Chapter 1

1.

After I was reborn, when Vince Costello’s personal assistant, Bella, once again slipped a dog collar around my neck as a joke while I was sleeping, I didn’t pull out my Glock and press it to her head like I did in my last life.

And I didn’t smash half the crystal chandeliers in the Westchester estate and scream for a divorce when Vince defended her.

I just sat up, unclasped the damned chain from my neck, and dropped it on the floor.

"She's got some nerve," I said to Vince, my voice terrifyingly calm. "You two have fun."

I grabbed my trench coat from the nightstand. "I'm done. Happy anniversary."

Then I walked out of the bedroom without looking back.

I had no choice. My last life was a nightmare after I left Vince.

He treated me like a family traitor―all my bank accounts were frozen overnight, every credit card canceled. I searched all over Manhattan for a divorce lawyer willing to take a "gray case" and ended up with a check for forty-eight dollars. The moment they heard the name Costello, they wouldn't even let me in their offices.

Worse, right after I escaped New York, I was diagnosed with late-stage adenocarcinoma at a free clinic in New Jersey.

The doctor said I had six months, tops.

No insurance, no money. The cost of late-stage cancer treatment was astronomical. I tried to apply for Medicaid, but the process was too slow. I contacted several medical charities, but they all rejected me, saying my case "didn't meet priority assistance criteria."

The pain devoured me like a wild animal. I survived on ibuprofen from CVS, and then I couldn't even afford that.

At my most desperate, I swallowed all my pride and crawled back to Vince’s estate on Long Island.

It was a late December night, right after a blizzard. I knelt in the snow outside the iron gates, begging the guard through the intercom to let Vince know I was there. Vince’s voice came through, as cold as ice.

"You chose to leave, Ava. It was over the moment you walked out that door. Don't come crawling back."

Then he hung up.

I collapsed in the snow. My body temperature was dropping, my consciousness fading.

In my last moments, I saw him through the iron bars. He had his arm around Bella in the rose garden I had so carefully tended to. They were drinking champagne from the Waterford crystal glasses I had picked out, and then they kissed.

I died right outside my own home.

So in this life, fuck dignity. Survival is the only thing that matters.

…

But I didn't expect Vince to follow me.

He caught me at the end of the hallway, still in his robe.

"Ava, wait." There was a rare urgency in his voice. "Just… hear me out."

He paused, as if trying to find the right words.

"Bella's young, she doesn't think. The dog collar―I know it was messed up, but it was just a stupid prank."

"Her father worked for my father. She’s seen me as family since we were kids. She doesn’t know boundaries," he said, rubbing his brow. "You are my wife. Don't let her get to you."

He had said those exact same words in my last life.

Back then, Bella had just burned the back of my hand with a Zippo lighter custom-made for the Costello family, the one with their crest engraved on it. I was shaking from the pain, and hearing Vince's casual defense of her made me snap.

I pulled the Glock 19 he’d given me from my waistband and fired three shots into the marble floor at his feet. Shards of stone flew everywhere. All the core family members were there, including his father.

"We're done!" I shrieked, then stormed out of the estate.