“Did you really think you were the only one who came back?”

Nathaniel Blackwood smiled as though he had just told an amusing joke.

But nobody laughed.

Behind him, Rosewood Manor was burning.

Firefighters rushed through the gates. Red emergency lights flashed across the garden, and smoke poured from the windows of my mother’s study.

Sophia lay on a stretcher, coughing beneath an oxygen mask.

Alexander stood beside me, his hand instinctively moving toward mine.

And I couldn’t stop staring at Nathaniel.

Because those eleven words had just changed everything.

He remembered.

My former husband remembered the life in which he had betrayed me, stolen my inheritance, and watched me die.

And unlike Alexander and me, he didn’t appear frightened by his second chance.

He appeared delighted.

“What did you say?” I whispered.

Nathaniel tilted his head.

“Oh, Evelyn. Surely you didn’t think you were special?”

My stomach twisted.

Alexander stepped in front of me.

“Stay away from her.”

Nathaniel laughed softly.

“Still playing the hero, Whitmore? How exhausting that must be.”

Alexander’s jaw tightened.

“Answer her question.”

“Which question? Whether I remember the future? Whether I remember the accident? Or whether I remember you crying over another man’s wife?”

My knees nearly gave way.

He knew.

He knew every terrible detail.

Nathaniel looked at me.

“You should have seen your face when you woke up ten years younger. I imagine it was quite a surprise.”

I took a shaky breath.

“How long have you known?”

“Since June fourteenth.”

The day of his proposal.

The day I rejected him.

The day I thought I had finally escaped.

Nathaniel’s smile widened.

“You embarrassed me terribly that afternoon, darling.”

“Good.”

His expression flickered.

For the first time, I saw a trace of the man who used to punish me with silence whenever I disagreed with him.

Then he laughed.

“There’s that new confidence. I wonder how long it will last.”

Alexander stepped closer.

“Leave, Nathaniel. The police are already here.”

Nathaniel glanced toward the arriving officers.

Then he leaned close enough for only us to hear.

“Ask your precious Alexander what he did after you died, Evelyn.”

My heart stopped.

“What?”

Nathaniel’s eyes gleamed.

“Ask him why the two of you were given another chance.”

Alexander went completely still.

I turned toward him.

“Alexander?”

He didn’t answer.

Nathaniel smiled.

“Oh, this is going to be interesting.”

Then he straightened his jacket and walked toward the police.

As though he hadn’t just shattered my entire world.

***

We spent the next four hours answering questions.

The firefighters contained the blaze before it spread beyond the eastern wing.

My mother’s study was badly damaged, but the rest of Rosewood Manor survived.

More importantly, everyone escaped.

Sophia was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and minor burns.

Before the ambulance left, she caught my wrist.

“Evelyn…”

Her eyes were full of tears.

“I’m sorry.”

I looked down at the girl I had once considered my sister.

“Are you sorry for what happened tonight?”

She began to cry.

“Or are you sorry because you got caught?”

She couldn’t answer.

I gently removed her hand.

For the first time in two lifetimes, I walked away from Sophia without feeling responsible for her tears.

By dawn, the police had collected the security equipment, interviewed the household staff, and taken my statement.

The damaged cameras had recorded enough to show someone entering the eastern corridor shortly before the fire.

I gave the officers Sophia’s bracelet.

I also told them what she had admitted.

Nathaniel had instructed her to destroy the papers.

But I kept one detail to myself.

I didn’t tell them that three people standing outside Rosewood Manor remembered a future that no longer existed.

How could I?

I could barely understand it myself.

***

Alexander found me in the conservatory shortly after sunrise.

I was sitting beneath the glass ceiling, staring at the roses my mother had planted.

For a moment, he stood silently in the doorway.

Then he approached.

“Evelyn.”

I didn’t look up.

“What did Nathaniel mean?”

He stopped.

“About what happened after you died?”

“Yes.”

Alexander took a slow breath.

“There’s something I should have told you.”

I laughed bitterly.

“Apparently everyone in my life has something they should have told me.”

He looked wounded.

I hated that it hurt to see him that way.

But I was tired.

Tired of secrets.

Tired of lies disguised as protection.

