Chapter 1

The salt spray felt the same on my skin, a cold, familiar mist. I stood on the deck of the Serenity, my private yacht, and watched the turquoise water churn below. This was where I died. Not in a hospital bed, not in a car crash, but right here, in the middle of the ocean, because of the two people I thought I loved most.

The memory was not a dream, it was a scar on my soul. The pirates' rough hands, their jeering laughter, and Chloe' s voice, cool and distant, telling them to hurry up. She had a dinner reservation to keep. And Alex, her precious artist, had already been taken to safety while I was left to bleed out on the deck. After I was dead, she found a way to get my fortune, poisoning me in that life, dismembering my body to hide the evidence. But the universe, in its strange, cruel way, had given me a second chance. I was reborn, sent back to the start of this very day, on this very yacht, with all the memories of my end.

"Liam, darling, are you even listening?"

Chloe' s voice cut through my thoughts. She glided across the deck, her white sundress floating around her. She was beautiful, a perfect porcelain doll, and just as hollow.

"The captain is being so unreasonable. He says we need to stick to the schedule."

She pouted, a gesture that once had me wrapped around her finger. Now, it just made my stomach turn.

"Alex needs more time. He' s on the verge of a breakthrough on that island. His masterpiece, he calls it."

I looked toward the small, secluded island a few miles away. Alex, her childhood friend and a talentless hack who called himself an "influencer artist," was spray-painting rocks and calling it profound. In my last life, I' d funded his "art" for years, all to make Chloe happy.

I remembered the end so clearly. The pirates had come, just as the weather was turning. The captain had urged us to leave, but Chloe had refused. She' d insisted we wait for Alex to finish his "masterpiece." That delay, that selfish, pointless delay, had cost me my life.

This time would be different. I wasn' t the same lovestruck fool. The man she had manipulated and discarded was gone, replaced by someone who knew her soul, and his. My goal was simple, I wasn't just here to survive. I was here to collect a debt.

I looked at her, my face a calm, placid mask.

"Whatever you want, Chloe."

Her smile was triumphant. She thought she had won, as always. She had no idea the game had just begun, and this time, I was setting the rules.

Suddenly, a siren blared across the yacht, sharp and urgent. One of the crew members, a young man named Tom, ran onto the deck, his face pale with fear.

"Sir! Pirates! Three speedboats, approaching fast from the south!"

The world seemed to slow down. It was happening again. The exact same moment, the exact same threat. The calm of the ocean was shattered, replaced by the thrum of approaching engines and the frantic shouts of the crew.

The captain' s voice crackled over the intercom.

"All hands, prepare for immediate departure! I repeat, immediate departure!"

But Chloe screamed, her voice shrill and piercing, a sound that would haunt my two lives.

"No! We can' t leave!"

She grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my skin.

"We have to wait for Alex! He' s still on the island! His art, Liam! We can' t just leave his masterpiece behind!"