All Chapters of Never In Another Life: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

Back in the room, I started packing without saying anything.Cashmere coats. Silk nightgowns. Bags there'd been a waiting list for.Everything I couldn't make myself buy back when we had nothing, Adrian had gone out and bought.The diffuser on the table held a scent he'd mixed himself. He'd even put the dark green curtains back, the ones I used to like.For two years after he dragged me home, he'd almost looked like the boy who used to see nobody but me.But I wasn't soft enough anymore to be talked around by a few nice gestures.I packed only the clothes I'd had on the day they took me.I'd barely gotten them into the case when Adrian walked in.He caught my wrist, slid the garnet bracelet back on, and closed the clasp."Keep it on."You don't give it away again."I looked up, honestly surprised. He'd gone and taken it back from her.Then his eyes went to the suitcase and his face changed."That's all you're taking?""None of it's mine," I said. "There's no reason to tak

"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

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

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