I sat on my sofa, my eyes following Donovan as he walked through my small apartment, unabashedly looki- ng into every room. When he finally sat down in the armchair opposite me, I found my voice. It was dry and brittle. "Why are you here? If Ms. Rhodes finds out, will she cause trouble for me again?" I didn't bother asking how he found me. With his resources, tracking me down would have been child's play. "Camilla and I didn't get married this time," he said. "You don't have to mention her in front of me again." My breath caught in my throat when he said the words "this time." What did he mean? Could it be what I was thinking? 'It's exactly what you're thinking," he said, as if reading my mind. "From the day you told me you wanted to open a restaurant, I started having dreams every night. At first, I thought they were just dreams. But as the story in them unfolded, I realized... they were memories." So that's why he'd suddenly cut ties with Mr. Sterling. And it was Donovan who had leaked Tiffany's address o Sterling's wife. All of that had happened less than two weeks after he started having the dreams. A chill an through me. I had a new, more frightening understanding of Donovan Black. So? You had dreams. What does that have to do with me?" Even if he remembered everything, what differe- ice did it make? My death wasn't his fault, not directly, but he was undeniably a part of it. He wasn't the type of man to feel guilt. I never expected any kind of compensation from him. I'm sorry," he said. "I know it happened in another life, but I still need to apologize to you." bit my lip, having no idea how to respond to that. Letting you go was a temporary measure," he continued. "I found out that Camilla had a dozen different plans to make your life hell." Seeing my continued silence, he sighed, a rare show of vulnerability. "You probably don't know this, but in the ast life, after you were gone, I married Camilla. I didn't love her. The marriage was a merger, a way for both our families to become more powerful. It was only later that I discovered her real motives. She conspired with an executive at my company to steal my shares. In the end, she succeeded. Just before I died, I learned that the two children she had... neither of them were mine." In my first life, my soul had dissipated after Camilla gave birth to her second child. I had no way of knowing 9/12 13:55 13.55 Chapter 2 if what he was saying was true. "That doesn't seem to have anything to do with me," I repeated. He ignored me. "When I saw what you'd written in your recipe book, I knew you had been reborn, too. It expla- ined why you were so different this time." "Even after I gave the notebook back to you, the words you wrote kept replaying in my mind. Over time, I realized... whenever I thought of you, my heart ached." "Naomi," he said, his voice low. "I fell in love with you. I think I was in love with you for a long time without ever letting myself see it." If the me from my first life had heard those words, I would have been ecstatic. But now, all I felt was a weary sense of irony. "Mr. Black," I said, cutting him off. "What is it you really want?" I couldn't listen to any more. The fact that his confession stirred nothing in me was proof. I was finally, truly over him. "Things are different this time," he insisted. "I've already taken care of the Rhodes family. Camilla's been sent out of the country. She's never coming back. So, Naomi... come back with me. Let me take care of you. Let me love you. I want to marry you." Discover our latest featured short drama reel. Watch now and enjoy the story!