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Chapter 2
For a moment, they were all stunned into silence.
The handsome, scholarly young man, Ethan, was also taken aback.
I smiled at him. “Ethan, would you cut the cake with me?”
Ethan paused. He glanced at Alex, Caleb, Celine, and the others. He had visited me often at the hospital and at home, and he see-
med to understand the situation.
He met my steady gaze and walked over.
The faces of Alex, Caleb, and the others shifted. They clearly hadn’t expected me to call on my cousin instead of one of them. Celi- ne’s eyes flashed with confusion and annoyance; she had probably been hoping to see me rejected by them.
“Alright, then. Let’s have Ethan cut the cake with you,” my father announced with a forced smile. The guests were watching, and he
didn’t want a scene.
Together, Ethan and I held the knife. Amidst the guests‘ well–wishes, we slowly lowered it into the cake.
Rory Rhodes, I told myself, live this life well. Don’t waste your time on things that aren’t worth it.
With a silent understanding, we pressed the knife down in one smooth motion. A round of applause followed. We looked at each
other and smiled. I was genuinely happy, celebrating my new beginning.
Caleb, Julian, and Leo suddenly stared at my smiling face, a look of confusion on theirs. The smile was both familiar and foreign. It
had been a long, long time since I had smiled at them like that. It was the way I used to smile at them, three years ago.
And now, I was sharing that smile with someone else.
An unfamiliar, sour feeling stirred in their chests, as if they had just lost something incredibly important.
“Sister, were you so determined not to cut the cake with me that you wouldn’t even let Alex do it?” Celine’s wounded voice cut thro-
ugh the air. “It’s all my fault…”
Their expressions snapped back to the present, and they immediately rushed to comfort her, shooting me another look of blame.
I just smiled faintly. “You’ve misunderstood, sister.”
In my past life, I had started high school as a freshman after waking up. I was too busy being framed by Celine, fighting for affecti- on, and drowning in grief. But I still had those memories. This time, I used the summer to study furiously and enrolled directly as a senior, deliberately avoiding being in the same class as Celine.
But we still ran into each other in the bathroom.
“Sister, I never expected your personality to be like this,” Celine began, her voice laced with a grinding frustration she could no longer hide. “I always heard that you were a spoiled, willful brat, that you wore all your emotions on your face. I had a pretty clear picture of what you’d be like. But when you woke up, I was surprised. I never thought you’d be so… composed.”
After being adopted, she had probably planned out exactly how she would deal with me if I ever woke up, just like in my past life, where she had tormented me relentlessly. But she hadn’t counted on me waking up with the memories of an entire lifetime.
I smiled. “I really don’t understand what you’re talking about, sister,”
She sneered. “Too bad it doesn’t matter what your personality is like. Alex and the boys still care about me. In the end, sister, you’re still the loser.” She pulled a small razor blade from her pocket and held it against her own hand, her eyes malicious. “Sister, what do you think they’ll do to you when they see I’m hurt?”
I casually pulled out my phone, opened the camera, and aimed it at her. “Go on. Do it.”
Chapter 2
Celine’s face changed. She quickly hid the blade and fled into a stall. I shrugged, put my phone away, and walked out of the bathro- om. I saw one of Celine’s little followers standing guard outside. She flinched when she saw me.
I smirked and glanced back towards the stalls. Celine would still find a way, of course.
And sure enough, that afternoon at the school gate, Caleb Reed stormed up to me and grabbed my arm. “Rory Rhodes, you’re com-
ing with me.”
The students around us scattered in fear.
I coldly shook his hand off. “What for?”
“You’re coming with me to the hospital to see Celine!” he roared, trying to grab me again. “How could you do something like this!”
I scoffed, but I was no match for his strength. He dragged me away, all the way to the hospital.
