Chapter 2

Ella's POV

I heard voices downstairs. They were already having breakfast together. I took a deep breath and headed down.

When I walked into the dining room, they were sitting side by side at the table. Damien had his coffee in front of him, and when he saw me, he straightened up in his chair.

"Ella. Good, you're awake. Sit down. I need to talk to you about something."

I sat down in the chair across from them. The table suddenly felt way too big, like there was an ocean between us instead of just polished wood.

"I've made a decision about this situation," Damien said. "I've thought about it carefully, and I've decided I'm keeping both of you."

Vivian glanced at me, waiting.

"I love both of you," he continued, "The Blackwood family has more than enough resources to support two wives. I don't see why I should have to choose."

In my last life, this was the moment I lost it. I told him he was insane, that I wouldn't share him with anyone, that this was a betrayal of everything we'd promised each other.

But now, I only looked at him.

"Okay," I said.

Damien blinked. "What?"

"I said okay." I reached for the coffee pot and poured myself a cup. "If that's what you've decided."

"You're not angry?" He was staring at me.

"I'm thinking about it practically." I took a sip of coffee. It was bitter but I didn't bother adding sugar. "You saved Emma's life, Damien. You paid for her surgery when I had nothing. You gave her a chance to actually live. How can I be angry when I owe you so much?"

You have no idea how upset I am. You have no idea that I've already watched you destroy everything. That I've already died because of this exact moment.

Vivian's grip tightened on her cup. I caught the movement from the corner of my eye. "That's very understanding of you, Ella."

"Besides," I continued, looking at her now, "if this makes Damien happy, then I should accept it. That's what love is supposed to be, right? Wanting the other person to be happy."

Damien's expression shifted into something I couldn't quite read. Relief, maybe, or suspicion. "I'm glad you're being reasonable about this."

"Actually," I said, "I was thinking I could help Vivian get settled in. Make sure she has everything she needs. We could even redecorate the guest room if she wants."

Vivian's smile didn't reach her eyes at all. "How sweet of you, Ella."

The word made my stomach turn over, but I kept my face neutral. "Of course. We're family now, aren't we?"

After breakfast, Damian took Vivian to pick out furniture for the renovation, and I started my plan. First, I needed to do was change mine and my sister's identities. I went to this underground operation I'd stumbled across back when I was doing jobs for Damian. They help people get paperwork done, skip all the official red tape, and they're super discreet about it, exactly what I needed.

After submitting the paperwork and ensuring it would be expedited, I went straight to Emma's apartment. I rented this apartment for her using my savings. Since I didn't have to worry about medical expenses anymore, my savings went a lot further. She didn't want to stay with us, so I found her this place. Damian even said he'd buy her a whole villa, but she said no. I knew she only refused because of me. When I got there, she was at her desk surrounded by study guides everywhere.

"Hey," she said, looking up with a smile. Then the smile faded. "Ella, you look awful."

She stood up immediately and grabbed my hands. "What's going on?"

God, I want to tell her everything. I want to tell her that she's going to die if we stay here. That Vivian is an actual monster. That I've already watched her bleed out on a shooting range floor while that bitch smiled about it.

"I'm okay," I said, "I just came to talk to you about something important."

"Is it Damien? Did he do something to you?"

"No, it's not that. I was thinking about your future, about what's best for you." I took a breath and forced myself to sound calm. "How would you feel about studying abroad? Maybe somewhere in Europe?"

"What? Why would I do that?"

"There are better programs there for what you want to study. It would be good for both of us to get away for a while."

Emma pulled her hands away from mine. "Ella, what's really happening? You're acting so weird. First you get married to this insanely rich guy, everything seems perfect, and now you want to leave the country?"

"People change," I said quietly. "Situations change in ways you don't expect."

"But you said he was your true love. You literally said the wedding was the happiest day of your entire life."

It was. Until I found out that happy endings are bullshit and the man you love can turn into a stranger who watches you suffer.

"I was wrong," I said. "About a lot of things, actually. But I'm not wrong about this. We need to be ready to leave, and we need to be ready soon."

"How soon are we talking?"

