Chapter 1

The floodwaters raged, and my firefighter husband demanded I radio headquarters for backup.

Instead, I smashed our only functional two-way radio against a rock.

In my past life, when the flash flood hit, my husband and I led separate rescue units to evacuate civilians.

After seventy-two hours of nonstop rescue operations, we successfully moved every resident to safety.

Exhausted, I dragged myself back to the station, only for my well-rested husband to jump to his feet.

“Where the hell have you been?” he yelled. “We are fighting a catastrophic flood, and you desert your post?”

His childhood sweetheart, who was also on the team, chimed in with fake sympathy.

“The flood was terrifying, Jesse. Everyone wants to live. It is only natural Tessa panicked and fled.”

Her words incited a furious mob. The enraged civilians dragged me outside and drowned me in the murky water.

Now, I have been reborn―right back to the day the levee broke.

1.

“The dam has collapsed! All units, we need immediate firefighting and rescue support!”

The distress call blared over the station comms, and our department deployed immediately.

Jesse and I were assigned to lead two separate strike teams―one to the East District, the other to the West District.

Before I could climb into my rig, Jesse blocked my path.

“Babe, didn’t you forget something?”

Before every deployment, I used to check his gear meticulously and whisper a gentle reminder.

“Be careful out there. Come back to me in one piece.”

This time, if he had not stepped in front of me, I would not have spared him a single glance.

“Take care.”

Saying even one extra word made me want to throw up.

He stared at me, bewildered by my sudden coldness and the fact that I had not adjusted his harness.

Jesse reached out, trying to grab my arm.

“What is wrong with you today? Are you running a fever?”

His warm hand touched my forehead, sending a wave of pure revulsion down my spine.

Having lived through my past life, I knew every gesture he made was a calculated trap.

If I delayed our departure by even a minute, he would twist it into evidence that I was slacking off during a crisis.

I slapped his hand away and climbed into the rescue truck.

“Let us move. People are waiting for us.”

Jesse froze, but assumed I was just eager to get to the disaster zone, so he did not push further.

Sitting high in the engine, looking down at the city about to be submerged, bitter resentment swirled in my chest.

In my past life, Jesse’s team was disorganized and completely inefficient compared to mine.

Eventually, he begged me to request backup from the county task force on his behalf.

I foolishly assumed the raging torrents were simply overwhelming for his crew, so I called in reinforcements for him.

I had no idea he was setting me up.

He did not just want to shift blame onto me after the storm; he wanted out-of-town units to take over his sector so he could slack off and rest.

I went without sleep for three days and three nights, evacuating every last resident in the East District with zero casualties.

Yet when I returned to headquarters, bone-tired, I found Jesse lounging with his feet up, casually scrolling through his phone.

I did not even have the energy to confront him.

Then, the moment he saw me, he sprang to his feet.

“Tessa, where have you been? We were short-handed out there! How could you desert your post when lives were on the line?”

His childhood bestie, Lacey Mercer, popped her head out from the breakroom upon hearing the commotion.

Seeing me standing there covered in mud, she immediately piled on.

“Jesse, don’t be too hard on Tessa.”

“The currents were violent. Who wouldn’t want to save their own skin?”

“It is totally understandable that she was too terrified to fight the flood.”

Right then, a crowd of evacuees had arrived to present thank-you banners to the station.

They swallowed Lacey’s poisonous words whole.

Because of Jesse’s botched rescue efforts, several people in the West District had died.

Grieving and furious, the mob instantly exploded upon hearing that a coward had abandoned them.

A man whose wife had drowned charged forward, grabbing me violently by the hair.

“You selfish bitch! You are a firefighter―how dare you hide while people were dying?”

“My wife would still be alive if you had not run away!”

He dragged me outside into the deluge, the collar of my turnout coat choking the breath out of me.

Exhausted after three days without sleep, I was completely powerless against him.

He shoved me down and held my head beneath the filthy floodwater.

The surrounding crowd cheered in vindication, venting their grief and fury on me.

That was how I died―murdered by the very people I had bled to save.

The sharp wail of the station siren jerked me back to reality.

I had returned to the exact moment before our deployment.