Amara never thought her life would end like this—bleeding on cold stone, the night wind howling around her like a cruel lullaby.
She could barely move. Her breath came in short, rattling gasps. The pain was unbearable, white-hot and endless. Blood pooled beneath her, sticky and warm. Her hand trembled as she reached for the edge of the cliff, but she had no strength left.
A shadow stood over her—tall, unmoving, familiar.
Darian.
Her heart, already broken, cracked once more.
"You said you loved me…" Her voice was barely a whisper.
His eyes, once soft and full of promises, were now ice.
"I needed you to believe that," he said coldly. "You were a means to an end, Amara."
The target is Zain, you're just a tool
Her body convulsed in pain. She screamed as another contraction tore through her. Her baby was coming—and it was too soon. She tried to sit up, to hold herself together, but Darian knelt beside her and pushed her down.
"You'll only slow things down. Let me help you... one last time."
That's when she saw her.
Selene.
Her sister stepped into view, her expression unreadable. "She's too weak. Just cut it out already."
"No!" Amara cried, her voice breaking with fear. "Please… not like this…"
But they didn't stop.
She felt it all—the tearing, the agony, the raw helplessness as her child was pulled from her. Her baby cried for only a moment before silence swallowed everything.
Darian stood, the baby wrapped in a cloth, and looked down at her one last time.
"Zane will break when he finds out," he said. "That's what I need."
Then everything went black.
---
Amara gasped.
She shot upright in bed, drenched in sweat. Her lungs sucked in air as if for the first time. Her hands flew to her stomach—intact. No blood. No pain.
She looked around, disoriented. The room was familiar. The white marble floors. The elegant drapes. Her wedding portrait on the far wall.
She was in her bedroom.
Alive.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly.
It didn't make sense.
She stumbled to her feet and rushed to the mirror. The woman staring back at her looked the same. The same dark hair. The same unmarked skin. But her eyes—they had seen death. They had watched betrayal unfold like a nightmare.
This wasn't a dream.
She ran to the window and yanked the curtains open. Morning sunlight spilled across the estate garden. The same garden where Zane used to wait for her with coffee in hand. Her breath caught again.
It was all here.
She looked for a calendar—any date, anything that could explain this.
And then she saw it: the date on her phone screen.
Four years ago.
The week she had started falling for Darian.
The week she began pushing Zane away.
Her throat tightened. She remembered everything. Every lie. Every touch. Every whispered promise Darian had used to twist her.
He never loved me.
And Zane—Zane had. Fully. Fiercely. And she had turned her back on him.
Her heart twisted in guilt and regret.
But that wasn't what mattered now.
She had been given a second chance. A gift. Or a curse.
Either way, she wasn't wasting it.
---
Downstairs, she heard Zane's voice. Steady. Kind. Calling out to the staff.
He was alive. Still whole. Still trusting.
And Darian… was somewhere nearby. Plotting, watching, waiting.
This time, she would watch him back.
Amara wiped her tears and stood straighter.
They thought she was the same woman. Naive. Blind. A pawn.
They were wrong.
She was back.
And she was going to burn their lies to the ground.