"I don't know yet. A few weeks, maybe less. Can you just trust me on this?"

She looked at me for a long moment, and I could see her trying to figure out what I wasn't saying. "You're scaring me."

"I know. I'm sorry for that. But I need you to trust me anyway, okay? Can you do that for me?"

Finally, she nodded slowly. "Okay. But Ella, if you need help with something, if Damien is hurting you or—"

"I know. Thank you." I hugged her probably too tight, hard enough that I felt her trying to pull back a little. I couldn't help it. In my head I kept seeing her the way she looked in that other timeline, already dying, and I needed to feel her breathing and alive and safe.

When I got back to the house, it was almost ten at night.

I walked past the living room on my way to the stairs. Damien and Vivian were on the couch watching some movie I didn't recognize. He had his arm around her shoulders like they were a real couple.

"Ella." His voice stopped me halfway up. "Where have you been all day?"

"Out," I said. "Running some errands."

"What kind of errands?"

"Personal stuff. Nothing you need to worry about."

I started up the stairs again but he called out, "Wait. Come back down here."

Something in his tone made me turn around. He was standing now, holding a piece of paper in his hand. A letter.

My stomach dropped but I kept my face completely blank. What the hell is this now?

"I found this," he said, walking toward me with the paper. "In your study. Care to explain what it is?"

He handed me the letter and I scanned it quickly. It was supposedly from me to some guy named Marcus, talking about how much I hated being trapped in this marriage, how I couldn't wait to be free of Damien.

The handwriting even looked kind of like mine.

"Well?" Damien demanded. "What do you have to say?"

I looked up from the letter. "I didn't write this."

"The handwriting matches yours perfectly."

"I didn't write it," I repeated. My voice came out flat and tired.

"So you're telling me someone forged an entire letter in your handwriting? That's what you expect me to believe?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"Don't lie to me!" His voice exploded through the hallway. Vivian appeared in the doorway behind him, her face arranged into this perfect expression of concern.

I just looked at him. I was so tired of this, tired of him. "Believe whatever you want, Damien. You're going to anyway, so why does it matter what I say?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I didn't write that letter. I don't know anyone named Marcus. And honestly, I don't really care anymore if you believe me or not." I started to turn away. "Is that everything you needed?"

He grabbed my arm hard. "You think you can just walk away from me? After everything I've done for you? After I saved your sister's life?"

After everything you've done for me? You mean like pushing me in front of a knife? Like standing there while your psycho girlfriend murdered my sister?

But I didn't say any of that out loud. I just looked down at his hand on my arm until he finally let go.

"I want you to think about what you've done," he said. "Really think long and hard about your behavior."

"Okay."

"Go outside. Kneel in the courtyard. Stay there until I tell you that you can come back in."

I looked past him to where Vivian was standing in the doorway. She had this tiny smile on her face, like she was trying to hide how pleased she was but couldn't quite manage it. This was her whole plan, getting to watch me be humiliated like this.

Fine. Let her have her fun. In a few weeks I'll be gone and she can have all of this. The house, the money, Damien and his obsessive bullshit love. All of it can be hers.

"Alright," I said.

I walked past them without another word, through the house and out the back door into the courtyard. Rain was starting to fall, of course it was.

I knelt on the wet stones. The rain soaked through my clothes within minutes, cold water running down my back and plastering my hair to my face. It was freezing and getting colder by the second.

Through the window I could see Damien standing in his study. He was looking out at me. For just a second I thought maybe he'd come outside, maybe he'd tell me this was enough. His hand even moved toward the door handle.

But then Vivian appeared next to him. She said something I couldn't hear from out here, and he turned away from the window.

The lights went off one by one as the night got darker and the rain got heavier.

I stayed there kneeling in the courtyard, letting the rain soak me completely, and I let myself remember everything. Emma's blood spreading across the concrete. Vivian's smile as she watched my sister die. The feeling of my own heart literally breaking as I died.

Two more weeks, I thought. Just two more weeks and we're out of here. Just two more weeks and she'll never be able to touch us again.

The rain kept falling and I kept kneeling there in it, and I didn't cry. I was done crying over Damien Blackwood.