rebirth

Miss Chase, I’m so sorry for your loss. Your husband is dead.”

Hearing that, I smiled.

Then I grabbed my phone and made three calls:

One to reclaim his shares.

One to file the death certificate.

And one to have his name scrubbed from every legal document in existence.

All before his “body” was even in the ground.

Heartless? Maybe. But I’d earned it.

Because I’d lived this before.

In my past life, Dad was paranoid about his heiress daughter marrying wrong.

So he raised THREE boys as my potential husbands.

I picked the best one-Sebastian Hart. Smart, gorgeous, perfect.

Then three days after our wedding, he dropped dead.

I was destroyed. And while I was drowning in grief, the other two convinced me that remarrying would break his heart. So I didn’t. I

stayed alone for sixty years.

At eighty, I visited Provence one last time-the place Sebastian and I promised forever.

That’s where I found him. Very much ALIVE.

Laughing with my missing nanny, surrounded by grandkids.

I’d been played. For sixty years.

The rage killed me on the spot. Literally. Stroke, lights out, dead.

Then I woke up here. Back to the day his “death” was announced.

This time, I’m not grieving.

This time, I want to see how a dead man with no legal existence plans to live.

Spoiler: HE WON’T.

‘Lola, Sebastian spent his whole life by your side. He died in that storm doing research for YOUR company. Now that he’s gone, you CAN’T remarry. It would break his heart.”

Carter’s voice dripped with fake sympathy. “Oh, and about Sebastian’s shares… you should sign those over to us. We’ll protect everything he left behind.”

The sound of their voices hit me like ice water.

I shot up in bed.

Holy shit. I was BACK. Back to the exact day Sebastian faked his death and ran off with his side piece.

“Where’s Linda Brooks?”

Carter and Miles both froze.

“Your husband just DIED and you’re asking about the NANNY?” Miles snapped.

Carter’s face twisted. “Do we really mean NOTHING to you?!”

I watched them squirm and smiled.

“If Sebastian’s dead, I’m taking back his shares. All of them.”

I turned to my assistant. “Get the car. We’re going to the records office. I need his accounts closed and a death certificate issued.”

My assistant bolted. Carter and Miles stood there like idiots.

“Lola, he JUST died! How can you be this heartless?! Those shares should go to US!” Carter’s voice cracked with rage.