Chapter 2

The news spread through our small town like a sickness. The Sheriff' s department had rescued Liam, but not before he' d put up a fight. One of the thugs had smashed his leg with a pipe during the raid. The injury was severe, the kind that doctors talk about with grim faces.

His football scholarship was gone. Just like that.

And I was the villain.

At school, whispers followed me down the halls. "Cold-hearted." "She just let it happen." Liam' s parents, who once looked at me with such hope, now stared with a mixture of confusion and betrayal. I didn' t explain myself. I didn' t owe them an explanation for choosing to live.

A week later, Liam found me by my locker. He was on crutches, his face a mask of fury. The golden boy was tarnished, and his eyes burned with a familiar, hateful light. It was the same look he' d given me for thirty years in our past life.

He knew. He was reborn, too.

"You," he hissed, his voice low and venomous. "You did this."

"I did nothing, Liam," I said, closing my locker door. "I told Kevin to call the police. They saved you."

"You could have saved me sooner! Before this!" He gestured angrily at his cast. "You knew what would happen. You let it happen. You wanted my scholarship to be gone."

The sheer entitlement in his voice was staggering. Even with the memory of our shared, miserable future, he still saw the world as something that revolved around him. He saw my self-preservation as an attack on him.

"You' re right," I said, meeting his gaze. "I knew what would happen if I saved you. I' d end up in a miserable marriage with a man who resents me for it. I' d have a daughter who looks at me with your eyes. I' d die alone in a hurricane while you two saved yourselves."

His face went white. The flicker of recognition in his eyes was all the confirmation I needed.

"So we' re even," I continued, my voice calm. "You got your leg broken. I got my life back. I think it' s a fair trade."

He was speechless, his anger momentarily replaced by shock.

"Let' s just agree to stay out of each other' s lives," I said. "You go your way. I' ll go mine."

He nodded slowly, a dark promise in his eyes. "Fine."

That night, I went home and logged into the college application portal. I deleted my application to the local state university where I was supposed to follow Liam.

I typed in a new choice: University of California, Los Angeles.

A different state. A different life. My life.