Tired of being the last person to understand my own life.

“Please,” I whispered. “Just tell me the truth.”

Alexander sat across from me.

For a long moment, he studied his hands.

Then he began.

“After you died, I couldn’t accept it.”

His voice was quiet.

“I had spent ten years watching you disappear a little more each time I saw you.”

I looked up.

He continued.

“The Evelyn I knew at eighteen used to laugh at everything. You wanted to travel. You wanted to study architecture. You wanted to restore old buildings and turn them into places where people could begin again.”

My throat tightened.

I had forgotten those dreams.

Not entirely.

But enough that hearing them spoken aloud felt like remembering someone else’s life.

“You remembered that?”

Alexander gave me a sad smile.

“I remembered everything.”

He leaned back.

“When Nathaniel proposed, I thought you were happy. I knew you loved him, and I believed loving someone meant respecting their choice.”

“So you stayed away.”

“I tried.”

He looked toward the garden.

“But every year, I heard something else. You’d sold another property. You’d stopped speaking to old friends. You’d withdrawn from university. Then your father passed away, and you stopped attending family gatherings.”

Tears filled my eyes.

“I thought those were your choices,” Alexander whispered. “I didn’t understand how carefully Nathaniel had isolated you.”

I stared at him.

“Why didn’t you tell me you loved me?”

“Because I didn’t want you to feel that my help came with a price.”

The words struck somewhere deep inside me.

Every kindness Nathaniel had shown me eventually came with a demand.

Alexander had expected nothing.

“And after the accident?” I asked.

His face changed.

For a moment, he looked like the man kneeling on the wet pavement again.

“I stayed with you until the ambulance arrived.”

My fingers trembled.

“I know.”

He shook his head.

“No, Evelyn. You don’t know what happened afterward.”

I held my breath.

“Tell me.”

His voice broke.

“You died before they could save you.”

Tears slipped down his cheeks.

“I went to the hospital anyway. I waited because some ridiculous part of me believed they’d made a mistake.”

I covered my mouth.

“Alexander…”

“I attended your funeral. Nathaniel cried in front of everyone. Sophia stood beside him, holding his hand.”

He laughed once.

A terrible, empty sound.

“They were very convincing.”

My stomach turned.

“Then I found the evidence.”

“What evidence?”

“Financial records. Messages. Insurance documents. Enough inconsistencies to convince me that your accident hadn’t been an accident.”

I leaned forward.

“What did you do?”

“I went to the authorities.”

“And?”

“They opened an investigation. Nathaniel’s businesses were examined. People began asking questions he couldn’t easily answer.”

Alexander’s expression darkened.

“But before I could see the case resolved, something happened.”

My pulse quickened.

“What?”

He reached into his pocket.

And placed the broken silver watch on the table.

I recognized it immediately.

The cracked glass.

The engraved initials.

The inscription.

UNTIL TIME GIVES US ANOTHER CHANCE.

“My grandfather gave me this watch when I was seventeen,” Alexander said.

“He told me it had belonged to his mother, and that she believed time sometimes gave people a way to correct what love had left unfinished.”

I stared at him.

“That sounds impossible.”

“I know.”

He turned the watch over.

“On the night after your funeral, I fell asleep holding it.”

His voice became distant.

“I remember wishing I could go back. Not to make you love me. Not to steal you from Nathaniel.”

He looked at me.

“Just to give you the chance to choose a different life.”

My eyes filled.

“And then?”

“I woke up on June fourteenth.”

“The day of Nathaniel’s proposal.”

He nodded.

“At first, I thought I’d lost my mind.”

I almost smiled through my tears.

“I know the feeling.”

“But then I saw you walk into the garden.”

His voice softened.

“You were eighteen again.”

I held his gaze.

“And you were about to marry him.”

Alexander shook his head.

“I had already decided that if you accepted his proposal, I would tell you everything I could prove about his financial dealings. I wasn’t going to leave you alone with him again.”

I thought of the garden.

The diamond ring.

Nathaniel kneeling.

Alexander standing beneath the oak tree.

“And then I said no.”

Alexander smiled faintly.

“You did.”

“And I asked you to marry me.”

