Chapter 2

The sky, which had been bright and sunny just an hour ago, suddenly turned a dark gray. A cold wind swept across the campus, and a light drizzle began to fall. The sudden chill seeped into my thin dress, and I shivered, the emotional shock of the day finally hitting me. I felt dizzy, weak.

I bent down to pick up my textbook, which had fallen when David grabbed me. As I stood up, a dark jacket was suddenly draped over my shoulders.

It was David's.

He had come back. He stood in front of me, his face unreadable, his eyes avoiding mine. He didn't say a word. He just put the jacket on me and then turned to walk away again.

The familiar scent of his cologne, a scent I had lived with for a decade, filled my senses. It was a confusing gesture. A flicker of the old David, the college sweetheart I had once loved so desperately, seemed to surface for a moment. It was a painful echo of a time before everything was poisoned by Emily's memory.

I stood there, clutching the warm jacket around me, my mind in turmoil. Why would he do that after being so angry?

Then I saw her.

Emily White was running toward us, her face a mask of panic. She wasn't looking at me; her eyes were fixed on David.

"David! I was so worried! I heard Sarah rejected you, and I came as fast as I could!" she cried out.

David's attention snapped to her instantly. The fleeting moment of concern for me vanished as if it had never existed. His entire focus shifted to Emily, his expression softening with a tenderness he hadn't shown me in years, not even in our first life.

I felt a familiar pang of invisibility. This was my life with him in a single, perfect snapshot: me, standing on the sidelines, watching him love someone else.

Emily reached them, looking fragile and distressed in the rain. As she got close, she seemed to stumble, her ankle twisting right next to where I stood. She let out a pained cry and fell toward David, making it look as if I had tripped her.

"Ow! Sarah, why would you do that?" she sobbed, clutching her ankle. "I was just trying to see if you were okay!"

The lie was so blatant, so perfectly executed. I hadn't moved a muscle.

David caught her, his face contorting with fury as he looked at me.

"What is wrong with you?" he yelled, his voice echoing in the now-empty courtyard. Students still in nearby buildings turned to look out the windows. "First, you humiliate me, and now you're physically attacking Emily? You're a monster, Sarah."

He cradled Emily protectively, glaring at me as if I were something vile. The whispers started, faces at the windows pointing at me. The public humiliation was intense. I was the cruel, jealous girl who couldn't stand to see her ex with his true love. The narrative was already written.

I didn't say a word. There was no point. He wouldn't believe me. He had never believed me.

With as much dignity as I could manage, I slipped off his jacket, folded it neatly, and placed it on a dry spot on the bench nearby. Then I turned and walked away, the weight of their stares on my back.

I decided to skip the rest of my classes. I just wanted to go back to my dorm and be alone. I needed to be ready for the end-of-term party tonight. That's when I would make my new path clear to everyone. That's when I would stand by Michael's side.

I had just managed to change out of my damp clothes and into something comfortable when my dorm room door burst open, slamming against the wall.

It was David. He was soaked from the rain, his hair plastered to his forehead, his eyes burning with a righteous fire.

"Emily's ankle is sprained," he said, his voice dangerously low. "We just came from the infirmary. She told me everything. You told her to stay away from me. You threatened her."

He stepped into my room, his presence filling the small space with suffocating anger. I was trapped.