“Mrs. Robinson, I’m sorry. The insemination failed again.”

Audrey sat on the cold plastic chair and stared at the test report in her hands until the letters blurred.

Failed.

Again.

After the fifth time, she had stopped counting. Now she felt hollow, scraped clean from the inside. Even despair had gone numb.

For seven years, Audrey had tried everything. Hormone shots. Surgeries. Painful procedures. Expensive treatments. Prayers whispered into pillows in the night.

All for one thing.

To give the Robinson family the heir they wanted so badly.

She braced one hand on the chair and forced herself up, ready to knock on the doctor’s office door. Then voices drifted from around the corner.

“I honestly feel bad for Mrs. Robinson. Her uterine lining is almost gone. She’s destroying her body for nothing.”

“Feel bad for her? Please. I heard her husband doesn’t even want a child. She could do this a hundred more times and nothing would change.”

Audrey froze.

Cold sweat broke across her back. Her fingers crushed the report until the paper bent in her grip.

Evan… didn’t want her pregnant?

By the time Audrey got home, she barely remembered the drive. She curled under the covers, her body still shaking.

The mattress dipped behind her.

A familiar scent wrapped around her. Whiskey and cedarwood cologne. Expensive. Intimate. Painfully familiar.

Evan’s arm slid around her waist. His hand slipped under her silk nightgown with the ease of a man who had never once doubted his right to touch her.

“Miss me?” His low voice carried a hint of amusement.

Audrey stared at the wall.

He knew she had gone to the hospital today. He knew the result would either give her hope or crush the last piece of it.

But he did not ask.

“I’m not pregnant,” Audrey said. Her voice came out rough and dry. “It failed again.”

Evan’s hand paused.

Then he kept touching her, his tone flat. “I know. You’ve had a hard day. I’ll be away for two months. Get some rest. I’ll have the staff make you something nourishing.”

Then he kissed her.

Deep. Possessive. His breath still thick with whiskey.

Audrey pushed at his chest.

He did not stop.

Her fingers trembled, then slowly fell away. After seven years of marriage, she had learned the truth. Refusing Evan only created trouble, and Evan Robinson hated trouble more than anything.

He was never rough with her. That was the worst part.

He was careful. Controlled. Almost gentle.

And somehow, that made it hurt more.

Afterward, he carried her into the bathroom, cleaned her up in silence, then placed her back in bed. He pulled her against his chest and held her tightly.

Within minutes, his breathing turned deep and even.

To anyone else, he would have looked like a devoted husband.

Audrey’s eyes drifted to the leather briefcase on the armchair in the corner.

In seven years of marriage, she had never gone through his private things. She had once been proud of that. Proud of her trust. Proud of her dignity.

Now that pride felt pathetic.

She looked at Evan’s sleeping face, then slipped out of bed.

The briefcase lock opened with one soft click.

She told herself she only needed one look.

A small packet of white pills slid out from beneath a stack of urgent documents.

Birth control pills.

Audrey did not move.

The bedroom went painfully quiet. A chill spread through her body, sinking into her bones.

She had never taken birth control.

Of course she hadn’t.

They had been trying for a baby. At least, she had believed they were.

She recognized the pack only because a friend had once waved the same brand at her and laughed.

“You’ll never need these. Lucky you. Evan is so devoted.”

Audrey’s hand began to shake.

She thought of the supplements Evan had ordered the housekeeper to prepare for her every week. She had drunk them with a grateful heart, thinking they were proof he cared.

What had really been in them?

The thought poured through her spine, cold and brutal.

Then a photograph slipped from the side pocket and fluttered to the floor.

Its edges were soft and worn, touched too many times over too many years.

In the picture, a younger Evan grinned at the camera, wild and bright. A girl leaned against his shoulder, happiness shining in her eyes.

The girl was not Audrey.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Audrey jerked around.

Evan stood beside the bed, his eyes sharp and cold.

He crossed the room in three strides, shoved her aside, and snatched the photo from her hand.

“You have no right to touch this.” His voice dropped low, dangerous. “Going through my things? Audrey, when did you become this kind of woman?”

Audrey’s waist slammed into the bed frame.

Pain flashed through her, but she barely felt it.

She started laughing.

The sound came out broken and strange. Too sharp. Too loud. It tore from somewhere deep inside her chest, dragging years of humiliation with it.

She laughed until her eyes burned.

Then a sudden, violent pain twisted through her lower abdomen.

Her knees buckled.

The room spun.

Before darkness swallowed her, the last thing she saw was Evan’s furious face.

---

Cough.

Cough, cough.

Thick smoke flooded Audrey’s nose and scorched her throat.

“Help! Fire! There’s a fire! Run!”