He laughed softly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more surprised in my life.”

For one beautiful moment, the darkness between us lifted.

Then I remembered Nathaniel.

“If you came back because of the watch, why did he come back too?”

Alexander’s smile vanished.

“I don’t know.”

I looked at the cracked glass.

Neither of us spoke.

Then I asked the question that frightened me most.

“Alexander, what if the watch didn’t give us another chance?”

He looked at me.

“What if it gave Nathaniel one?”

***

By afternoon, my father had arranged for us to stay in the western wing while repairs began.

I barely slept.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw my mother’s handwriting.

HE KNOWS ABOUT ALEXANDER.

And Sophia’s terrified face.

She was going to tell you the truth about how she became ill.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

For six months before her passing, my mother had grown weaker.

Her doctors believed she was suffering from a serious illness complicated by an infection.

I remembered bringing her soup.

Reading beside her bed.

Watching her struggle to hold a glass.

And Nathaniel…

Nathaniel had visited often.

He brought flowers.

He spoke gently to my father.

He helped organize her medical appointments.

At the time, I thought he was being kind.

Now every memory felt contaminated.

I called Margaret Ellis.

“Margaret, I need you to find my mother’s complete medical records.”

There was a pause.

“Evelyn, that could take time.”

“I understand.”

“And there’s something else.”

My heart tightened.

“What?”

“I found a document your mother asked me to keep sealed.”

I sat upright.

“What kind of document?”

“A handwritten statement. She instructed me to release it only if there were concerns about your safety or the handling of her estate.”

I nearly dropped the phone.

“Why didn’t you mention this yesterday?”

“Because I didn’t realize the conditions had been met until the fire.”

I closed my eyes.

“Margaret, please bring it to the house.”

“I’ll be there within the hour.”

***

The letter arrived in a plain cream envelope.

My mother’s handwriting covered three pages.

I recognized the small loops in her letters.

The careful way she crossed every t.

For several seconds, I couldn’t open it.

Then Alexander sat beside me.

“You don’t have to read it alone.”

I looked at him.

“Will you stay?”

“Always.”

I broke the seal.

My darling Evelyn,

If you’re reading this, then something has happened that I was afraid might happen.

First, I need you to know that none of this is your fault.

You have always trusted people easily.

Your father says you inherited that from me.

Perhaps he’s right.

But there is a difference between having a kind heart and allowing others to decide what your kindness is worth.

I have recently discovered troubling irregularities involving Nathaniel Blackwood and several people connected to our family investments.

I also believe someone has been attempting to interfere with my medical care.

I cannot yet prove these things.

That is why I have asked Margaret Ellis to preserve everything.

Alexander Whitmore has agreed to help me investigate the financial arrangements.

I trust his judgment.

More importantly, I trust his character.

But there is something else you must understand.

Nathaniel is not the only person I am concerned about.

My breath caught.

I continued reading.

The most dangerous person is often not the one who openly demands what belongs to you.

It is the person who convinces you that giving it away is an act of love.

I have seen how Nathaniel speaks to you.

How he praises your generosity while discouraging your independence.

How he becomes irritated when you make decisions without consulting him.

And I have seen how Sophia watches him when she thinks nobody is looking.

Evelyn, please be careful.

I do not know what my future holds.

But I know what I want for yours.

I want you to study.

To travel.

To make mistakes that belong to you.

To build something beautiful.

And if you ever fall in love, I hope you choose a man who never asks you to become smaller so that he can feel important.

I began crying before I reached the final paragraph.

My mother had seen everything.

Before I did.

Before anyone did.

She had tried to protect me.

And I had spent ten years walking directly into the future she feared.

Alexander gently took my hand.

I looked at him through tears.

“She knew.”

He nodded.

“She was trying to warn you.”

I pressed the letter against my chest.

For the first time since waking up in the past, I felt something more powerful than anger.

Grief.

Not only for the mother I’d lost.

But for the years I’d wasted believing that loving Nathaniel meant honoring the life she wanted for me.

It hadn’t.

It had been the opposite.

And I was finished.

***

The following morning, I went to Nathaniel’s office.

Alone.

Alexander hated the idea.

