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Never In Another Life
Never In Another Life
Author: Southern Eucalyptus

Chapter 1

Author: Southern Eucalyptus
The room went silent.

Nina Reed grabbed at the bracelet and started working it off her wrist.

"I'm sorry, Adrian. I didn't know it meant something between you two.

"I'll give it back to Mia right now."

Beside her, Ian Shaw's small face went tight.

He pointed at me.

"Mom knew it was worth something and she gave it to Nina anyway.

"She just wanted to make Nina feel bad.

"She's horrible."

Adrian Shaw looked at me for a long moment. He looked worn out.

"Mia, how long are you going to keep this up?

"I brought you home because I wanted us to be a family again."

I almost laughed.

There was a time when Nina only had to want something, and if I handed it over a second too slowly I paid for it.

Now I handed things over before anyone asked.

And somehow that was wrong too.

I crossed the room, picked up the pink diamond ring Adrian had given me that morning, and held it out to Nina.

"If the bracelet isn't enough, take this too."

Adrian's face went dark.

He swept his arm across the table and sent the birthday cake off the edge.

Cream hit my dress. A plate broke apart on the floor.

"Mia.

"Do you have to talk like that?

"Do you have to take a shot at me every time you open your mouth?"

"I'm not."

He shut his eyes and forced it down.

"I know you still blame me for what happened.

"I know you can't forgive me for putting Nina in that ambulance first.

"She was bleeding out. I thought she was going to die in front of me."

His voice dropped.

"I've spent years looking for a donor heart that matches you. All of it so nothing like that ever happens again.

"Mia, stop fighting me. Just live with me. Can you do that?"

I nodded, because arguing had stopped meaning anything.

Ian came out of his chair.

"Dad already said he was sorry.

"Why are you still like this?

"No wonder nobody in this house likes you except Grandma."

That one got in under my guard.

I laughed, and it came out ugly.

"That works out, then.

"Except for your grandmother, I don't like a single one of you either."

Adrian went rigid. Everything warm went out of his eyes.

"Fine.

"That's just great.

"If you don't care about anything and you don't like anybody, then starting tonight Nina and I take the master bedroom.

"You can move into the staff room downstairs."

I didn't argue. I turned around and went upstairs.

Behind me, Ian clapped his hands.

"Yes!

"Now I get to sleep with Dad and Nina every night."

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  • Never In Another Life   Chapter 9

    He still couldn't stop.He went after the man who'd helped me disappear the first time, chasing it as if finding him would turn the clock back and put me on my feet again.He got there in the end. One thread after another took him to the southwestern border, and he flew out the same night.What he found wasn't some fixer. It was an old man in uniform.Adrian went down on his knees on the floor."Please. Tell me where she is."Colonel Whitlock shook his head. His voice was quiet, and it left no room in it."I helped her because I owed her mother my life. I signed a death certificate that wasn't true, and I got her out."Not this time."Adrian looked up, still hoping."This time she's dead. I can hide a living woman. I can't do anything for a dead one."Then he tossed a sealed envelope into Adrian's lap."Read it yourself. It's what she never got the chance to tell you."His hands weren't steady on it. Inside was one thin sheet — a record of a miscarriage.The date was five

  • Never In Another Life   Chapter 8

    Adrian wouldn't accept that I was dead.The crew confirmed it. The hospital confirmed it. My body had been cold and stiff for hours.He still wouldn't have it. He had a cold room built overnight and laid me in it himself.Then he went looking for proof.Every camera in the house. Every hospital record. Every call log. All of it."She faked it once."She can fake it twice."On the third day he drove out to the care facility to bring my mother back to the house.He pushed the door open, and the bed was empty."Where is she?"The head nurse kept her eyes down."Mrs. Sutton passed away. Three days ago.""That's not possible."She had the best care money can buy. The best doctors. The best drugs. How does a woman like that die?"The nurse held out a small recorder in both hands."This was under her pillow. You may want to hear it."He took it and pressed play.Nina's voice came out of it, sweet and unhurried, one sentence after another.When it finished, the recorder slid

  • Never In Another Life   Chapter 7

    Once the ambulance had gone, they hosed the path down, and the park went back to normal.Nina brushed off her skirt and started toward the parking lot.Ian stayed where he was, staring at the stretch of wet ground."Nina."Aren't we going to the hospital?"She didn't turn around."Hospitals are full of germs. I'm carrying a baby."What if something happens to him?"Ian looked at her stomach and nodded like he understood.She wasn't going because of the baby. His mother had always said babies were fragile."Then can we go see Mom when Dad gets back?"She didn't answer. She'd already opened the car door and got into the front seat.Ian opened his own door and looked at the empty back seat, and something in his face gave."Nina," he said, small. "Could you sit back here with me? I don't want to be on my own."She turned around with her eyebrows pulled together."How old are you? You can't sit in a car by yourself?"Pathetic."He froze where he stood, and his eyes filled.

  • Never In Another Life   Chapter 6

    The blade went in, and the blood came with it.The artificial heart stopped for good.My body lost its weight all at once, and I started to drift upward.The last thing I saw clearly was Adrian's face coming apart as he screamed."Mia!"Then I was lighter still, and looking down, and the woman folding into his arms was me. The blood was leaving her chest in slow pushes.He had both hands clamped over the wound, trying to hold it in.The harder he pressed, the faster it came, up between his fingers, and nothing he did made any difference."Mia. Mia."He said my name again and again, and his voice kept breaking on it."Look at me. Don't close your eyes. Don't you dare."Ian stood where he was with his mouth open and no sound coming out of him.Adrian's eyes were red. He turned on the crowd like an animal."A doctor. Get an ambulance. Now."People scattered, and the crew came running.One of them felt for the pulse in her neck, then lifted an eyelid."Sir. I'm sorry. She's

  • Never In Another Life   Chapter 5

    "Mia.""Mia!"Adrian's voice pulled me back.He got me up off the floor and pushed the emergency tablets into my mouth.The pressure in my chest let go, a little at a time.When I turned my head, Ian was standing there with his chin up, still certain he was right.Adrian slapped him."You little idiot. Who told you to throw away your mother's medication?"Ian burst into tears.Nina pulled him straight into her arms."Adrian, don't be so hard on him. He's small. He doesn't understand any of this."Then she took out a medical file."I wasn't going to say anything. But Mia's gone too far."She had a transplant years ago. She's nothing like as fragile as she wants you to think."He read it in ten seconds and his eyes went cold."You recovered years ago."So all of it — the weakness, the distance — that was you punishing me."I was too tired to explain anything.He threw the file at my face."I was going to give you your birthday over again today."Since you won't take a

  • Never In Another Life   Chapter 4

    "No."He pulled me in against him and his voice went soft immediately."I'm sorry. I opened my mouth without thinking."Mia, Nina's a little sister to me, that's all. She's oversensitive. She was terrified we'd put her out on the street now that your father was gone, so she put something in my drink."I swear it was the one time. It won't happen again."Then he used Ian."Think about our son. He's only just got a healthy heart."Are you going to take his home away from him now?"That was the one that got through.However angry I was, I'd carried Ian for ten months."One chance," I said."You send Nina away. The pregnancy ends. And after that, neither of you contacts the other again."He hesitated. Then he set his jaw and nodded."All right."He deleted every way of reaching her, standing right in front of me.He came home on time. He was patient with me.Even Ian settled down and turned sweet.For a while I let myself believe we were finding our way back to normal.Th

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