Chapter 1

Ethan gasped, air burning his lungs.

One moment, darkness, pain, Tiff' s cruel laughter.

The next, he was sitting upright, his own younger hands gripping a familiar, cheap wooden desk.

Sunlight, too bright, streamed through a window he hadn't seen in fifteen years.

His old room. At the Millers' house.

He was alive. Reborn.

The nightmare, his first life, was over. But the memories clung, sharp and cold.

He remembered Tiff, his beautiful, venomous wife, and her associate, Marcus Thorne.

He remembered the drugs, the abuse, the helplessness.

Now, he had a chance. A chance to make them all pay.

Downstairs, voices. Mr. Miller, his adoptive father, was speaking.

"The arrangements are set. Kyle will marry Tiffany Sinclair. It' s a good match, connects us to the Sinclair media empire."

Kyle. His adoptive brother. Spoiled, arrogant.

In Ethan's first life, Kyle had married Olivia Vance. Kyle had been miserable.

He complained endlessly about Olivia being an "ice queen," too focused on her renewable energy company, not doting enough on him.

Ethan, meanwhile, had been shackled to Tiff. Kyle had envied Ethan' s connection to the glamorous Sinclairs, blind to the torment it brought.

"And Ethan," Mrs. Miller' s cool voice cut in, "will marry Olivia Vance. Her company is solid, respectable. It suits his, ah, quieter nature."

Olivia. Quiet, yes. But also sharp, capable.

Ethan remembered her despair in his first life, trapped with Kyle.

He also remembered a flicker of kindness from her, a rare thing in his bleak existence.

Kyle scoffed from across the breakfast table, a sound Ethan knew too well.

"Father, Mother, I've been thinking."

Kyle' s eyes, usually dull with entitlement, held a strange, sharp glint.

A glint of memory.

"Ethan had such a good thing with Tiff in our, uh, previous arrangement. Everyone said so. The Sinclairs are powerful. Fun."

Kyle was looking at Ethan, a greedy, knowing smirk playing on his lips.

He remembered. Kyle was reborn too.

"I want Tiff," Kyle declared, puffing out his chest. "Let Ethan have Olivia. He likes quiet, right? Businesswomen are probably more his speed anyway."

Ethan watched his brother. Kyle genuinely believed Ethan' s life with Tiff had been a triumph.

The fool.

Ethan kept his face neutral, a mask he' d perfected long ago.

Inside, a cold, fierce joy ignited.

"If Kyle prefers Tiffany," Ethan said, his voice calm, "I have no objection to marrying Olivia Vance."

He met Mr. Miller' s surprised gaze. "It makes no difference to me."

This was it. His first move. Kyle, in his arrogance, was handing Ethan his escape and Tiff her tormentor.

The drugs. The windowless room. Marcus Thorne' s leering face. Tiff' s voice, dripping with contempt, "He' s all yours, Marcus. Just make sure he' s broken."

Ethan shuddered, the memory a physical blow.

His body, young again, still felt the phantom pains.

He had been an environmental scientist, passionate about his work.

Tiff had systematically destroyed his reputation, his research, his spirit.

She used him, paraded him, then, when his usefulness waned, discarded him in the most brutal way.

He had died believing he was nothing, a failure, a toy for the depraved.

Never again.

He blinked, focusing on the present.

The Millers' dining room. Sunlight. The smell of coffee and disapproval.

Mr. Miller was looking at him, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes. Probably annoyance at the change in plans.

Mrs. Miller was already adjusting, her mind calculating new social strategies.

"Well," Mr. Miller said, clearing his throat. "If both boys are agreeable, then so be it. Kyle will be engaged to Tiffany Sinclair, and Ethan to Olivia Vance."

Ethan felt a grim satisfaction. Kyle was walking into a trap of his own making.

He remembered Olivia, in his first life, at some dull corporate event Kyle had dragged her to.

Her eyes, when she thought no one was looking, held a profound sadness.

Kyle had been openly flirting with another woman, leaving Olivia to stand alone, a picture of composed misery.

He' d made her life hell, isolating her, belittling her achievements because they overshadowed his own pathetic existence.

She deserved better. And Kyle deserved Tiff.