But I needed Nathaniel to believe I was still the frightened girl he remembered.

I wore a simple gray dress.

No jewelry.

No makeup beyond a little powder.

When his secretary announced me, Nathaniel looked genuinely pleased.

“Evelyn.”

He rose from his desk.

“I knew you’d come.”

I sat without waiting for an invitation.

“I want to make a deal.”

His smile widened.

“Now we’re talking.”

He leaned back.

“What kind of deal?”

“I know you remember our marriage.”

His expression didn’t change.

“And?”

“I know what happened to my inheritance.”

He studied me.

“Go on.”

“And I know about Sophia.”

For the first time, irritation crossed his face.

“She talks too much.”

I almost laughed.

That was his reaction.

Not denial.

Not shame.

Annoyance that his accomplice had spoken.

I leaned forward.

“I want the truth about my mother.”

Nathaniel’s smile disappeared.

“Your mother?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t understand.”

He watched me carefully.

Then he stood and walked toward the window.

“Your mother was a clever woman.”

My chest tightened.

“Was she?”

“Too clever for her own good.”

I forced myself to remain calm.

“What did you do to her?”

He turned.

“Be careful, Evelyn.”

“Did you interfere with her treatment?”

He laughed.

“You’ve been listening to Whitmore.”

“Answer me.”

Nathaniel walked slowly toward my chair.

“You think because you’ve lived once before, you’re suddenly dangerous?”

I held his gaze.

“No.”

He stopped.

“I think I’m dangerous because I finally understand you.”

His smile faded.

For a moment, I saw genuine hatred in his eyes.

Then he leaned close.

“You have no idea what your mother discovered.”

My pulse quickened.

“Then tell me.”

He lowered his voice.

“She found something that could have ruined several very powerful people.”

“Who?”

He smiled again.

“Not everyone gets a second chance, Evelyn.”

A terrible uneasiness settled in my stomach.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you should be grateful you’re alive.”

I stood.

“Stay away from my family.”

Nathaniel laughed softly.

“Your family?”

He stepped aside and opened the office door.

“Go home, darling.”

I stopped in the doorway.

He added one final sentence.

“And ask your father why he never told you about the night your mother collapsed.”

I turned.

But Nathaniel was already closing the door.

***

My father was waiting for me when I returned to Rosewood Manor.

I found him in the library, sitting beside the fireplace with an old photograph in his hands.

It showed my mother at twenty-five.

Smiling.

Beautiful.

Alive in a way I could barely remember.

“Father.”

He looked up.

“Evelyn.”

I sat opposite him.

“We need to talk about Mother.”

His face changed.

“What about her?”

“The night she collapsed.”

His fingers tightened around the photograph.

For a long time, he said nothing.

Then he sighed.

“I wondered when someone would ask.”

My heart began to race.

“What happened?”

He stared into the fire.

“Your mother had been arguing with someone that evening.”

“Who?”

He hesitated.

“She wouldn’t tell me.”

I leaned forward.

“Father, please.”

His eyes filled with tears.

“She said she’d found evidence of financial misconduct. She wanted to speak to the authorities, but she was afraid someone might destroy the documents.”

I swallowed.

“Then what?”

“She went upstairs. Later, Mrs. Harper found her unconscious.”

My chest tightened.

“Was Nathaniel there?”

My father looked away.

“Yes.”

I went cold.

“He told me he’d come to discuss the investment arrangements.”

I struggled to breathe.

“And you believed him?”

“I had no reason not to.”

I covered my face.

My father began crying.

“Evelyn, I didn’t know.”

For a moment, I wanted to scream.

To blame him.

To ask how he could have missed what my mother had seen so clearly.

But then I remembered my own blindness.

Ten years.

I had lived with Nathaniel for ten years and never truly understood the man beside me.

I took my father’s hand.

“We know now.”

He looked at me.

“And we’re going to find the truth.”

***

That evening, Alexander took me to the old rose garden behind Rosewood Manor.

The sky was turning pink.

Summer wind moved gently through the trees.

For the first time in days, there were no police officers, no lawyers, no accusations.

Just us.

Alexander walked beside me in silence.

Eventually, I stopped.

“Why did you love me?”

