Chapter 3

Later, he went to Germany on a business trip.

The next day, Mia followed him there and was caught in a plane crash.

When I heard the news, my heart tightened. I instinctively looked at Ethan.

His face was pale. He said nothing.

But that night, he cried in his sleep.

"If I had said yes to you, you would have flown with me and wouldn't have died. It's my fault..."

After waking, he never mentioned it again. I thought it was just guilt.

Until now.

Looking at the pain and tenderness he couldn't hide in his eyes, I finally realized belatedly that it wasn't guilt that night---it was love.

Ethan tucked a strand of hair behind Mia's ear, not even glancing at me.

"What's there to worry about? She's an adult. She won't get lost."

"If your friends like her, Mia, that's her good fortune. Just send them her Snapchat."

He turned to me, his tone commanding as if it were obvious.

"Mia and I are going to Harvard together. With your grades, just apply to a community college nearby."

Mia and the others looked at him in surprise, but he remained oblivious, still arrogant.

"You're a good cook and attentive. Help me take care of Mia, and later she'll introduce you to a good boyfriend."

I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to tell him things had changed.

Then I heard him add casually:

"Come to think of it, you took good care of your dad's health. You do have experience in that area."

I looked at him in disbelief.

In my past life, my dad was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis five years later, surviving each day on expensive imported medication.

All my salary went to medical bills.

He accompanied me between home and the hospital, never complaining even when important clients were stolen by colleagues.

Everyone said I was dragging him down. He held me as I cried and broke down, gently patting my back.

"He's my dad too. Without them raising me all those years, there would be no Ethan today."

His parents had gone to work elsewhere and started new families. His grandmother died when he was twelve.

My parents raised their neighbor as their own son, always cutting him the biggest piece of steak.

But now, he was using my dad's illness as leverage, forcing me---his wife from a previous life---to care for his new love.

My throat tightened. Looking at his familiar yet strange face, I suddenly found it absurd.

Was he really the Ethan who had shared my bed for thirty years?

Meeting his cold eyes, I took a deep breath.

"My mom wants me home early. I'm leaving."

As I passed him, I turned my head slightly to look at him.

"By the way, that thing you asked me to hold for you last time---come get it sometime."

There was no such thing. It was just the usual social phrase for "let's talk privately."

If he really was the forty-eight-year-old Ethan, with years of marital understanding, he would get my meaning.

When I got home, Dad frowned seeing only me.

"Why didn't Ethan walk you back?"

I stared at him.

"Did you go for your physical today?"

He waved his hand.

"What's the point? It's a waste of money. I ranked 48th in the state on the SAT. The school gave me a hundred thousand dollars. I have money."

He was silent for a moment, his rough hand touching my head.

"Alright. Our Rebecca has grown up. I'll go tomorrow."

I leaned against Dad watching TV, so happy I nearly cried.

2

In my past life, he ultimately suffocated to death.

His last words were that with Ethan taking care of me, he could rest in peace.

Back then, Ethan and I were known as a loving couple.

Childhood sweethearts, from school uniforms to wedding dress.

In the morning, he needed a hug from me before leaving for work.

After work, he always brought me a rose.

When it was hot and we took walks, he fanned me.

When it was cold and I was weak, he warmed my feet.

After his business grew, beauties swarmed around him, but he never gave them a glance.

"My wife is waiting for me at home."

He was afraid childbirth would hurt me, so he suggested we not have children.

"Just the two of us, living our whole lives together. Is that okay?"

But why, after being reborn, did he cast me aside like trash?

The more I thought about it, the less I understood.

Did Mia say something?

Remembering the truth about Mia's death that I'd uncovered in my past life, I decided to wait for Ethan to return and have it out with him.

At midnight, I finally heard the sound of keys turning next door, then my phone vibrated.

[Ethan: Come over.]

I closed my eyes.

He really was the reborn Ethan.

I went next door and got straight to the point.

"Why?"

He was silent for a moment.

"I think of you as family."

I laughed through my tears.

"You slept with me for thirty years and now you call me a sister? Are you crazy? What are you yelling about? Mom and Dad are sleeping next door."

He released his hand, stepped back, and looked me up and down with disgust.

"Let me be honest. I've slept with you for thirty years. I'm really sick of it! Kissing you is like kissing myself."

"Look at you. Average intelligence, no ambition, going to community college."

"After I became successful, you did nothing but beauty treatments with the other wives and stayed home like a parasite. You can't do anything."

His eyes suddenly lit up, filled with ambition and longing.

"But Mia is different. You know who her dad is. With her, I can cut ten years off my struggle!"

"I'm choosing her not because you're bad, but because---"

He paused, his eyes shifting away for a moment as if he couldn't bear it, then immediately returning to casual arrogance.

