The Vengeful Heiress Second Chance: Reborn To Ruin Them All

Nicole Garcia

The smoke burned my lungs and every time I tried to breathe I got less air than the time before. My eyes were watering so badly I couldn't see straight, just the shapes of two people standing by the door, watching me die without trying to help.

"Please," I tried to say, but it came out as a cough, then I was coughing so hard that tears ran down my eyes.

Allison laughed from the distance and hope suddenly filled my chest. My sister was here. She was the one who could help me... set me free from whatever this was...

"Finally awake," she purred sweetly in a voice that I only ever heard when she was mocking someone or plotting something evil. "I was starting to think you'd sleep through the whole thing. That would have been disappointing."

My wrists were tied to the arms of a wooden chair and my ankles were tied to its legs. The wood was hot underneath me, not burning yet but it was soon going to catch fire and burn me with it.

"Allison," I said, and my voice cracked in the middle of her name. "Allison, help me. Please."

She cocked her head to the side, and the light from the fire shone on her face, making her look like the devil that was sent to get rid of someone.

"Help you?" she said. "I am helping you. I'm helping you disappear."

Justin was standing beside her, his arm around her waist as if they had been doing it for years, and maybe they had. His other hand was holding a lighter, flicking it on and off. Taunting me that he could end my life any second from now.

"Justin," I said, turning to him because he was the one I had given everything to, the one I thought understood me, the one I almost gave a piece of myself for. "Justin, please, untie me. We can talk about this."

He stopped flicking the lighter and pushed himself off the wall, looking at me. The expression was different today. Normally, his eyes were always soft and his mouth gentle anytime he looked at me, but now? His eyes were empty and his lips was set in a firm line.

"Talk about what?" he asked, and I could hear the disgust dripping from his tone. "There's nothing to talk about, Nicole. This was always the plan."

I couldn't breathe, and it wasn't just because of the smoke anymore. "What plan?" I whispered, my eyes wide in alarm.

Allison stepped forward, her heels clicking on the floor, and she crouched down in front of me, put her hand on my knee like she was comforting me. I almost threw up because I had seen her do this one too many times to her victims, the pretend comfort...

"You really don't know?" Her voice was low and smooth, as if the fire that was creeping closer didn't bother her. "After everything? You really thought Justin was the only one who understood you?"

I looked at Justin and he shrugged. Actually shrugged, like we were talking about something that wasn't serious.

"I needed the money, Nicole." he said. "Someone healthy enough that could donate a kidney out of the kindness of her heart. Someone I could convince I was dying."

I felt my blood run cold at that revelation. "You don't have kidney disease," I said slowly.

"No, but I have a buyer," he smirked. "Someone who needs a kidney. Someone who's paying a lot of money for a healthy one. Someone who deserves the kidney, and you were the perfect match."

I remembered the night I signed the papers. Damian was there, standing in the doorway of my study, watching me with tired eyes that looked like they hadn't slept in weeks.

"Please," he had begged me. "Please don't do this, Nicole. Just wait. Give it a week. Let the doctors run more tests."

I remembered how tired I had been that night — not of him, but of the version of myself Allison had spent months building in my head. She had told me, over and over, that Damian only stayed married to me out of obligation to our families, that his concern was performance, that he would thank me quietly once I was out of his way. I hadn't wanted to believe her. But I had been too exhausted, too worn down, to fight her version of things.

"You don't have to do this for me," I said instead, my voice tighter than I meant it to be. "You've done enough, Damian. Let me handle this on my own."

He didn't move, he was stubborn like that, and some small, stupid part of me was almost glad he wasn't listening.

"I'm not trying to control you," he continued, still perched by my doorframe, and his voice was so quiet I almost didn't hear it over the sound of my own pen clicking shut. "I'm trying to save you."

"I don't need saving," I said, quieter now than I intended, more to convince myself than him. "Please, just — go home, Damian."

He didn't leave, instead he had walked closer, until he was standing right in front of my desk, and then he did something I didn't expect. Something I had never seen him do before.

He got on his knees.

"Please," he said, and his voice broke on the word. "Please, Nicole. I'll give you anything. I'll sign the divorce papers tomorrow. I'll leave you alone forever. Just don't do this."

I stared down at him. At this man who had loved me for three years, who had never once raised his voice, who had never cheated, who had never done anything but try. Something in my chest twisted, aching to reach for him, but Allison's voice was louder in my head than my own heart — he's only saying what he thinks he should say, Nicole, don't fall for it — and I hated myself for believing her over the man kneeling in front of me.

"Get up, Damian," I said, my voice cracking despite myself. "Please. Just get up."

He stayed there for so long that I had stopped counting after a minute, just looking up at me with wet eyes, hoping that I would change my mind. I almost did. My hand had actually lifted off the desk toward him before I caught myself and pulled it back.

Finally, he stood up and wiped his face with the back of his hand quickly, like he didn't want me to see, and then he nodded.

"Okay," he said. "Okay."

I didn't think about that night again. Not until now. Not until I was tied to a chair, burning to death, with the man I had once called my closest friend standing next to my sister while she watched me die.

"That's the thing about Damian," Allison was saying, and her voice pulled me back to the fire, back to the smoke, back to the ropes that were cutting into my wrists. "He actually loved you. And I made sure you never believed it."

She gestured at Justin. He was smiling now, that same smile he gave me when he brought me coffee in bed.

"The kidney was just the start," Allison said. "If only you died in surgery, I was going to inherit everything. Mom and Dad would have been so heartbroken, they would have given me the company just to have someone to hold onto." She shook her head and sighed heavily, "Sadly, you pulled through and survived. It was such a bum."

"You're sick," I spat out despite myself, wondering how I hadn't noticed that she hated me all these while and even wished death on me.

"I will get the company, Nicole" she chuckled slightly. "That's the difference now between you and I."

She stood up and walked to the door with Justin following behind her.

"Wait," I screamed. "Please, wait. I'll give you anything. The company. The money. Just let me go."

Allison turned and gave me one final look. "Goodbye, Nicole."

Justin tossed the lighter onto the tablecloth, and the flame began to spread faster than it was earlier, with Justin and Allison walking out without turning back.

I pulled at the ropes until my skin tore. I screamed until my throat bled. The foundation of the house started falling one by one until the ceiling fell on my head, followed by a rod. I felt something warm trickling down my head, and I knew at once that it was my blood. And in that moment, I didn't see Justin's or Allison's face, I saw Damian. On his knees... Begging me to live. And I hadn't been able to say a single word back to him.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into the smoke as more tears fell from my eyes. "I'm so sorry."

Please, I begged the universe, the fire, anything that was listening. Please give me another chance. I don't want revenge. I just want to make it right, and everything went dark.