He turned.

“What?”

“In our first life.”

He looked almost embarrassed.

I smiled faintly.

“You can tell me. I already know the answer involves at least ten years of terrible timing.”

He laughed.

Then his expression softened.

“I fell in love with you when you were sixteen.”

I stared.

“Sixteen?”

He nodded.

“Your mother hosted a charity auction. Everyone was dressed in expensive clothes and trying to impress one another.”

I remembered the event vaguely.

“You were supposed to give a speech,” he continued.

“Oh, no.”

He smiled.

“Oh, yes.”

I groaned.

“I forgot half of it.”

“You did.”

“And knocked over the flowers.”

“You did that too.”

I covered my face.

Alexander laughed.

“But afterward, you found one of the younger volunteers crying behind the ballroom because she’d accidentally broken a vase.”

I remembered now.

A frightened girl.

A shattered blue vase.

I had taken responsibility because the girl was terrified she’d lose her job.

“You told everyone you’d broken it,” Alexander said.

I shrugged.

“It was just a vase.”

“It was worth nearly six thousand dollars.”

I stared.

“What?”

He laughed again.

“You never knew?”

“No!”

His smile softened.

“Your mother knew. She watched you take the blame.”

I remembered Mother hugging me afterward.

I had never understood why she’d been so emotional.

Alexander took my hand.

“That was the moment I realized you saw people differently.”

I looked at him.

“You were never interested in what someone could give you. You cared about whether they were frightened, lonely, or hurting.”

Tears filled my eyes.

“And I spent ten years giving everything to someone who never cared about me.”

Alexander shook his head.

“That doesn’t make your kindness a mistake.”

I swallowed.

“What does it make me?”

“Someone who deserved better.”

For a long moment, we stood beneath the roses.

Then I stepped closer.

“Alexander?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know what will happen next.”

“Neither do I.”

“I don’t know if Nathaniel can change the future.”

“I know.”

“And I don’t know whether this second life is a miracle or something we’re going to have to fight for.”

Alexander gently brushed a strand of hair from my face.

“You don’t have to decide everything tonight.”

I looked into his eyes.

“But there’s one thing I know.”

“What?”

I smiled through my tears.

“I don’t want to waste another lifetime pretending I don’t see you.”

His breath caught.

Then he leaned forward slowly, giving me every opportunity to move away.

I didn’t.

Our first kiss was gentle.

Warm.

Nothing like the desperate affection I had once begged from Nathaniel.

There was no performance.

No promise designed to impress an audience.

Only a quiet understanding between two people who had found each other after losing far too much.

When Alexander pulled back, he rested his forehead against mine.

“I’ve waited a very long time for that.”

I laughed softly.

“Ten years?”

He smiled.

“Longer, it feels.”

I wrapped my arms around him.

For one beautiful moment, I forgot the fear.

Forgot Nathaniel.

Forgot the fire.

Forgot the terrible possibilities waiting ahead.

I simply held the man who had loved me when I didn’t know how to love myself.

And for the first time in two lifetimes, I felt safe.

***

The happiness lasted exactly forty-three minutes.

We had just returned to the manor when Mrs. Harper came running toward us.

“Miss Evelyn!”

Her face was pale.

“There’s been an accident.”

My heart stopped.

“What accident?”

“Your father.”

I dropped Alexander’s hand.

“What happened?”

Mrs. Harper began crying.

“He was driving to Margaret Ellis’s office. Someone struck his car on the bridge.”

The world tilted.

“No…”

Alexander caught my arm.

“Where is he?”

“St. Catherine’s Hospital.”

I was already running toward the door.

***

The hospital smelled of antiseptic and fear.

I remembered that smell.

From the night my father suffered his stroke in my first life.

From the night I lost him forever.

Not again.

Please.

Not again.

Alexander stayed beside me as we hurried through the emergency department.

A doctor approached.

“Miss Rosewood?”

“Yes.”

“Your father is alive.”

My knees weakened.

“But he’s suffered significant injuries. We’re still evaluating him.”

I gripped the doctor’s sleeve.

“Can I see him?”

“Briefly.”

When I entered the room, my father was lying beneath white blankets.

