Chapter 2

Vera had been right. Sebastian’s cruelty toward me began even sooner than it had in our first life.

On my third day at the academy, several vampire boys cornered me in a restroom. Someone grabbed my hair and shoved my face into a sink full of ice-cold water. I could hear laughter and jeering all around me. They didn’t yank me up until my chest hurt.

I braced myself against the sink, coughing as water dripped from my hair.

Sebastian stood in front of me, looking down at me.

“You wanted to live with the Ashfords, didn’t you? You got your wish. Happy now?”

In our first life, he had told me he hated people who used their family’s status to bully others. Now he was the one who had brought these boys to corner me.

Back then, he had thought I deserved protection. This time, he had decided I was a girl who had moved into his house for money. What I had actually done didn’t matter to him.

Then his gaze shifted past me, toward the other end of the hallway.

Vera was on her knees, scrubbing the floor.

Someone beside him explained, “Her adoptive mom cleans here. Apparently, she stays after school every day to help.”

Sebastian frowned.

“She has to do that?”

Vera stood up as though she had only just noticed us. Her hands were red from the cold water, but her voice was calm.

“My mom is responsible for this floor. If it isn’t clean, they’ll dock her pay.”

Sebastian glanced at her hands.

“Is that little bit of money worth freezing yourself over?”

“It’s nothing to you. For us, it’s enough to live on for a few days.”

Standing a short distance away, I almost laughed.

I had said nearly the same thing in our first life, in this very hallway. At the time, I hadn’t even known Sebastian was nearby, much less that he had started noticing me that day.

He had told me about it later.

Vera had heard the story, too.

So this time, she had deliberately chosen the same spot and repeated almost the same words.

Sebastian was clearly taken in. He took the rag from her hand and draped his jacket over her shoulders.

“How are you getting home?”

“My bike.”

“In this weather? I’ll have my driver take you.”

This time, Vera accepted.

As she passed me, she glanced up and gave me a small smile when no one else was looking.

She remembered what I had said in our first life, and how much Sebastian had felt for me afterward.

When I turned down his help, it was because I didn’t want him interfering in my life.

Vera was playing at independence to draw him closer.

Once they were gone, I pushed myself upright against the sink. A clean towel appeared in front of me.

“Here. Dry off.”

I looked up and saw Leah Bennett, our class representative.

She was human, too. She had excellent grades and rarely said much. In my first life, she had also handed me a towel after I was bullied, but we had barely spoken after that.

“Thank you.”

I took the towel. She nodded and turned to leave, but I called after her.

“Wait. Where’s the cafeteria?”

She looked back, surprised.

“I just transferred. I don’t know my way around yet.” I rubbed the towel over my dripping hair. “And I’m really hungry.”

She watched me for a moment.

“Come with me.”

When we reached the cafeteria, I asked if she wanted to have dinner together.

She said yes.

Over the meal, we talked about our classes. She explained what the math teacher expected and reminded me that an assignment was due the next morning.

I made a note of it.

Wherever Sebastian and Vera had gone, I still had things to do tomorrow.

The Ashford estate was quiet when I returned that evening.

The count was still at the office. The countess was attending a dinner party, and Sebastian wasn’t home.

I knew where he was.

On this same day in our first life, he had driven me to the Millers’ house for the first time. My adoptive parents had warmly invited him to stay. The table was small and the food was simple, but everyone sat together, talking and laughing. For Sebastian, who had grown up in a noble household, it was something new.

Later, he had told me more than once, “Your family might not have money, but at least it feels like a home.”

Vera had clearly remembered that, too.

This time, she couldn’t wait to bring him to the Millers’ house.

My phone lit up.

Vera had sent me a photo.

Sebastian sat beside her at the cramped dining table. The Millers were beaming, and Vera smiled at the camera with his jacket still around her shoulders.

There was one line beneath it.

So this is what a real home feels like.

I looked at it for a few seconds, then turned off the screen.

In my first life, the Millers had worn those same smiles when they invited Sebastian to stay for dinner.

Later, when I was eighteen, I told them I didn’t want to marry him.

My adoptive mother locked me in my room that night. My adoptive father took my phone. When I tried to leave, he dragged me back from the stairs.

They hadn’t liked Sebastian because he treated me well.

They had liked him because he was rich.

Vera only remembered everyone smiling around that table.

She didn’t know that once the Millers decided Sebastian could change their lives, she wouldn’t be allowed to say she didn’t want him.