Chapter 3

So Liam had actually come back, too.

Ignoring the argument still echoing from the office, I walked out.

Liam chased after me, grabbing my arm. "Chloe."

I coldly shook off his hand.

He froze. Swallowing hard, he lowered his voice. "I apologize for earlier. But I know... you're back too."

"You ruined everything last time. This time, I'm begging you—stay away from Mia and me. Stop interfering."

Looking at the face I'd once worked myself to the bone for, I felt nothing but nausea.

"No problem," I said. "I wish you both a long and happy life together."

Last time, trying to pull him back on track cost me my eye. This time, if he wanted to jump off a cliff, I would just stand back and watch.

As I turned to leave, Richard's voice called out from behind. "Chloe, wait."

I stopped.

"Liam isn't thinking straight lately. You've always been the sensible one," Richard said smoothly. "Pull him back on track. Make sure he takes that project to Stanford, and I'll add a check on top of your full-ride scholarship—enough for you to finish college comfortably."

He wanted to buy my life to use as a stepping stone for his pathetic son.

"Mr. Walsh, I'm sorry," I said, meeting his gaze without backing down. "I have no way of changing his decisions, and I won't waste another second of my energy on him."

Richard's face darkened with thinly veiled disappointment and anger.

Meanwhile, Mia stood in the shadows down the hall, her glare dead-locked on Richard and me.

Over winter break, I locked myself in my bedroom.

Coffee cups piled up on my desk as my fingers blurred across the keyboard. Past-life memories were a double-edged sword; I had to race the timeline to rebuild my core AI models.

My only goals: the Hackathon finals and Stanford.

The first week of school, the campus exploded with drama. Richard publicly declared that if Liam didn't dump Mia, he would cut him off entirely and freeze his trust fund.

In response, Liam ran away from home and moved straight into Mia's off-campus apartment.

Mia's TikTok hit record numbers. Every day, she vlogged them smoking weed, making out, and mocking elite privilege, deliberately baiting Richard.

I completely ignored it.

Relying on my rebuilt code, I crushed the competition and swept directly into the Hackathon finals with the highest score.

Rumors immediately started brewing.

"Did you see? The charity case actually stole a spot."

"Who knows what she did to get it. The board director was acting pretty chummy with her in the hallway."

In the computer lab that afternoon, a guy next to me purposefully raised his voice. His friends snickered.

I didn't even look up, just kept compiling my code.

Suddenly, Liam marched over with a dark expression and violently kicked the guy's desk. "Shut your filthy mouth! She earned that spot herself!"

Outside the open door, Mia stood frozen. She glared at Liam defending me, the veins in her eyes looking ready to burst.

Sixteen hours until the finals.

My phone buzzed. A text from Liam:

[Come to the old warehouse behind the gym. We need to talk. About what happened before.]

I frowned at the screen. We hadn't spoken in weeks.

What happened before... Did he want to talk about our past lives?

I didn't overthink it. I casually grabbed my jacket and headed out into the freezing night toward the back of the gym.

I had barely taken two steps inside the old warehouse when a massive force slammed into my back.

I pitched forward, and the heavy door slammed shut behind me.

It was an old industrial cold room. The space plunged into pitch blackness, the temperature dropping instantly.

I scrambled up, rushing to the wall in the dark, and slammed my fist onto the emergency release switch.

Nothing. The wires had been snipped.

"Don't waste your energy."

A heavily built guy stepped forward. He wore an exclusive Mia Fan Club badge and toyed with a heavy-duty zip tie.

"So you're the bitch trying to ruin Mia," he hissed, his voice trembling with a twisted obsession. "She was crying so hard on stream tonight, she couldn't even speak. You elitists think you're so smart. You just need to be taught a lesson."

He ripped off a strip of thick duct tape.

"I'm just going to tie you up in here for the night. Tomorrow, you miss your stupid competition. And Mia will know I'm the one who loves her the most."

I knew I couldn't beat him in a physical fight.

"Wait," I said, forcing my voice to shake with terror. "I'll drop out! Just let me go. I have all the code backups on my phone right now. I'll permanently delete them in front of you."

He paused, obviously not expecting me to cave so quickly.

"You really have backups? Take out your phone!"

I reached into my coat pocket. Then, I locked my fingers tightly around my canister of pepper spray.

Annoyed that I was moving too slowly, he cursed, lunged forward, and reached for my collar. "No tricks, give me—"

I whipped my hand out, aimed the nozzle directly at his face, and pressed down hard.

A red mist coated his eyes with absolute precision.

"FUCK!! MY EYES!!"

He shrieked like a slaughtered animal, instinctively clutching his face. The agonizing, blinding burn threw him entirely off balance. His massive body staggered and collapsed to the floor.

I bolted over him and sprinted for the door.

Even locked from the outside, industrial fire doors always had an emergency crash bar on the inside.

I slammed both hands onto the crossbar with my full body weight.

The door burst open.

I bolted out of the warehouse, cold sweat soaking my back in the freezing night text.

Ever since Liam blinded me in a past life, gripping that pepper spray had become pure, automatic muscle memory. I trust no one.