Reborn in Red

Back in the present moment, I forced myself to stay calm and played dumb. Senna's nails dug into my jaw, wrenching my face toward hers.

"Don't play stupid."

She let out a cold laugh and flung a stack of documents from her briefcase. "Sign."

I looked down. It was a written confession stating that I had framed Corbin for embezzlement. She wanted me to take the fall for him.

"Sign it and I'll pretend none of this ever happened." Her voice softened. She traced a slow line down my cheek with her thumb.

"We can still get married and go back to the way things were. I'll love you and spoil you, just like before."

My stomach turned. This woman truly thought she could manipulate me like a child.

In my previous life, she had used that same gentle voice to coax me into drinking milk she had laced with drugs. It was after that that she sliced me open with her own hands.

"Senna, I've already told my dad to dissolve our engagement," I said, my voice cold. "I'm the eldest son of the Thornwell family. Marrying me was your privilege, not mine. What makes you think you can use it as leverage?"

Her expression twisted. The next second, a searing pain ripped through my scalp. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and drove my head down against the coffee table.

"You worthless piece of trash!"

Something warm ran down my forehead. I crumpled to the floor, and her heel came down on my hand. The pain was blinding, but I bit down on my lip and refused to make a sound.

She crouched over me and pressed her thumb into the base of my throat. Her voice was so cold that it could have come from the grave. "Are you signing or not?"

"In... your dreams," I choked the words out.

Her eyes flashed. She snatched the fruit knife from the coffee table and drove it straight through my palm.

I screamed. Blood sprayed across her white dress like scattered petals.

My entire body seized with pain, but she leaned her weight onto my wrist and held it there. "This is just the beginning."

She raised the knife again. This time, the blade pointed at my stomach. "I don't think you want to experience being gutted alive a second time."

In that instant, her face and the face from my previous life became one. I looked into those merciless eyes, and my heart lurched with panic. She had been reborn too.

The memory of that unbearable agony flooded back, and my whole body began to shake.

"I'll sign," I said, my voice trembling.

I held out my uninjured left hand.

Senna smiled with satisfaction and pressed a pen between my fingers. Blood dripped onto the paper and spread in dark blooms as I scrawled my name in shaking, crooked letters. On the final stroke, I deliberately tore through the page.

"You think this is going to save Corbin?"

I managed a weak, bitter laugh. "Even if you can force my signature, can you keep my mouth shut? I'll see you in court, Senna. And when I get there, I'm going to lay out every single thing you've done for the whole world to hear."

In this life, Dad was still alive. As long as he was here, I had nothing to fear.

Her face contorted with rage, and her nails dug into my throat again. "You worthless piece of trash!"

Yet almost as quickly, she let out a cold laugh and released me.

I clutched my neck and gasped for air. When I looked up, that vicious smile was still on her face.

"This is the path you chose. I have plenty of ways to shut you up." She spat the words out and walked away without looking back.

A wave of dread washed through me. Something terrible was coming. I could feel it.

It did not take long.

"Mr. Gage! You need to get here now! The warehouse is on fire!"