Chapter 2

2

"Garrett? Did you hear me? I said I'm pregnant..."

Seeing me space out, Tara frowned with a hint of irritation.

Snapping back to reality, I stared at her radiant face. Beneath her joyful expression, I caught a fleeting glint of sly calculation.

In my previous life, I had trusted her completely, remaining blind right up until my gruesome death.

Now that I had a second chance, all the glaring red flags were impossible to miss.

"Really? I'm going to be a dad?"

I forced an ecstatic expression onto my face to keep her unsuspecting.

First, I needed to pin down who that damn bastard was.

He had the nerve to let me be his financial mule for eighteen years. I was going to make him choke on his own medicine.

I promised Tara we would celebrate tonight, but told her I had to run to the office first.

Though she looked slightly annoyed, she let me go.

The second I stepped out the door, I hired an investigator to dig into her background.

To my surprise, uncovering the truth took almost no effort at all.

I had been a total idiot before, blindly putting my faith in a snake.

The man was Derek Shaw, Tara's college sweetheart.

They had dated for four years in college and planned to tie the knot right after graduation. However, her parents looked down on his broke background and forced them apart.

Later, Tara and I met on a blind date. We clicked effortlessly, sharing matching tastes and hobbies. We quickly started dating and got married six months later.

Three years had passed since our wedding.

Meanwhile, Tara had crossed paths with Derek again just a year ago.

The broke loser her parents once despised had suddenly hit it big as a graphic novelist.

A couple of years back, one of his unconventional comic series blew up in the industry. With Hollywood adapting comic books left and right, his works were turned into hit TV series.

He had transformed into one of the hottest scriptwriters in the entertainment scene.

Tara's talent agency landed Derek's commercial representation last year. As his dedicated manager, old flames rekindled instantly.

And I, the unsuspecting sucker, was handpicked to be their personal ATM.

My parents were both finance professors, so I had been immersed in the market since childhood. Soon after college, I dove into venture capital and investment analysis, pulling in millions every year.

Thanks to my wealth, Tara's family climbed straight from modest suburban living into the elite country-club circle.

In my past life, after my supposedly reckless act left Tara infertile, I became the eternal sinner of the Hayes family.

Whenever her mother, Evelyn, came over demanding money, she would sigh dramatically. "All my friends are babysitting their grandbabies. If my daughter hadn't lost her child, my grandkid would be walking by now. Instead, all I can do is play bingo."

She pulled that same guilt trip for eighteen years until the day I died.

Even after we adopted Sierra, Evelyn barely lifted a finger to help, leaving the heavy lifting of parenting to me.

She would often say, "Since she isn't my own flesh and blood, I'm terrified I won't care for her properly."

Right. She wasn't my flesh and blood, but she was her daughter's biological child.

I refused to believe Evelyn didn't know Sierra was Derek and Tara's secret lovechild.

The whole family had simply conspired to turn me into a stay-at-home free babysitter.

Looking back on it now made me sick to my stomach.