LOGINThe impostor took his own life the day I married Cathy Jones. By the second year of our marriage, we had turned against each other completely because of him. She despised me because my return had driven Zac Lowe to his death. And I despised her for longing after the man who had stolen my name for twenty years. For a decade, we hurled the cruelest words and wished death upon each other until the earthquake came. She shielded me under her body and used her back to bear the weight of the collapsing beam to keep me alive. The ceiling fell. Blood and debris blurred together. As her life slipped away, she whispered in my ear, “If I had known he would die, I would have never brought you home. “If there’s another life, your only family should be me.” In the end, I still died in the aftershock. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day she first took me to meet my biological parents. But she suddenly changed her mind. “Harry, I was wrong! You’re not the son the Lowe family lost twenty years ago.”
View MoreThree years later, I was in Norisa. I stood by the Seine. My solo exhibition was being held at a well-known gallery here.The theme was “Rebirth.” The paintings featured lavender fields in Provence, sunflowers in Arles, the blue shores of the Mediterranean, and the soft golden light on the streets of Paris.Every canvas brimmed with vitality and love for life.The only thing missing was portraits.I never included people in my paintings. I had traveled around the world in the past three years. I used my paintbrush to capture every beautiful landscape I saw.I was no longer the man who once lived in hatred and pain.I was simply an ordinary painter who loved his life. I once believed that love was an obsession, like an unbreakable bond that endured even through mutual destruction.But I finally understood that true love meant letting go and granting another person’s wish. Cathy taught me what it meant to hate in her first lifetime.In her second, she taught me what it
I gripped the report so tightly that my knuckles turned white. I did not know what I felt. Sorrow? Not exactly.Relief? Not quite. All I felt was that fate had an unbearably cruel sense of humor. It tangled us together for two lifetimes. It fed on misunderstandings and pain, only to end everything in such a rushed and absurd way. “Mr. Lawson…” Philip said as he pulled a small velvet box out of his bag. “Ms. Jones left this for you. She told me that if she didn’t return, I must give this to you personally.” I opened the box. There was not an expensive, elaborate jewel inside, but a plain platinum ring. It was a couple’s ring I had bought for twenty dollars at a market when we were still in college. Back then, Cathy had wrinkled her nose at it and said it was ugly, but she had still slipped it on reluctantly. After going through our breakup, the failed marriage, and the endless fights, I had forgotten where my ring was. I never imagined she had kept hers all this t
One year later, I had finally been accepted into the art academy I had always dreamed of attending. I was majoring in oil painting.I rented a house with a small garden and lived a quiet, fulfilling life.My days slipped by peacefully through classes. I painted and worked in my garden occasionally.There was always sunlight here, and the air always carried the scent of lavender.I slowly let go of my past. I was happier.I never saw Cathy again. Sometimes, I would hear fragments of news about her through classmates who returned home.They said she had abandoned her family’s vast business empire and become a disaster relief volunteer.They said she was always the first to rush into danger. She saved countless lives at the expense of bruises and scars on her own body.They said someone once asked her why she risked her life like that, and she replied that she was atoning for her sins.But none of that had anything to do with me anymore. I stayed abroad after graduation and j
Meanwhile, I was sitting in the departure lounge and waiting for my flight. A text appeared on my phone. [Harry, I’ve arranged everything. Don’t worry. Cathy will never find you. Your new life begins the moment you land.] I replied with an [Okay]. Then, I pulled out the SIM card, snapped it in half, and tossed it into the trash can. Two lifetimes’ worth of love and hate were all buried together with that tiny piece of broken plastic. ‘Cathy, I’ve repaid your sacrifice with half my life. From now on, your path and mine shall never cross again,’ I thought. We would never meet again in this lifetime.… Cathy’s world lost all color after Harry disappeared. She became restless and irritable. She threw the entire Jones Corporation into chaos. Stacks of documents piled up untouched, and the search team she had funded with millions turned up with nothing. Meanwhile, Zac clung to her like a persistent shadow. One minute, he demanded a trip. Next, he spat venom about Harr
I did not answer. My silence was an answer in itself. “Cathy,” I said quietly, “it’s over. In this life, you protected the person you wanted to protect the most. “From now on, we’ll go our separate ways. No more ties between us.” “No!” Her head shot up, and her eyes were red with tears. “Harry, it’s not like that! Everything I did, I did for us! I just wanted us to have a different ending!”“We already had an ending,” I said. “Everything ended the day of the earthquake.” She wanted to say more, but her phone rang at the worst possible moment. She glanced at the caller ID, and her expression shifted. It was Zac. She answered the phone after a moment of hesitation. “Hello, Zac. What? Are you feeling sick again? All right, don’t be afraid. I’ll be right there.” She hung up and looked at me apologetically. “Harry, I need to go check on Zac. Stay here and rest. I’ll be back soon.” I saw the worry on her face, and the last flicker of hope died inside me completely.
My heart sank as I stared at her. She had forgotten that it was my birthday too.Zac and I were born on the same day.One of us was raised among the clouds, the other clawed their way up from the dirt. She called in the guards, who swiftly pinned me down. She flung a military-grade dagger onto the floor at my feet. She said mercilessly, “He bled because of you! Now, you’ll bleed twice as much!” I stared at her in disbelief. “Cathy, are you out of your mind?!” I struggled to be free.But she only gave me a single glance before ordering her guards to take action.A sharp sting seared my arm, and hot blood flowed instantly. I screamed in agony. Sweat broke out across my forehead. I bit down hard as the taste of blood flooded my mouth.A second cut…Then, a third… I lost count of just how many times the knife had struck. Pain blurred into numbness. My vision wavered until everything became hazy. I saw Cathy’s expressionless face, with Zac smiling triumphantly in her












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