She grabbed a wine bottle from a nearby tray and hurled it at the back of my head.
CRASH!!
The bottle hit me square in the skull and I collapsed instantly.
“RILEY!”
“RILEY!!”
Both men screamed at the same time.
I was rushed to the hospital.
And Candy immediately regretted what she’d done.
Because she knew it wasn’t just the Morrison family that was finished.
She was finished too.
Blake looked at her with pure, absolute hatred.
If there’d been any doubt before due to Candy’s smooth talking and lack of evidence, this proved she’d always hated me.
She wanted me to die!
Not in the past life, not in this life–she’d ALWAYS wanted me gone.
When I woke up three days later, Damon’s usually perfect jawline was covered in scruffy beard.
Even when we first met at that fighting arena–when he was slumming it as a beast tamer and pulled me out of those tigers‘ jaws–he hadn’t
looked this rough.
Blake and the Morrison parents were also keeping vigil by my hospital bed.
The moment they saw I was awake, the Morrison parents dropped to their knees:
“Miss Riley, this is all our fault–ALL of it! Tell us how to make it right, but PLEASE don’t cancel our company contracts! That business is our life’s
work!”
They were sobbing desperately, not even daring to mention their daughter Candy,
Because right after Candy smashed that bottle over my head, Whitmore security had her in custody.
She’d be charged with assault and battery,
And once the legal system got involved, all her past schemes came to light.
SHE was the one who’d switched in the venomous snakes.
Even our original fall hadn’t been an accident–she’d tried to push me down and make it look like I’d died by accident.
That way Blake would be all hers.
“Riley, I had NO idea–I swear I had no clue she was that twisted!”
Blake clutched his head in agony.
15:32
He Wanted a Hiking Trip? Honey, His Funeral Was My Comeback Tour!
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Chapter 7
Two lifetimes, and he’d been played like a complete fool both times.
PRE
However much he’d treasured and worried about Candy before, that’s how sick he felt now.
“Did you really not know, or did you just pretend not to know so you could enjoy all the attention she gave you?”
I still had bandages wrapped around my head and my lips were pale, but my words made Blake go whiter than me.
“Last time you chose me and married me, but you still had to play the tragic romantic, pining for another woman for decades. Even our kids‘ names existed just to honor HER memory.”
“You know what? You two made me absolutely SICK!”
My disgusted expression was like the final blow that shattered what was left of the man.
He knew I’d gotten my memory back.
I remembered those decades of cold treatment because of another woman.
I remembered begging and pleading while he refused to save me–all that despair and hatred.
“But I DO love you, Riley.”
For the first time, the man broke down crying.
Even getting a second chance, he’d never wanted us to be completely over.
We’d grown up together as childhood sweethearts. I knew about his first failed test, he knew when I got my first period.
Even after my family lost everything, he’d still insisted on marrying me.
We’d been so beautiful together–so beautiful that losing me left him with no reason to keep living.
But now I wasn’t dead.
Yet everything between us was.
“Can’t you give me one chance to make it right? It was all Candy’s scheme–I really didn’t know she’d messed with everything.”
“You KNOW I never wanted you to get hurt.”
Blake’s eyes were bloodshot, looking as pitiful as a child.
Seeing him like this made my nose sting.
In our past life, we hadn’t been married without some happy times.
He’d been the man I swore I’d love forever.
But loving him had hurt too much. Hurting for a whole lifetime was enough.
I slowly opened my hospital gown-
My skin was covered in countless faint scars.
Absolutely horrifying!
Those were from every single snake bite.
Even the most expensive treatments couldn’t erase them completely.
Chapter 7
“Do you have ANY idea how much pain I was in?!”
I laughed bitterly.
Blake’s lips trembled like those scars hurt him a hundred times worse than they hurt me.
“Even now, I still have nightmares every single night.”
“I dream that you didn’t choose Candy, that you didn’t shove me into that snake pit.”
“Isn’t that pathetic? Even in my dreams I still hoped you’d come save me. Just like when we played house as kids–you were always my prince
who’d rescue me.”
By this point, Blake looked completely destroyed.
But dreams were the opposite of reality.
HE had created my nightmares.
What right did he have to ask for forgiveness now?!
Thinking this, the man’s shoulders suddenly sagged with defeat.
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.