Chapter 2

Everyone in the private room was looking at me.

I forced my voice to sound light and natural.

"I was just about to say---you came so late, I almost couldn't help but tell Mia early."

The atmosphere relaxed instantly. Everyone started cheering.

"Kiss! Kiss!"

Ethan lowered his head, gazing at Mia with tender seriousness.

"May I, Mia?"

Mia nodded, her joy overflowing.

I turned my face away, retreating to a corner, slowly drinking my iced Coke, trying to keep my breathing steady.

Someone from the table in front leaned over.

"Don't you like Ethan? You two walk to and from school together every day. Everyone thought you'd end up together."

I forced a smile, acting as naturally as possible.

"We're neighbors, of course we walk together. He's like my brother."

Even though this "brother" had hooked pinkies with me just yesterday, promising to go to Crystal Lake together.

He wanted to make eternal vows under the witness of snow-capped mountains and sacred lakes---promises for this life and the next.

I could feel an oppressive gaze falling on me.

He wasn't the eighteen-year-old Ethan whose eyes held only me.

He was the forty-eight-year-old Ethan, also reborn.

So I instinctively applied the social rules of forty-eight-year-old Rebecca Lynn.

As the wife of the CEO of Wright Corporation, no matter how humiliating the situation, I had to maintain dignity first and not affect the company's stock price.

My hand gripping the cup suddenly tightened. I snapped back to reality.

Damn it. I'm broke right now. What Wright Corporation stock price?

The person in front was about to say more when Ethan walked over with his arm around Mia.

He smiled brightly, but his eyes held no warmth when he looked at me.

"Becca, from now on, when you see Mia, remember to call her Mia."

"Mia wants to go to Alaska for her graduation trip. I have to go with her. You'll have to go to the plateau by yourself."

I stared at the rose pinned in Mia's hair, saying nothing.

Mia playfully swatted him, her eyes full of disdain and triumph as she looked at me.

"Aren't you worried about Becca going so far alone?"

"How about I introduce her to some of my childhood friends as boyfriends? They're all rich kids."

Of course she was triumphant.

A year ago, she cornered Ethan to confess, but he publicly rejected her, citing his studies.

She could see that he and I were always together. She'd planned to come tonight to ruin Ethan's confession to me.

She never expected the confession would suddenly be directed at her instead.

What she didn't know was that in my past life, tonight, she had burned the roses Ethan gave me.

If I hadn't stopped him, the furious Ethan would have nearly slapped her across the face.

Later, she pursued Ethan for eight years, only to be coldly rejected each time.

I once nestled in his arms and asked:

"Mia is so beautiful, and her dad is a major shareholder in your company. Aren't you even a little tempted?"

He snorted.

"I can't afford to mess with that kind of princess."