Her eyes flew open.

Chaos surrounded her.

Orange flames crawled over the crowded room. People shoved one another, screaming as they rushed toward the exit.

Audrey pushed herself upright, coughing hard. Her lungs burned. Her head throbbed.

Wait.

This was not her home with Evan.

Her gaze landed on the sofa to her left.

A young woman lay there, passed out drunk, completely unaware of the fire closing in around her.

Lydia White.

Audrey stopped breathing.

No.

That was impossible.

Lydia had died in this fire seven years ago.

Audrey grabbed the phone from the table with trembling fingers.

May 18, 2019. 10:50 p.m.

The air vanished from her chest.

She was back.

Back to the night everything began.

Back to the night Lydia died.

Back to the first domino that had destroyed all of them.

The fire spread fast. Audrey had no time to think. She tried to crawl toward the door, but the second she moved her ankle, pain shot up her leg.

Bang!

The door blew inward.

A man rushed through the smoke and flames.

His face cut straight through time.

Even after everything, Audrey reached for him on instinct.

“Evan…” Her voice cracked. “Save me.”

“Don’t panic.” His eyes swept the room. “I’ll get you out.”

Audrey thought he would scoop her into his arms the way he had in her last life. She thought, for one stupid second, that some things might stay the same.

Evan looked at her.

Only for a second.

Then he looked away.

He walked right past her.

Audrey’s outstretched hand froze in the air.

Evan rushed to Lydia, lifted her into his arms, and turned toward the door.

When he passed Audrey, he threw one sentence over his shoulder.

“Follow me.”

Then he carried Lydia into the firelit hallway and never looked back.

Audrey stared after him, her fingers still reaching for empty air.

Through the broken doorway, she saw Evan lower his head and look at Lydia. Fear, joy, and love crossed his face all at once.

Audrey understood.

The birth control pills.

The empty nights.

The tenderness that had never truly belonged to her.

She had been a replacement. A consolation prize. A warm body waiting at home while he mourned the woman he really loved.

Smoke thickened around her. Her lungs burned. Her ankle throbbed so badly she nearly blacked out.

Then a hand clamped around her wrist.

Before Audrey could react, her feet left the floor. Someone hauled her up and pressed her against a firm chest.

A clean, cool scent surrounded her.

Completely unfamiliar.

“Hold on,” the man said.

One arm locked around her waist, lifting her fully off the ground. He moved fast. Steady. Certain.

Something exploded on the left.

He turned at once, pressing Audrey’s face against his chest. His other hand covered the back of her head, shielding her from the blast of heat.

Smoke choked her until tears streamed down her face.

Through the blur, she caught a glimpse of him.

A fire mask covered most of his face. Beneath it, his dark eyes were deep and unreadable.

She did not know this man.

She was almost sure she had never seen him before.

But he was the one carrying her out of the burning building.

The man she had loved for seven years stood safely outside, holding another woman in his arms.

Audrey bent over, coughing hard, when they reached open air. The stranger set her down carefully and caught her when her injured ankle gave out.

Twenty feet away, Evan held Lydia close.

His eyes were shut. His cheek rested against Lydia’s face, checking her warmth, her breath, her life.

He did not turn around once.

If Audrey guessed right, Evan had also been given a second life.

And this time, he had chosen Lydia from the start.

Pain ripped through Audrey’s chest. A tear slid down her smoke-stained cheek.

A bitter smile touched her lips.

Maybe this was better.

Maybe fate had dragged them back only so they could finally end this disaster the right way.

She should let go.

The smoke was too thick. Her emotions were crashing too hard. Dizziness rolled over her, and the world went black.

When Audrey opened her eyes again, she saw her mother’s face.

God.

Her mother.

Alive. Warm. Real.

Audrey did not even know where she was. She shot upright and threw herself into Elizabeth Lawrence’s arms, clinging to her with both hands.

“Mom.” Her voice shattered. “I missed you so much.”

In her last life, Elizabeth had died in a plane crash only six months after Audrey’s wedding.

During all those years in the Robinson family, no one had truly loved Audrey. On countless nights, she had woken up crying, aching for this exact embrace.

Elizabeth held her tightly and patted her back. Her voice still shook with leftover fear.

“You scared me half to death last night. Thank God Evan rushed in and saved you in time. My baby girl is about to get married…” Her voice broke. “If anything had happened to you…”

Audrey went still.

Evan had lied.

Slowly, she pulled back.

She took Elizabeth’s hands in hers and looked straight into her mother’s eyes. Her voice was calm now. Steady.

“Mom, I will get married. But not to Evan Robinson.”

If life had truly given her a second chance, she would take back everything she had lost.

And this time, she would never walk into the same cage again.