Chapter 2

The next day, the campus was buzzing. Ethan and Chloe were the university's new golden couple. I saw them everywhere, holding hands on the main quad, sharing a coffee at the campus cafe. He' d buy her lunch, carry her books, and look at her with an expression of such tender care it was almost comical.

It was a painful echo of a past he' d forgotten, or maybe never even noticed.

I remembered one winter, years ago, when Ethan was preparing for a major architecture competition. He was sick with the flu, stressed and falling behind. I stayed up for three nights straight, not for my own exams, but to help him finish his models and format his presentation boards. I brought him soup, managed his schedule, and basically acted as his unpaid assistant.

When he won, he barely thanked me. He took the credit, celebrated with his friends, and when I gently mentioned how tired I was, he just said, "You didn't have to do it."

That was the thanks I got for my sacrifice. Cold dismissal. Now, he was treating Chloe like a delicate flower for simply existing.

Seeing them only strengthened my resolve. I had spent too much of my life begging for scraps of affection from a man who had none to give me. Now, I understood. He wasn't just cold; he was a user. He took what was convenient and discarded what wasn't. I had been convenient. Chloe was now his passion.

Later that afternoon, I was leaving Professor Albright' s office when I saw them arguing near the science building. Chloe was crying, her shoulders shaking.

"She just looked at me with so much hate, Ethan," Chloe sobbed into his chest. "I don't know what I ever did to her. I tried to be nice, but she just wants you all to herself. It' s scary."

She was a masterful actress. Her tears were perfectly timed, her voice filled with a convincing tremor of fear.

Ethan held her tight, his face a mask of fury directed entirely at me, even though I was standing thirty feet away, unnoticed. "Don't worry about her," he said, his voice low and menacing. "I'll handle it. Sarah Miller won't be a problem for us much longer. I'll make sure of it."

His promise hung in the air, a threat aimed at my future. I felt a chill, but it was quickly replaced by a hot surge of anger. He would try to destroy me for this manipulative girl. A girl whose father was the reason Ethan's own parents were dead.

The irony was staggering. Ethan' s parents had lost their company and their lives after Mr. Davis, Chloe' s father, orchestrated a hostile takeover built on fraud and betrayal. The collapse left them with nothing. Ethan' s father, unable to face the shame and ruin, had taken his own life, and his mother had followed him soon after. Ethan and his uncle David were all that was left of the once-proud Hayes family.

And here he was, promising to protect the daughter of their mortal enemy. He was blinded by a pretty face and a sob story.

Chloe, seeing my reflection in the glass of the building, gave a tiny, triumphant smirk over Ethan' s shoulder before burying her face again, her crying intensifying. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was stoking his protective instincts, painting me as the villain, ensuring he would be her shield and her weapon.

"She' s applying for the Albright program, isn' t she?" Chloe whispered, her voice muffled by his shirt. "It would be a shame if something happened… if the professor thought she wasn' t a suitable candidate."

I didn' t need to hear his response. I saw the look on his face. A cold, calculating determination. He was already planning it. He was going to try and ruin my one chance at a real future.

I turned and walked away, my fists clenched at my sides. The memory of me, sick with exhaustion, gluing tiny pieces of cardboard together for his project, flashed in my mind. The memory of him looking at me with annoyance.

He was going to try and take everything from me, just like he had in our last life. But this time was different. This time, I knew his every move before he made it. And this time, I was ready to fight back.

I watched them one last time from across the campus. They were walking away, his arm wrapped protectively around her. They looked like a couple from a romance novel.

But I knew the truth. I knew the final chapter. And it wasn't a love story. It was a tragedy. His tragedy. And I was going to have a front-row seat.

That night, I received a formal notice from the Hayes family lawyer. The termination of the engagement was complete. A separate, personal note from David Hayes was included. He expressed his regret and wished me well. He was a good man, trapped by tradition and a misguided love for his nephew. A pang of sadness hit me, knowing his fate in my past life.

But I pushed it away. I couldn't save him. I couldn't save anyone but myself.

My phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number. "Stay away from Ethan. You don't deserve him." It was obviously Chloe.

I deleted it without a reply.

Then, a message from Ethan himself. "I don't know what game you're playing, Sarah, but it ends now. You will regret pushing me."

I didn't reply to that one either. Let him think he was in control. Let him plot and scheme. He was playing checkers, but I was playing chess. And I already knew how the game ended.