The night of our graduation party, I led the drunk campus queen to the bad boy's room.

But my childhood friend, the man I was supposed to marry, mistook me for her.

One night of chaos.

Afterward, everyone said I had deliberately torn him and the campus queen apart.

For years of our marriage, I tried everything to warm his heart, but it remained a block of ice.

Until one day, I overheard him on the phone on the street corner.

“As long as Bella is happy, I’m willing to spend my whole life tying Laurie down.”

“Besides, who would want to marry a nerd anyway?”

“She wants a kid? Fine. I’ll give her one.”

The piercing shriek of a car horn cut him off.

He instinctively turned and saw me standing around the corner.

Panic flooded his face as he lunged toward me, trying to push me out of the way.

In the next second, we were both thrown into the air by the impact.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the graduation party.

This time, I decided to give him and the campus queen the happy ending they both wanted.

1

Only my childhood friend, James Stanton, knew that I had a crush on the campus bad boy, Jax.

The night of our university graduation party, the campus queen, Isabella, asked me to help her to a room to rest.

I didn’t know it was Jax’s room.

And Isabella’s acting was flawless.

The moment we were out of sight, she was instantly sober, a mocking glint in her eyes as she looked at me.

In my past life, I was too naive to understand any of it.

After all, to everyone else, I was just the scheming, malicious nerd.

It wasn't until I was dying, until I heard James's phone call, that I finally woke up.

I never imagined he would sacrifice his entire life just for Isabella.

And I had been foolish enough to believe him when he’d proposed, when he’d said he loved me.

Before I died, James and I lay together in a pool of our own blood.

As the speeding car barrelled towards us, he had thrown himself in front of me, shielding me with his body.

But at that moment, it was useless.

The violent impact sent me flying more than a dozen yards.

As my consciousness faded, I vaguely saw him.

James, not far away, covered in blood, was stubbornly trying to crawl to my side, his body wracked with tremors of pain.

The bones in his fingers were visible through the mangled flesh, and his voice was a broken, trembling mess.

“Laurie, don’t scare me.”

“Wake up! Let me explain!”

“I was wrong, Laurie. I was so wrong.”

His heartbroken cries made me want to vomit, and a mouthful of blood gushed from my lips.

In the last moment of my life, I summoned one final act of defiance.

With all my strength, I moved my fingers, pulling away from the hand he was desperately reaching out, trying to lace his fingers with mine.

Too late for apologies now.

2

“Laurie? What’s too late?” a voice asked, pulling me from the memory. “You haven’t had that much. Come on, have another.”

I blinked, realizing I was back. I had been reborn into my senior year of university.

Jax was hosting a graduation party for our class at his family's empty villa.

For most, a graduation party was the start of a new life.

For me, in my past life, it was the entrance to hell.

The voice belonged to Isabella. Sweet and cloying.

James was always telling me to be more like her, to learn how even her anger sounded like a lover’s pout, something no man could refuse.

I was never much of a drinker, but when the campus queen personally offers you a toast, refusing makes you look arrogant.

Unfortunately, I’d been reborn a moment too late. I’d already downed one glass, and my head was starting to spin.

So, no matter how much Isabella coaxed, I refused to take another sip.

I just pushed up my glasses, pretending the alcohol was hitting me harder than it was.

I had a job to do tonight, and I couldn’t afford to be genuinely drunk.

Seeing my refusal, Isabella’s eyes darted around. She raised her glass to the others at the table.

“Well, if our star student won’t drink, I’ll drink the rest for her.”

I lowered my head, a cold smile touching my lips.

She was drinking from her own glass but claimed it was for me.

In my past life, I never possessed that kind of cunning. Her words were always prettier than her actions.

I poured myself a glass of water and sipped it, quietly watching her performance.

By this point, James had already helped get Jax drunk and taken him upstairs.

And James, having had too much himself, was resting in the room right next to Jax’s.

Isabella, performing with such vigor right now, clearly had an ulterior motive.

Soon, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were hazy as she leaned against me.

She spoke just loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Laurie, I drank so much covering for you, I feel dizzy. Can you help me upstairs to rest?”

She tightened her grip on my arm. “I’m putting my life in your hands. You have to keep me safe, okay, Laurie?”

In my past life, I was already drunk by the time she said all this.

All I’d registered was "upstairs to rest," and I’d stumbled up the stairs with her.

But now, reborn, I saw the subtle genius in her words and actions.

She was publicly declaring that I was the reason she was drunk, that it was my duty to see her to safety.

With those words, she planted a seed in everyone’s mind: whatever happened to Isabella tonight, it would be my fault.

Her drunken state, the way she had to cling to me just to walk, projected an image of perfect helplessness.

But no one could see it.

From an angle hidden from the others, Isabella, who was taller than me, wasn’t just resting her hands on my shoulders. She was digging her fingers into my flesh, physically steering me out of the room.

The pain made me wince, so I decided to play drunk too.

Under the guise of taking off my glasses, I shrugged off her grip.

Then, I went completely limp, collapsing into her arms.

Half a head shorter than her, with my round, flushed face, I wrapped my arms around her and whined in a soft, pleading voice.

“Bella, I’m so dizzy! I can’t walk.”

No one saw that coming.

In their eyes, Isabella and I were rivals.

