement of his captivated me, scared me.

I bit down on my bottom lip with more force than neccesary, convincing myself that the sight of him didn't have the same effect as it used to. He was bent over his desk, focused entirely on whatever was in front of him, so absorbed in his work that he hadn't heard the door open. He was so focused and serious, just as he had been all those years ago when I was utterly captivated by him, when the sight of him like this had made my heart turn over in my chest. Now a bitter ache moved through me and settled heavily behind my ribs.

"Maeve, you're here!" Liam greeted me from the sofa, straightening up with a grin. Romy looked up from where he stood at the window and raised a hand in acknowledgment. Since highschool school they had been Alexander's most loyal friends. They had also been front row witnesses to every humiliating moment of my devotion to him, watching me pursue Alexander with an obsession that had no dignity left in it. In their eyes I had always been exactly one thing: Alexander's faithful dog.

"You're an hour late," Alexander said, without looking up from his desk. "Go and prepare for my afternoon meeting. Immediately."

His voice was deep, rich and always had this authoritative lilt that had once had me feeling like I was being hypnotized, like I couldn't say no to him.

I felt differently when I heard that voice now.

All I pictured was his face above me, the future father of my sister's child who watched the life leave my eyes.

When he received no response he looked up at me with a puzzled and impatient expression, his brow pulling together. Sharp blue eyes held mine with a bored intensity that made me just want to cave in out of habit.

"Maeve? What are you waiting for?"

"No." I held his gaze without flinching. "I'm afraid I can't do that for you anymore."

Alexander’s expression grew increasingly puzzled and then impatient, the way he always did when his most reliable subordinate failed to simply obey.

"I want to resign.”