Chapter 1

The world came down in a storm of dust and fire, the roar of the explosion still echoing in my ears. I was trapped, pinned under a heavy beam in what used to be our upscale apartment. My lungs burned with smoke, and I could feel the wet warmth of blood on my leg.

Next to me, Jessica, my husband' s colleague, was also trapped, though she seemed less injured.

Through a crack in the rubble, I saw the flashing lights of the first responders. Hope surged through me. I was about to scream for help when a voice crackled over a firefighter' s radio just outside. It was my husband, Mark.

"My wife is a strong woman; she' d want others saved first."

His voice was calm, clear, and utterly devastating.

"Jessica is a key aide to the Senator-get her out now! Focus all resources on Jessica!"

The air left my lungs. The hope vanished. In that single moment, I knew. He remembered. He was reborn, just like me.

In our first life, in this exact same disaster, I had told him I was pregnant. Torn, he chose to save me. Jessica died in the collapse, and Mark never forgave me. For twenty years, he resented me, blamed me for ruining his life, for costing him the political connection Jessica represented.

It all ended in a fiery car crash, his last words screaming at me, "I should have let you die!"

Now, he was getting his wish. He was correcting his "mistake."

I looked at Jessica, her face pale but determined, and then I clutched my stomach, where our unborn child rested.

"It's just us now, baby," I whispered into the dust.

I accepted my fate.

But then, a primal instinct took over. The will to live, not for me, but for my child, ignited a fire inside me that burned hotter than the one consuming the building. I would not die here. I would not let him win this time.

I watched as Mark himself pulled a barely-scratched Jessica from the debris. He held her like she was made of glass, his face a mask of heroic concern. He didn' t even glance in my direction, though I was only a few feet away, pinned and bleeding.

He carried her past me, his eyes fixed on her. He was saving his future.

Fueled by a rage I didn't know I possessed, I started to push against the beam. Pain shot through my body, but it was nothing compared to the betrayal. I found a small opening, a gap in the collapsed floor leading to the apartment below.

I squeezed through, tearing my skin, the smoke choking me, my body screaming in protest. I fell through the hole, landing hard on the floor below. I don't know how long I crawled, but eventually, a different team of firefighters found me, their faces shocked at my condition.

Outside, the scene was chaos. I saw Mark fussing over Jessica as paramedics looked at her sprained ankle. He was making sure she got into the first ambulance.

A paramedic tried to direct him to me, pointing at my burned and battered body.

"Sir, your wife..."

"She's tough, she'll be fine," Mark said, waving him off dismissively. "Get Jessica to the hospital immediately."

He left me there. A kind neighbor, seeing my state and the lack of an ambulance for me, helped me into the back of his pickup truck. Lying on the cold metal bed, watching the city lights blur past, I knew this was more than a second chance. This was a war.