Chapter 1

The screech of tires was the last thing I heard, a familiar sound.

Then came the impact, brutal and final, for now.

My body flew, a broken doll tossed across the busy Los Angeles street.

I saw Ethan' s face for a moment before everything went dark.

He wasn' t looking at me, he was looking at Ashley, his perfect Ashley, who stood frozen on the sidewalk.

He' d pushed me, a quick, hard shove into the path of the speeding sedan.

To save her, of course.

It was always about Ashley.

Darkness.

Then, the familiar pulling sensation, the unwelcome return.

But this time, there was a grim satisfaction mixed with the pain.

Ninety-nine.

This was my ninety-ninth death.

One more to go.

One more, and then freedom.

The thought was a small, hard comfort I held close.

I could hear voices, distant and distorted at first.

Ethan' s voice, sharp and annoyed.

"Clean this up. Now. And get Ms. Albright a water, she looks shaken."

Ms. Albright. Ashley.

No concern for me, his wife, lying mangled on the asphalt.

Just annoyance at the inconvenience, the mess.

His security guards, always efficient, would handle it.

They were used to cleaning up his messes, including me.

I felt a strange calm.

The countdown was almost over.

My liberation was so close.

This secret, this curse, this finite ability to resurrect, was my only escape.

He didn't know about the limit.

He thought I was his unbreakable toy.

Soon, he would learn otherwise.

The 100th death would be permanent, and with it, a complete severing, a total erasure of this nightmare.

I almost smiled, if my broken face could have managed it.