Summer Siege Survival

I paid the ultimate price in my last life for being too polite to refuse others. During a summer vacation, four children ended my life.

"Talia, we’re already on the way to your place. We should be there in about two hours. No need to prepare anything special. Just keep things the way you normally do. Don’t fuss."

I stared blankly as the voice came through my phone.

The agony of my skin being scalded raw by boiling-hot stew was still vivid in my mind. When I had struggled and begged for help, those children had dragged me back together. In the chaos, I had fallen from the seventh floor and died with my eyes wide open.

I glanced at the calendar on the wall.

I had been reborn.

In my previous life, my sister-in-law, Vanessa Mercer, had dumped her four kids at my home for the summer and left. I was forced to care for six children alone and was pushed to the brink of collapse.

Simply because I wouldn’t let my nephew, Jaxon Mercer, play on his tablet for hours on end, and because I told him not to wander around the house in nothing but his underwear, the conflict escalated until it led to that horrifying death.

My whole body trembled at the memory. I rushed into the bedroom, grabbed my identification documents, and fled toward the high-speed rail station with my two daughters, Kaia and Nova Mercer.

"Mom, where are we going?"

"I'm taking you on a trip. We’re going to have as much fun as we want!"

I ran like my life depended on it—because it did. I had nothing on me but a small crossbody bag, not even a change of clothes. The only things I brought were my ten-year-old twin daughters, Kaia and Nova Mercer.

"Three tickets on the next train out. One adult, two children."

My hands were shaking so badly when I paid that I nearly dropped my phone.

I hadn’t even looked at where the train was going. It wasn’t until we were seated and the high-speed train began to move that I finally exhaled.

Kaia and Nova stared around wide-eyed, curiosity written all over their faces, yet they kept glancing at me like they wanted to ask something but didn’t dare.

"I know you have questions," I said gently. "But going on a trip is always fun."

I paused, then pulled out the tickets and checked them. Our final stop was Verdant Coast, Silverlake.

My fingers brushed over the printed name of the city, tracing the letters. A faint smile tugged at my lips.

For the longest time, I had wanted to go to Verdant Coast and enjoy its wild mushrooms, wood-fired flatbread, the old town, and archaic streets. I had mentioned it to my husband, Dominic Mercer, again and again, but something always came up.

One delay after another came, until my daughters were already ten.

Now I had left on impulse, and by sheer coincidence, the ticket I bought happened to be for Silverlake. Wasn’t that, in a way, compensation for the regrets of my past life?

When I died before, my body had hit the ground so violently that I was torn apart. My nieces and nephews had panicked, scattering in chaos. My daughters had been terrified out of their minds.

Later, my sister-in-law, Vanessa Mercer's family arrived. With everyone talking over one another and the children lying through their teeth, they somehow forced the conclusion that I had been depressed and taken my own life.

At first, Dominic had tried to guide our daughters into telling the truth. Unfortunately, they had been so traumatized that they had burned with fever for days. When it finally broke, they were no longer the same. They became vacant and unresponsive, like their minds had shattered.

My soul stayed with them, hovering constantly at their side. Watching everything unfold hurt so badly that I felt like I couldn’t breathe, yet I couldn’t change anything. I couldn’t even touch those monsters.

Eventually, Dominic decided that caring for two broken children was too troublesome and dumped them in a care facility. There, a predatory male staff member had assaulted them.

For the first time, rage and hatred allowed me to interact with the physical world. I had shattered the overhead light fixture and driven the jagged shards straight through his throat.

At that moment, my daughters had cried out, "Mom!"

Then, I was swallowed by endless darkness.

I didn’t know what would happen to them after something like that… until, in that pitch-black void, I saw two faintly glowing figures ahead of me.

It was them.

Just like me… they were dead.

Overwhelmed with grief and fury, tears of blood streaming down my face, I demanded to know what I had done to deserve this. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Vanessa was about to bring her four children to my home.

This time, I would protect my girls.

This time, we would live together properly.