Chapter 3

The next payment arrived two days later, fifteen thousand dollars, and Chloe moved it straight into a new account that Tyler could never touch.

The money covered the deposit on a warehouse on higher ground outside Crestwood, along with the first big delivery of bottled water, preserved food, medicine, batteries and protective clothing.

The warehouse owner had demanded six months of rent in advance. In her old life, Chloe would have worried about wasting money.

Now she remembered the empty taps, the dark streets and the pharmacies stripped bare within two days of the superstorm. Waste is what happens to people who get caught unprepared.

Every morning she ran with a loaded backpack and practiced swinging the short-handled axe she had used before her death. She was still too slow, and her arms still burned and shook after a few minutes.

But she had twenty-five days, and she meant to use every one of them.

Her phone rang while she was checking the supply order, and the screen showed the Grandview Hotel.

"Miss Martin, we're calling about the declined deposit for the private graduation party this Saturday," a polite voice said.

"Mr. Reed gave us this number because the card belongs to you. Would you like to authorize another payment method?"

Chloe glanced at the countdown on her calendar and answered without hesitation. "No. Please don't charge any account in my name."

Tyler called three minutes later, and his voice came out tight and hurried. "Chloe, did you cancel the hotel payment?"

"You planned the party, sweetheart, so why would I be the one paying for it?" She kept her tone light and teasing, as if she were asking about the weather.

"It's our graduation party, and all our friends are coming!" His voice rose with panic, and she could almost see him pacing.

"Then everyone can split the bill."

"You know I planned something special for you." He sounded wounded, like a man who had been robbed instead of refused.

"A surprise paid for with my own card isn't very special, is it?" Her smile stretched across her face as the line fell quiet.

She could hear Amber whispering somewhere close to him. Of course they are together again. Where else would the leech be?

"Fine," Tyler said stiffly, his teeth clenched. "I'll handle it myself."

"Good boy." Chloe's voice dripped with sweetness, and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.

"But this has to stop. First the loan, then the card, then the car. You're treating me like a thief." His voice rose again, and Chloe imagined the vein pulsing at his temple.

"If paying your own bills makes you feel like a thief, that sounds like a problem with your conscience, not with me." She leaned back in her chair, completely relaxed.

Amber's voice suddenly slid through the phone, honey-sweet and poisonous. "Chloe, Tyler has spent weeks planning this for you, and you're making everything about money."

"Why are you listening to a private conversation between me and my boyfriend?" Chloe asked, drawing out each word with a soft, innocent laugh.

The silence that followed was thick enough to cut. Tyler spoke before Amber could answer, and his tone was sharp.

"This is between Chloe and me. Amber, stay out of it." He snapped the words like a man scolding a dog.

Chloe heard Amber suck in a breath, wounded and furious. Then Tyler's voice turned gentle again, the way it always did when he feared losing his wallet.

"I'll pay the deposit, and I'll pay the rest of the debt too. Just come to the party, okay?" His voice cracked with fake tenderness. "Let me prove that I love you."

"I'll think about it," Chloe said calmly, and she ended the call before he could add another word.

At the hotel desk, Amber stared at Tyler as he typed his own card number into the payment page.

"You just told me to stay out of it," she hissed, her arms crossed tight over her chest.

"She was about to hang up." Tyler did not even look at her, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"You keep choosing her whenever she threatens to leave." Her voice cracked, and her eyes shone with angry tears.

Tyler pressed the confirm button, and a large sum vanished from his account. He winced, then straightened his collar and forced a smile.

"I'm choosing the house, and I'm choosing the money. Do you think I enjoy begging her like a dog?" He gave a bitter little laugh, and his eyes stayed cold.

Amber touched the necklace hidden under her shirt, her fingertips lingering on the crystal. "You'd better remember who this belongs to," she whispered, her chin lifted high.

Tyler glanced at the chain, then kissed her forehead in a way that was both soothing and careless.

"After Saturday, Chloe will be wearing a ring, and once she's tied to me, she won't dare act like this again." His grin was smug, as if the whole world already belonged to him.

That evening, Amber called Chloe, her voice sugary and bright once more.

"You haven't forgotten the graduation party, have you?" she sang. "Tyler rented the biggest lounge at the Grandview, and the whole class is coming. He has a huge surprise for you."

The Grandview. The whole class. A surprise.

The memories crashed over Chloe all at once, and her hand tightened around the phone until her knuckles went white. In her last life, Tyler had proposed to her at that very party.

He had knelt in front of everyone with a cheap ring while their friends cheered and filmed, and she had been so overwhelmed that she said yes without thinking.

He got drunk later that night and left her to pay the whole hotel bill. After the engagement, he talked her into putting him on more accounts, saying it was normal for an engaged couple to share everything.

Then he burned through her money to save his failing business, bought gifts for Amber with it, and slowly took control of the inheritance her parents had left her.

By the time Chloe understood what he had done, Tyler ruled the shelter and Amber wore the Reed necklace. That proposal was never love. It was the lock he clicked around my neck.

"Chloe?" Amber's voice floated through the phone, light and curious. "Are you still there?"

"I'm here," Chloe answered, and her voice was steady even though her heart pounded.

"You're coming, right? Tyler will be heartbroken if you don't." She said it with such false warmth that Chloe could almost see her smirk.

Chloe looked at the warehouse receipts and the construction schedule spread across her desk. Without the necklace, every box of food and medicine would need a warehouse, a truck and time she did not have.

In the last life, Tyler and Amber had used its storage space to swallow everything she gathered, and then they had thrown her out to die.

The necklace was the last missing piece of her survival plan, and now the party had handed her the chance to take it. Tyler wanted to surprise her in front of their whole class and corner her into a yes.

Fine. I will give you a bigger surprise, and you will learn what it truly costs to buy love with someone else's money.

Chloe smiled into the phone, and her voice came out soft and warm. "Of course I'm coming. I wouldn't miss Tyler's surprise for the world."

Amber relaxed, and her laugh bubbled through the line. "Good. Wear something pretty."

After the call ended, Chloe walked to her closet and pulled out a red dress, running her fingers slowly over the silk.

Tomorrow, Tyler would gather every person they knew into one room and try to trap her with a proposal, and Chloe would let him build the whole stage. Then she would use it against him.

"Go ahead and kneel, Tyler, because I'm going to make sure you remember this party for the rest of your life."