Chapter 1

The last thing I heard was the squeal of tires on wet asphalt.

Then, a shattering impact.

My body was a broken thing on the pavement, but my mind was horribly clear.

I could hear them. My wife, Chloe, and her lover, Carter.

"Is he dead?" Carter asked, his voice calm.

"The life insurance policy is for ten million. It' s enough," Chloe said, her tone like ice. "The fraud charges will be pinned on him. Everyone will think he was a desperate gambler who took the easy way out."

They laughed.

A broke kid from Queens, a scholarship project. That' s all I ever was to them.

I gave them my talent, my loyalty, my life. They gave me a coffin.

The darkness took me.

Then, light.

The sound of clinking champagne glasses. The murmur of a wealthy crowd.

I smelled salt air and hydrangeas. The Hamptons.

A sharp sting exploded on my cheek.

"Leo, are you even listening to me?"

I blinked.

Chloe stood before me, her face a mask of fury, her hand still raised from the slap.

We were at our wedding reception.

I was back.

My heart wasn't pounding with love or fear. It was a cold, steady drumbeat.

A promise.

This time, they would be the ones to pay.

Carter Prescott swaggered over, a smug grin on his face. He worked at the same firm, always hovering, always stealing.

"Having trouble keeping up, Leo?" he sneered, loud enough for the nearby guests to hear. "Guess you' re just not built for this world."

In my first life, his words made me shrink. I felt like an impostor.

Now, I just looked at him. Really looked at him. I saw the weakness behind the arrogance.

"Oops," he said, stumbling theatrically. A full glass of amber cocktail drenched the front of my rented tuxedo.

The guests tittered.

I didn' t flinch. I didn' t even look down at the stain.

I just held his gaze.

A flicker of confusion crossed his face. He expected me to be flustered, to apologize for being in his way.

I wasn' t.

And that scared him.