​After Rebirth, I Replaced Her as Everyone's Crush

"Ember, I had no idea yesterday was your and Gab's anniversary. If I'd known, I would've insisted he not come to the hospital with me. If you need to be mad at someone, blame me."

Who the hell is making all that noise...

Irritated, I glanced up to find a delicate-featured girl with tears streaming down her face. Something about her looked familiar. I froze for a second, my brain trying to place her. Then ice shot down my spine.

Isabelle Pryce? That C-list starlet who'd been circling my husband like a vulture?

I remembered I'd shown up pregnant to visit Gabriel on set. Isabelle had oh-so-sweetly offered to take me to find him. Gabriel was nowhere to be found, but Isabelle's hands sure found my back—right before she shoved me off that cliff. Two lives ended in one brutal push.

So... I'd been reborn?

Rage flooded through me like wildfire.

SMACK!

My palm connected hard with Isabelle's porcelain cheek. The room went dead silent. Then every camera and microphone at the wrap party swiveled toward me like I was the main event.

Gabriel, who'd been treating me like furniture all night, shot up from his seat and stormed over, fury radiating off him in waves.

"Ember Blake, have you lost your damn mind?"

"Gab, don't be angry with Ember. She's just upset you went to the hospital with me yesterday instead of spending your anniversary together. It's all my fault." Isabelle clutched her reddening cheek, the picture of wounded innocence as she tugged gently on Gabriel's sleeve.

"Such a serious injury." I let my gaze drift to the band-aid on Isabelle's hand, my tone dripping with sarcasm. "A band-aid-level emergency. Totally worth dragging him to the hospital."

A tiny scratch and she'd weaponized it into a damsel-in-distress moment. Impressive, really.

"I don't know what game you're playing, but right now, you're going to apologize to Belle." Gabriel's voice was sharp, his eyes boring into me with barely contained anger.

Of course. Gabriel never could resist a crying woman. An apology? He could dream on. The only way I'd apologize to that snake would be if she was diagnosed with stage four cancer—and even then, I'd have to think about it.

"Gabriel. Divorce." I met his stare head-on, my voice flat and cold.

The demand clearly caught him off guard. His expression cycled through shock, disbelief, and annoyance before his voice dropped dangerously low. "In front of all these reporters? At my wrap party? What the hell are you trying to pull, Ember?"

Ha. Everything I did was just me "pulling something" to him.

I turned on my heel and walked out without another word. Tomorrow's tabloid headlines practically wrote themselves: 'Gabriel Sinclair's Wife Assaults Rising Starlet, Demands Divorce at Public Event.' Let them talk. Soon enough, everyone would know I wasn't bluffing.

In the parking garage, my driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "Mrs. Sinclair, back to the house?"

I had this ritual. After every one of Gabriel's wrap parties, I'd head home early to make hangover soup from scratch, timing it perfectly so it'd be ready when he stumbled in drunk. Three years. I'd never missed once.

Now? Gabriel could go straight to hell. I wasn't making him a damn thing. All I wanted was to crash and not think about any of this. Besides, he wouldn't be home tonight anyway. Isabelle probably needed a good hour or two sobbing into his chest.

She'd worked so hard to destroy me, never realizing Gabriel's real endgame didn't include her either. In my past life, a year from now, Gabriel would meet his actual true love. To protect her, he'd use me as a human shield—deliberately stoking Isabelle's jealousy until she snapped and killed me and my unborn child.