Chapter 1

"Only one life jacket left!" a crewman shouted as the cruise ship sank. 

My husband, Captain Harrison, looked torn between me—his pregnant wife—and Emma, his first love. 

Last time, he gave me the jacket, intending to die with Emma. But he survived, and she drowned. To avenge her, he smothered our newborn. "You stole her life," he snarled. I killed him for my baby, bleeding out beside him. 

Waking to the deafening sirens, I realize I’ve been reborn. This time, who will get that final life jacket?

——

“Ma’am, wake up—wake up! The ship’s about to go down!”

“Attention, all passengers. Please stay calm. Take your ticket, collect a life jacket in order, and proceed to the deck!”

The crackle of the PA system cut through the chaos.

I jolted awake, gasping—my chest heaving like I’d been drowning.

Freezing sea wind poured down my throat. I was shaking all over.

The next second, my hands flew to my stomach, instinctively shielding it.

Thank God. My baby was still here.

Watching people around me fight and shove for life jackets, it finally hit me.

I’d actually been reborn—back to the exact moment the cruise ship hit the reef and started sinking.

On the tilted deck, the chief mate, Karen, was handing out life jackets with a stone-cold face, checking names off a list.

When she reached me, she deliberately ignored my outstretched hand and walked right past.

“Captain Harrison said it’s an emergency. As family, you wait off to the side first.”

“We have to prioritize equipment for the other VIP passengers.”

I brushed her blocking arm away and gave an answer completely different from my last life.

“I paid a fortune for the last ticket.”

“I’m a legitimate VIP passenger. Why should I—pregnant—have to make way for anyone?”

Karen’s face darkened when I embarrassed her in front of everyone.

She slammed a life jacket back into the box and spat out a sneer.

“Please. Everyone knows you only grabbed that ticket to keep tabs on Emma.”

“If you hadn’t barged in and taken the last spot, wouldn’t there be one more life jacket on board?”

“Look at this mess—happy now?”

I sat down on the slanted seat, letting the wind whip my hair around, my heart turning ice-cold.

In my last life, my husband—Captain Harrison—abused his authority. He snuck his ‘first love,’ Emma, on board by disguising her as a medical staffer, even though she was a blacklisted deadbeat who wasn’t allowed to travel.

And me? I’d bought the last ticket at the last minute, planning to surprise him with my pregnancy.

The ship was fully booked. Life jackets were stocked strictly according to the official passenger list.

One stowaway meant the ship was short exactly one life jacket.

When we hit the reef last time, Harrison put on this whole heartbreaking act and wrapped the last life jacket around me.

Using “Do it for the baby” as an excuse, he shoved me into the first lifeboat to be lowered.

But the second I hit the water, I heard what he said to Emma with my own ears.

“Don’t be scared. I already called a private rescue helicopter. I’ll stay up on the top deck with you.”

“Even if we die—I’m dying with you.”

The helicopter never made it. Smog and bad visibility kept it away, and the waves swallowed them both.

Emma died of hypothermia in that freezing ocean.

Harrison, though, got pulled out by the search team—somehow alive.

Just thinking about it made my fingers tremble where they covered my stomach.

My baby was born on the one-year anniversary of that shipwreck.

I’d barely been rolled into the ward when Harrison walked in, expression cold as stone.

Right in front of me, he pressed a pillow over our baby’s face and smothered the child to death.

“If you hadn’t insisted on getting on that ship, that life jacket would’ve been Emma’s!”

“Today’s her death anniversary—who the hell are you to celebrate a new life?!”

That despair and hatred tore through my veins all over again.

He was the one who broke the rules and played hero—so why did my innocent baby have to pay the price?!

That day, with my last bit of strength, I grabbed a pair of surgical scissors and drove them straight into his carotid artery.

As I bled out, I watched him collapse in a pool of blood—dying with me.

A violent jolt rattled the ship, and my whole body started shaking. The pain of those memories drilled into my skull.

Karen came back around, saw how pale I was, and let out a mocking laugh.

“Look at her. Pathetic. I seriously don’t get what Captain Harrison ever saw in her.”

I didn’t say a word. I just pulled my gaze away.

To them, I’d probably never measure up to that sweet, clingy Emma.

Emma used to be a senior stewardess on this ship. Back then, she latched onto some rich guy and quit her job—only to find out after marriage that he was a broke fraud buried in debt.

She got dragged down with him, ended up on the travel blacklist, and came crawling back to keep leeching off Harrison to pay it all off.

And Harrison? He told himself Emma was just “too innocent,” that she’d been tricked.

The ship suddenly lurched hard. The tilt got worse, and seawater began spilling onto the lower deck.

“The lifeboats have been lowered. Passengers, please evacuate in order!”

The announcement pushed everyone into panic.

I dug my nails into my palm and stared at the crowd scrambling for their lives.

And then—there it was. A voice I knew too well.

Harrison, crisp in his uniform, shoved through the crowd with frail, delicate Emma tucked under his arm, striding straight toward me.

The moment he opened his mouth, it was accusation after accusation.

“Sarah, what are you doing here? Who told you to follow me?!”