CHAPTER 1

The first thing I felt was cold.

Not the kind of cold that made me reach for a blanket. This cold came from inside my body. My fingers had gone numb, my legs wouldn’t move, and every breath hurt my chest.

I lay on the floor of an abandoned shop, staring at the broken window above me. Snow had entered through the opening and covered part of the floor. My coat was torn. My lips were dry, and my stomach had been empty for two days.

Outside, someone screamed.

I tried to turn my head, but even that small movement hurt. My body had become too weak to obey me.

I was twenty-six years old, and I was going to die.

The worst part was that I hadn’t always been alone.

Three months earlier, I had a home, money in the bank, a man I planned to marry, and a younger sister I loved more than anyone else in the world. I had believed that if I worked hard enough and loved people enough, they would do the same for me.

I had been wrong.

My fiancé, Adrian, and my sister, Chloe, had taken almost everything I owned. They took my food, my medicine, my warm clothes, and the supplies I had spent months gathering for the disaster that had destroyed our world.

Then they left me behind.

I could still remember Adrian standing at the door with a bag over his shoulder. Chloe was beside him, holding the last box of food.

"Please," I had begged. "You cannot leave me here."

Adrian had refused to look at me.

"We do not have enough for everyone, Evelyn."

I had stared at him, waiting for him to say he was joking. He had promised to protect me. He had asked me to marry him. I had trusted him with my life.

Chloe had looked at me for only a second.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Then she followed him outside.

I had crawled after them, calling their names until my throat hurt. Adrian did not turn around. Chloe did not turn around.

That was the last time I saw either of them.

I had spent the next few weeks moving from one empty building to another, searching for food and somewhere warm enough to sleep. I had traded my watch for a little bread. I had gone three days without proper water. Every time I heard footsteps, I hid. Every time I saw another person, I wondered whether they would help me or take what little I had left.

I had survived for months, but I was running out of strength.

Now, as I lay on the cold floor, I thought about the one person I had refused to trust.

Lucian Vale.

He had been rich, proud, and difficult to understand. He owned several companies before the world fell apart. He had known me for years, and he had offered to help me more than once.

I had refused him every time.

I believed he wanted to control my life. I thought his offers came with conditions I would never be able to meet. Adrian had encouraged that belief, telling me that Lucian was dangerous and that I should stay away from him.

I had listened.

Now I could barely keep my eyes open, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the man I had pushed away.

If I had accepted his help, would I be lying here?

A cough shook my body. Pain spread through my chest, and I pressed one hand against my mouth. When I pulled it away, I saw blood on my fingers.

I was afraid.

Not because I wanted to live forever, but because I was only twenty-six. I had never married. I had never had children. I had never built the peaceful home I used to imagine. I had spent so much of my life trying to make other people happy that I had forgotten to ask what I wanted.

And now I would never get the chance.

"Please," I whispered into the empty shop. "Just give me one more chance."

No one answered.

My eyes began to close. The room became darker, and the cold stopped feeling so painful.

My last thought was not of Adrian or Chloe.

It was of the life I could have lived if I had made different choices.

Then everything went black.

I woke with a gasp.

My hands flew to my chest. I was breathing. My heart was beating so hard that I could hear it in my ears. I sat up, ready to find the broken window, the snow, and the cold floor beneath me.

Instead, I found my bedroom.

Sunlight came through the curtains. My blanket was twisted around my legs, and my phone was charging beside the bed. The room was warm. There was no blood on my hands.

I stared at them for a long time.

Then I looked at the date on my phone.

October 17.

I knew that date. I knew it so well that my stomach tightened before I could even think. I grabbed the phone and checked the year.

The year was the same one I had lived before the world ended.

I got out of bed too quickly and nearly fell. My knees felt weak, but not from hunger. I reached the bathroom and looked in the mirror. The woman looking back at me had clear skin, full cheeks, and no cuts on her face. I looked younger than the dying woman I remembered.

I touched my cheeks, then my neck. I was alive. I was really alive.

"No," I whispered. "This cannot be real."

I checked the date again. Then I opened the calendar and counted the days.

Forty-five days.

The disaster would begin in forty-five days.

I knew what was coming. I remembered the first reports of people becoming sick, the power failures, the empty shops, and the roads filled with people trying to escape. I remembered how quickly normal life had fallen apart. I remembered the fear in people's eyes when they realized no one was coming to save them.

Most of all, I remembered the people I had trusted.

My phone rang, making me jump. Adrian's name appeared on the screen.

For several seconds, I only stared at it. In my first life, I would have answered at once. I would have smiled when he spoke and asked what he needed. If he wanted money, I would have sent it. If Chloe needed something, I would have found a way to provide it.

That was how I had lived. Their needs always came first.

The phone stopped ringing. A message appeared.

Good morning, babe. Can you send me some money today? I need to sort something out.

I read it twice.

I remembered the last box of food in Chloe's hands. I remembered Adrian telling me there was not enough for everyone. I remembered begging them not to leave me, and the way they walked away while I cried.

My hands began to shake. I wanted to throw the phone across the room. I wanted to call them both and tell them I knew what they would do.

But they had not done it yet.

In this life, I still had forty-five days. I had time to prepare. I had time to protect myself. I did not have to repeat every mistake simply because I had made it once before.

I turned off the phone and went to my desk. I found a notebook and a pen. My first list was short.

Food. Water. Medicine. Warm clothes. Safe shelter. Tools. Cash.

I wrote each item carefully. Then I added a second list: people I could trust, people I needed to question, and people who would not be allowed to decide my future for me.

Lucian Vale's name came to mind.

I did not know whether he would help me this time. I did not know if I deserved his trust after rejecting him for so long. But I would not judge him based on Adrian's words again. If Lucian offered help, I would listen. I would ask questions and set clear limits. I would make my own choice.

I sat back and looked at the two lists. Fear was still there, deep in my chest, but it was no longer the only thing I felt.

I had been given a chance I never expected.

I would not waste it trying to earn love from people who had already shown me what it meant to them.

Forty-five days remained.

This time, I would be ready.

I closed the notebook and stood up. I needed to check my account and see how much money I could use. Then I would make a plan, one step at a time. I could not change what had happened before, but I could change what happened next. This time, life belonged to me.