His face was bruised.

There was a bandage across his forehead.

But his eyes opened when he heard my voice.

“Evelyn.”

I began crying.

“Father.”

He tried to smile.

“Don’t make that face, sweetheart. I’ve had worse days.”

I laughed through my tears.

I took his hand.

“What happened?”

His expression changed.

He looked toward the door.

Then leaned closer.

“It wasn’t an accident.”

My blood turned cold.

“What?”

“A black car followed me from the manor.”

I stopped breathing.

“It forced me toward the bridge.”

Tears filled his eyes.

“Evelyn, someone wanted me off that road.”

My grip tightened.

“Who?”

He swallowed.

Then whispered, “I saw the driver.”

I leaned closer.

“Who was it?”

His lips trembled.

“It was…”

A monitor began beeping.

The doctor’s voice called from behind me.

“Miss Rosewood, step back!”

Nurses rushed into the room.

Someone pulled me away.

I screamed for my father.

But the door closed between us.

***

I don’t remember how long I sat in the hallway.

Alexander held me while doctors worked.

I kept hearing my father’s voice.

It wasn’t an accident.

I saw the driver.

I wanted to believe he would wake up and tell me everything.

That we would have time.

That this time, I could save him.

Eventually, a doctor came out.

My heart nearly stopped.

“Your father is stable,” she said.

Relief hit me so hard that I began sobbing.

“Thank God.”

“But he needs surgery. We believe he has internal bleeding.”

I nodded.

“Do whatever you need to do.”

The doctor hurried away.

Alexander knelt beside my chair.

“Evelyn.”

I looked at him.

His expression was grave.

“There’s something you need to see.”

He held out his phone.

A message had arrived from an unknown number.

No name.

No explanation.

Just a photograph.

My father’s damaged car.

Taken from the bridge before emergency services arrived.

And beneath it, a single sentence.

YOU SAVED YOURSELF. NOW LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN SAVE EVERYONE ELSE.

My hands began to shake.

“Alexander…”

He took the phone back.

“I know.”

Then another message appeared.

This one contained a short video.

Alexander pressed play.

The footage showed the inside of a moving car.

A man’s hand rested on the steering wheel.

A familiar gold watch glinted beneath his sleeve.

Then the camera tilted.

Just enough to reveal his face.

I gasped.

It wasn’t Nathaniel.

It wasn’t Sophia.

It was someone I had never imagined could betray us.

Someone who had been welcomed into Rosewood Manor for years.

Someone my mother had trusted.

Someone who had attended her funeral.

“Alexander…”

My voice broke.

“That can’t be possible.”

But before I could say the name aloud, a third message arrived.

This time, there was no photograph.

Only six words.

ASK ALEXANDER WHAT HE DID FIRST.

I looked at the man kneeling beside me.

His face had gone pale.

“Alexander?”

He didn’t answer.

I felt the familiar terror of betrayal creeping into my chest.

“What did you do first?”

His eyes filled with pain.

“Evelyn…”

I moved away.

“Tell me.”

He closed his eyes.

And when he finally spoke, his answer made the hallway seem to disappear beneath my feet.

“When I woke up ten years earlier, I didn’t go looking for you.”

My heart stopped.

“Then where did you go?”

Alexander looked at me.

His voice was barely a whisper.

“To your mother’s grave.”

I stared at him.

“Why?”

He swallowed.

“Because in my first life, your mother told me something just before she died.”

“What?”

His hands trembled.

“She told me that if time ever gave me another chance…”

He stopped.

“Alexander, finish the sentence.”

Tears rolled down his cheeks.

“She told me to make sure you never found out who your real father was.”

I couldn’t breathe.

For eighteen years, I had believed Thomas Rosewood was my father.

He had raised me.

Loved me.

Protected me.

And now he was fighting for his life in a hospital bed.

I stared at Alexander.

“What are you saying?”

He looked devastated.

“Evelyn, your mother wasn’t only protecting your inheritance.”

My entire body went cold.

“Then what was she protecting?”

Alexander took a broken breath.

“Your identity.”

— END OF PART 4 —

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 5:
IN EVERY LIFETIME, I WOULD CHOOSE YOU