"You're not good enough. You can't help me. It's not your fault, but it's the truth."

He grabbed my hand, his expression sincere.

"I know you love me and can't leave me. I love you too."

"But not right now. Let's be just friends for now."

"You obediently take care of Mia, and when I succeed, I'll give you a better life than the last one."

"You help my future now, and I'll secure yours. Okay, Becca?"

Shock, anger, humiliation, disgust...

Even though I'd been reborn for a year, I felt like I was suddenly plunged back into the day of the maritime disaster.

Countless emotions surged at me. I struggled desperately, but could only let myself be swallowed.

His hand gripping mine was as cold as it had been on the day of the disaster.

I quietly heard my own heartbeat pounding frantically, then gradually weakening, falling into deathly silence.

He didn't love me anymore, but he didn't want to let me go either.

Those promises of eternal devotion in the next life were just my one-sided joke.

Rebecca Lynn, you're such a fool!

I swallowed the truth about Mia's death and laughed coldly as I slammed the door on my way out.

"Fine. I wish you both a hundred years of happiness and good health."

When filling out college applications, I directly chose Stanford University.

It had the best game design program---my dream that I'd discovered at age forty-five in my past life.

And it was a full three thousand miles away from Ethan.

As soon as I finished, Ethan's message came.

[Did you finish filling it out?]

[Yeah.]

[Good job.]

4

He immediately followed up with several instructions.

[Mia said you ignored her friends. Good job.]

[But you're not Mrs. Wright anymore, your grades are mediocre, and your background is ordinary.]

[When you meet those rich boys, don't give them attitude. Be polite to them and don't make me worry.]

I sneered.

Seems like his precious Mia never mentioned my grades to him.

48th in the state on the SAT---my phone had just been bombarded with calls from admissions offices, promising scholarships up to five hundred thousand dollars.

Where would I have time to deal with those shady friends?

Exiting the chat, I opened my friend requests.

[Heard from Mia that you're obedient? I happen to need an obedient follower. Let's chat.]

[Your boyfriend's sister? What kind of sister?]

[You look decent in your photos. Want to have some fun with me? I'll make it worth your while.]

I frowned in disgust. Ethan's message popped up again.

[Mia and I are going to Alaska in a few days. Those cookies you brought back last time were delicious. Where did you buy them? I'll get you some.]

Get them for me, or take Mia to eat them?

[Mrs. Lynn's exclusive recipe. Not for sale.]

After a while, he replied:

[Okay, I trust you.]

I gripped my phone, anger rushing to the top of my head.

[Believe whatever you want!]

Before sending, I deleted it.

Forget it. Talking to a deaf person is just a waste of time.

I got up and started packing the things he'd given me over the years.

Pens, bookmarks, notebooks, snow globes...

Odds and ends filled an entire box---childish and cheap.

But it was a box full of what was once sincerity.

Ethan, how did you become so unrecognizable?

I carried the box next door and threw it in a corner of the storage room, turning to leave.

Draft papers on the desk were blown everywhere by the wind. I sighed and picked them up one by one to put back.

But on the open notebook, I saw a few words pressed hard into the paper:

[Whisper Bay, Sacrifice True Heart, Start Over]

All the blood in my body instantly turned cold.

Whisper Bay was where we encountered the maritime disaster.

Sacrifice---what did that mean?

Was our rebirth his arrangement?

My hair stood on end. I carefully restored the room to its original state and took the box back, pretending I'd never been there.

During the five days of college application submissions, Ethan and I didn't see each other.

He was busy dating Mia, fantasizing about traveling around the country together during their four years of college.

I was busy searching online and at the library... looking everywhere for legends about Whisper Bay.

Every day he shared dating stories with me, subtly mocking my dullness, and ordered me to plan their travel itinerary.

Unwilling to alert him, I did everything he asked.

He grew increasingly entitled.

July 7, 4:54 PM. I finally saw a post on an obscure forum.

[Want to restart your life? Welcome to my hometown. We have a sea called Reincarnation Sea.]

[It swallows several people every year, but my grandma says they don't die---they're reborn.]

[Long ago, there was a fisherwoman whose husband went to sea and never returned. She waited thirty years.]

[Then one full moon night, she rowed out alone and never came back.]

[After that, people passing by that sea at night heard a woman crying and a man answering.]

[My grandma said that as long as you truly love someone and are willing to die for them, Reincarnation Sea will send you both back to the past.]

The replies below were all mocking:

[I love money above all else. Let me memorize lottery numbers and I'll find the poster.]

[Too cliche. Why not say going there together lets you cycle through ten lives together? Better for tricking people in love to travel, right?]

I stared at the screen, trembling uncontrollably.