Chapter 3

I woke up to the feeling of rough concrete scraping against my cheek.

The air smelled of wet soil and car exhaust. I wasn't in the hospital. I was outside, in what looked like a secluded courtyard behind the main building.

A cold drizzle was falling, soaking my thin hospital shirt.

My head throbbed with a nauseating pain. I pushed myself up onto my elbows, my vision swimming.

That' s when I saw them.

The male muses. All of them. The dozen or so men Olivia had kept around for her "inspiration." They were on their knees in a line, their faces bruised and bleeding. Olivia' s security guards stood over them,methodically beating them with black batons.

The men weren' t fighting back. They were just taking it, groaning in pain. It was a scene of controlled, brutal violence.

Why were they here? Why were they being punished?

Then I was being hauled to my feet. Two guards grabbed me by the arms and dragged me over to the line of kneeling men, forcing me down onto the wet concrete with them.

"Stay put," one of them growled.

Suddenly, the beatings stopped. The guards stepped back, standing at attention.

A door to the hospital opened, and Olivia stepped out, an umbrella held over her head by a servant. She was no longer in a hospital gown but a sharp, expensive black dress.

Liam was by her side, holding Lucas in his arms. The child was burying his face in his father' s shoulder, shielded from the grim scene.

They walked slowly towards us, their shoes clicking on the wet pavement. They stopped a few feet away, looking down at us like we were insects.

Olivia' s eyes were cold, filled with a chilling satisfaction.

Liam leaned in and whispered something in her ear. I couldn' t hear the words, but I saw the effect they had. Olivia' s gaze snapped to me, and her expression twisted into one of pure fury.

"Ethan Miller," she said, her voice cutting through the quiet drizzle. "Look at what you' ve done."

I stared at her, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Don' t play dumb with me!" she shrieked. "Liam told me everything! You hired these men to attack us! To kidnap Lucas! You wanted to take my son away from me!"

The accusation was so insane, so baseless, that I could only stare at her in disbelief. I had been unconscious. How could I have done any of this?

"That' s a lie, Olivia," I said, my voice shaking with a mixture of pain and anger. "Liam is lying to you."

Liam put on a masterful performance, shrinking back and clutching Lucas tighter. "Olivia, please, don' t. He' s a desperate man. He' s not himself."

His false compassion only stoked her rage.

She pointed a long, slender finger at the kneeling muses. "You!" she commanded. "He was your employer! This is his punishment. I want you to deliver it."

The muses looked up, their faces a mixture of fear and confusion.

"What?" one of them stammered.

"You heard me," Olivia said, her voice deadly calm. "Beat him. Or the beating you just received will seem like a gentle pat on the back."

For a moment, no one moved. They were afraid of her, but the idea of turning on me, another victim, was horrifying.

Then one of the guards stepped forward and kicked the nearest muse hard in the ribs. The man cried out and collapsed.

The message was clear.

Slowly, reluctantly, one of the muses got to his feet. He looked at me, his eyes filled with apology. "I' m sorry, Ethan," he mumbled. Then he punched me in the face.

Soon, they all joined in. A desperate, chaotic flurry of fists and feet. They were forced to become my torturers to save themselves. I curled into a ball on the ground, trying to protect my head as the blows rained down on my back, my ribs, my legs.

Through the haze of pain, I looked up at Olivia. She was watching, her expression unreadable.

And then she said the words that changed everything. The words that froze the blood in my veins.

"You thought you could get a second chance, didn't you?" she sneered, her voice low so only I could hear it over the sounds of the beating. "You thought you could come back and fix things. But you' re still the same pathetic worm you were in your last life, Ethan. And you will always lose to me."

Time stopped.

The pain from the blows faded into the background.

Her words echoed in my skull.

Second chance.

Last life.

The world tilted on its axis. It wasn't just me. It couldn't be.

She knew.

Olivia had been reborn, too.