Chapter 2

I couldn't figure out how Miller still remembered the accident.

But surely he didn't think he was the one who had traveled through time?

The hospital air conditioning sent a chill crawling across my skin.

"When did it start?" I asked.

Something in his expression softened.

"That doesn't matter anymore. Scarlett isn't like you. She grew up with nothing — no stability, no security."

"The baby is her anchor. And my proof."

"Besides, we've been together too long. What I feel for you now is more like family. The love is gone."

I had found out about him and Scarlett on our tenth wedding anniversary.

By then, the baby was already five years old.

He had cut open his own wrist and written me a letter in blood.

He confessed that someone had drugged him, that he had slept with his secretary Scarlett, and that he intended to take responsibility for her.

He transferred everything — every asset — into my name.

In a moment of desperation, I had used a match to go back to our fifth year of marriage.

I forced down the trembling in my chest.

"So you remember everything. You really did fall in love with Scarlett?"

Miller answered without any particular emotion.

"Yes. I know it sounds unbelievable, but every time I come close to death, I end up back in the past."

"You've always been strong. You don't need security the way she does."

"After the SATs, you were the one who wanted to run away with me. But Scarlett — she's different from you."

I pressed my hand to my chest.

A sudden, sharp pain shot through my ribs and bent me forward.

After the SATs, we had made a promise to run away together.

But that night, I waited and waited — and it was my parents who showed up, not him.

I confronted him. I demanded to know why.

Miller looked at me with red-rimmed eyes, his voice gentle. "Samantha, your dad was right. We're both too young."

"Give me a little more time. I'll do this properly. I'll come for you in the open, the right way."

I was furious. I gave him the cold shoulder, and even when we ended up at the same university, I treated him like a stranger.

But in our second year, he teamed up with some friends on a gaming project, and it actually made money.

He took every dollar he'd earned and came to ask my father for permission to marry me.

My father still said no. He called Miller an orphan with a broken character.

Miller just smiled, said nothing, and went back to work.

I gritted my teeth, defied my father, and married him anyway — quietly, without anyone's blessing.

Now Miller looked at me with cold, flat eyes.

"You can always file for divorce. Of course, your mother's medical bills would become your problem to handle alone."

He answered a call and walked out. I stood there with my hand over my heart.

When someone falls out of love, can they really become this cruel?

My mother had taken Miller in after she learned he had no parents. She'd treated him like a son.

She lived with us in the house and looked after us both.

Once, someone called him a bastard with no mother.

My mom grabbed a spatula and chased them down the street.

And yet, no matter how many times I went back, she still got cancer. Every time.

I stood up and went after him.

I was the one who gave him the ability to go back. I was the one who saved his life.

What gave him the right to betray me again?

The smell of rain and wet earth hit me before I even reached the door.

Scarlett was outside wearing Miller's dress shoes, her arms looped around his neck.

"The baby and I have been waiting forever!"

"You're so late! You have to buy me something to make it up to me!"

Miller smiled at the corner of his mouth.

"There's a Sotheby's auction coming up. I saw some jewelry pieces that would suit you perfectly. I'll have someone bid on them for you."

My feet stopped moving.

I watched Miller kiss Scarlett, and when she pulled back, he leaned in and kissed her again.

It hit me then — we hadn't been that close in years.

We hadn't actually kissed since our honeymoon. Not once. The most affection I ever got was a peck on the cheek.

I pulled out the last match.

Even the cold rain couldn't cut through the fog in my mind.

What moment could I even go back to now?

Miller's affair was already set in motion — but my mother's cancer was under control. She wouldn't have to suffer through the pain she went through the first time I went back.

Did I even need to go back again?