Where the Tide Brought Me Home

Claire's POV

In my last life, I needed five million dollars to pay for my mother’s treatment. So I signed a three-year marriage contract with Everett and became the Mrs. Thorne everyone envied.

But throughout those three years, his heart belonged to Celeste, the woman he had never gotten over after she left for Europe.

She came back the day we buried my mother.

The day I was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Everett snapped at me over the phone for bothering him during surgery.

And when I took my last breath in a hospital bed, he was in France attending a conference with Celeste.

Until the moment I died, he never came to see me. Not even once.

Then I opened my eyes and found myself back on the day of my mother’s funeral.

Her body had barely been laid to rest, yet that evening, Everett raised his glass at a charity gala and announced that Celeste would become the new chief of neurosurgery at Thorne Medical Group. He looked at her with a tenderness he had never shown me, and the sight of it hurt.

The entire room applauded them.

No one remembered that I had buried my mother that very day.

I picked up a glass of red wine, walked straight over, and threw it in Everett’s face.

“A bitch and a bastard. What a perfect match. Hope it lasts forever.”

I pulled off my wedding ring and tossed it into the champagne tower. As glass shattered and cameras flashed around me, I turned and walked away.

Behind me, Everett said through clenched teeth, “Without the Thorne family, you’re nothing.”

He had no idea that I would never go back to him again.

I opened my eyes and found myself standing at the edge of a ballroom.

Everett stood at the center of the room. Beside him was an elegant blonde woman with perfect posture and a polished smile.

Celeste Harlow.

It took me only a few seconds to realize that I had somehow come back to life in the past.

The memories of the life I had already lived were terrifyingly vivid. The harsh white lights in the hospital room. The nurses whispering to one another.

“Mrs. Thorne’s husband hasn’t visited her once…”

And then came the long, unbroken tone as the monitor flatlined.

Now I was back on the day we buried my mother.

Her funeral had ended that afternoon, but the Thorne family’s charity gala went ahead that evening as planned. Their social calendar did not stop for anyone, not even on the day of a funeral.

Everyone at the service had said my mother received the best treatment available.

In my previous life, I believed them.

Now I could see the truth. The experimental treatment had been little more than a showcase for Thorne Medical Group’s latest technology. My mother had been their guinea pig.

That five million dollars had never bought her hope.

It had bought three years of my life.

Everett raised his glass, his voice carrying over the conversations around the room.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement.”

The room fell silent.

He turned to Celeste. His eyes held a tenderness I had never once seen during our three years of marriage.

“Dr. Celeste Harlow, one of Europe’s leading neurosurgeons, will be joining Thorne Medical Group as our new chief of neurosurgery. Welcome home, Celeste.”

Applause filled the ballroom as the guests gathered around them.

I stood in the corner like I was invisible, gripping my wineglass until my knuckles turned white.

In my previous life, I told myself they were only colleagues.

This time, I wasn’t going to lie to myself.

He looked at her like a man in love.

And I was nothing more than a transaction.

This was where it had all begun.

In my previous life, I had stood in that same corner watching them and told myself to be understanding.

After that, Everett came home later and later.

Meetings. Surgeries. He never ran out of excuses.

I waited for him alone in that cold, cavernous mansion while dinner went untouched night after night.

Then one day, I held my terminal cancer diagnosis in my hand and called him.

“Everett, I need you…”

He cut me off impatiently.

“I’m in surgery. We’ll talk later.”

I heard Celeste laughing in the background.

In the end, I lay alone in a hospital bed, listening as the beeps from the monitor grew slower and weaker.

I kept thinking that if he came to see me just once, it would be enough.

But he never came.

A nurse later told me Dr. Thorne had accompanied Dr. Harlow to a conference in France.

I died alone while he was in France with her.

Not this time.

I walked straight toward them. My heels struck the marble floor, and whispers spread through the room with every step.

I picked up a glass of red wine and threw it in Everett’s face.

The wine ran down his jaw and stained his white shirt red.

The ballroom erupted in shocked gasps. Celeste stumbled back, startled. Everett stood frozen, staring at me in disbelief.

“Welcome home, Dr. Harlow,” I said calmly. “You can have my ex-husband. A bitch and a bastard. What a perfect match. Hope it lasts forever.”

I pulled off my wedding ring.

It was a Thorne family heirloom, worth well over a million dollars.

In front of everyone, I tossed it into the champagne tower.

The crystal pyramid came crashing down.

Cameras flashed all around me. The reporters had caught everything.

Good.

I looked Everett in the eye.

“Our deal is over, Everett. I traded three years of my life for my mother’s treatment. The contract is over. We’re even, and I’m done with you.”

Celeste looked back and forth between us, her composed expression beginning to crack.

Everett wiped the wine from his face and spoke through clenched teeth.

“Where do you think you’re going without us, Claire? You have no money, no family, and no one to turn to. Without me, you’re nothing.”

I met his gaze.

I felt no fear. Only relief.

I turned and walked away.

Behind me, I heard Celeste ask in confusion, “Everett, what is going on?”

He didn’t answer.

The cold autumn air hit me the moment I stepped outside.

In the parking lot, I found my mother’s ten-year-old car. It was the only thing she had left behind for me.

In my previous life, I had driven her to the hospital in that car.

This time, it would take me somewhere beyond Everett’s control.

I got behind the wheel and started the engine. The estate receded behind me until its lights were barely visible.

Then Everett called.

I glanced at the screen, my face blank, and shut off my phone.

In my previous life, I endured three years of misery only to die alone in a hospital.

This time, I was going to live for myself.

Everett would never control me again. I was done with his coldness, and I was done with our deal.

I floored the gas and merged onto the highway, driving straight into the darkness.

In the rearview mirror, the lights of Boston faded into the distance.