Chapter 2

2.

"Hey beautiful, a charming guy like me doesn't deserve to die, right?"

Pulling myself out of the memories, I gave a relaxed smile to the masked captor standing before me.

She was petite and slim. Even though she used an electronic voice changer, I knew the truth.

Because I was reborn, I already knew she was just a young woman who had no real intention of hurting anyone.

She froze.

"What...?"

"Kidnapping is a federal offense," I said gently. "If you let me go right now, it's not too late to walk away."

I paused before adding, "I know your mother is critically ill in the hospital. I can give you the money you need, but you don't have to ruin your life for it."

In my past life, after Preston allegedly died, something felt terribly off to me.

I had noticed the captor was a woman who seemed weirdly respectful toward him.

Deep down, I suspected he wasn't dead at all.

I spent months digging into it.

And my search revealed that Preston was very much alive.

He had staged the entire kidnapping and hired this woman himself. When I tracked her down, she confessed everything.

Preston only did it to test who Audrey would choose in a life-or-death situation.

When Audrey picked me, he was devastated and chose to fake his death.

After all, the living can never compete with a tragic ghost.

He wanted Audrey to hate me for the rest of her life.

Just as I was about to expose the truth to Audrey, she drugged me, tied me up, and ended my life.

"Are you telling the truth?" the captor asked, her voice wavering.

"Every single word. But you have to let me walk out of here."

Her name was Willa. In my previous life, when I tracked her down, she and her sick mother were hiding out in a remote mountain town.

Because Preston faked his death, she was branded a fugitive and had to live like a rat.

Back then, she had fallen to her knees, begging me.

"Can you please help me? I don't want to spend the rest of my life running."

So in this life, I decided to help her from the start.

It was also my ticket to escape this mess cleanly.

I had my own scores to settle.