Because James liked her.

And earlier, during a game of Truth or Dare, when asked who I liked, I had said James’s name.

Soon, I heard someone gasp.

“Oh no! I think Laurie’s really drunk.”

Hidden in Isabella’s embrace, I stayed silent, burying my face and feigning intoxication.

Where no one could see, a small smirk played on my lips.

My move had clearly startled Isabella; her eyes were sharp and clear for a moment.

But she needed me to be her scapegoat tonight, so she gritted her teeth and didn't push me away.

Besides, to make her act convincing, she’d genuinely drunk a lot. She was at least eighty percent of the way there.

I looked up at her through my messy hair, my eyes blinking slowly.

“Bella… let’s sleep together tonight.”

3

I didn’t know what was going through Isabella’s mind, but that was my genuine plan.

The only way to prevent the catastrophe of that night was for Isabella to stay with me.

And besides, I had lived a decade longer than this version of her.

In my eyes, she was just a misguided girl.

Perhaps something had happened to her during university that made her so desperate to latch onto a wealthy boyfriend now.

But the girl wanted to maintain appearances, which was why she’d set me up.

She wanted everyone to believe that I, jealous of James’s affection for her, had deliberately sent her, drunk, to the campus bad boy’s room.

In my past life, her plan had been a resounding success.

The day after the party, my name became synonymous with "vicious."

Everyone said I had ruined her. Every mention of my name was a curse.

Gradually, I started to believe it myself. That it was my fault, that I’d been too drunk and sent her to the wrong room.

That I was the reason she disappeared for ten years.

That I was the reason James lost the love of his life.

So I began to atone. I couldn't find Isabella, so I poured all my repentance onto James.

I learned to love him, tried to warm his cold heart with my sincerity, begging him not to hate me anymore.

After all, the Stanton family had taken me in when I was a child. I had a debt of over a decade of care that I could never repay.

But in the end, I was the one who had been played the worst.

James was willing to sacrifice his entire life, to trap me in a marriage, just for Isabella.

All to ensure I wouldn’t have the slightest chance of ruining her happiness.

The truth was, on the day of the car crash, I had gone to find James to tell him where Isabella was.

I had just found out from Jax himself where she had been for the past ten years.

I wanted James to see her true colors.

I wanted him to stop feeling guilty for getting too drunk at the party and failing to protect her.

But before I could say a word, we were killed.

I am immensely grateful that fate has given me a second chance.

At the dinner table earlier, I kept thinking.

What should I do to repay this gift?

I considered taking brutal revenge on Isabella, letting her taste what it felt like to have her reputation destroyed.

But looking at the girl, as beautiful and fragile as a flower, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

So when she asked me to help her to a room, I asked her, in front of everyone, if she wanted to sleep with me.

If she chose to stay with me tonight, to stop her plan, then I would let go of what happened in our past life.

After all, we were separated by an entire lifetime.

I had no reason to take revenge on this version of her for what a different version of her did.

But if she insisted on being foolish, I would respect her choice.

Everyone has to be responsible for their own choices.

And so, when Isabella propped me up between the two bedroom doors, I asked her a second time.

“It’s your choice.

“Sleep here, or come with me to a different room.”

The alcohol was hitting her hard now, her eyes hazy as she looked at me.

But at my question, she shook her head, trying to stay clear.

“Let me think.”

“Ugh, I can’t remember.”

She tapped her head a few times as she spoke.

Seeing this, I put it to her bluntly.

“The one on the left is…”

I wanted to tell her: Jax is on the left, James is on the right, and I am right here beside you.

But before I could finish, Isabella cut me off.

“I forgot who I drugged…”

Her words were like a thunderclap, ringing in my ears and leaving me stunned.

In that instant, my perception of her shattered.

She was like a beautiful flower, rotting from the very root.

To achieve her goal, she would resort to such a disgusting tactic.

I started to wonder if I had been drugged too.

I instinctively took a step back, putting distance between us.

I asked her one more time.

And got the same answer.

She said, “Either one is fine. Whoever.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

I decided to let go of my savior complex and respect her destiny.

So I watched with cold eyes as she stumbled into James’s room.

Then I turned and pushed open the door to the room next door.

Isabella couldn’t remember who she had drugged.

But I had the memories of my past life.

The moment she said it, I knew exactly who the victim was.

Tonight, I would be the one to save the poor, pitiful campus bad boy.

4

The moment I opened the door, a blast of cold air made me shiver.

The room was a chaotic mess, water pooled everywhere.

I followed the sound of dripping and saw him.

The notoriously cool and arrogant bad boy was sitting miserably on the floor, his back against the sofa.

He was dousing himself with ice water.

His T-shirt had been thrown aside, leaving him in just a pair of gray sweatpants.

Jax’s head was bowed.

His short, black hair was plastered to his face, partially veiling his eyes.

Droplets of water traced the sharp line of his jaw, dripping onto his pants.

One drop, then two, spreading into a dark, damp patch.

The sight was enough to make a person thirsty.

His long, elegant fingers, the knuckles sharply defined, were crushing the plastic water bottle, making it crackle.

Jax tilted his head back, and when not another drop came out, he actually stuck his tongue inside, licking the plastic rim.

The tip of his tongue, a shocking shade of red, swirled around the opening before retreating behind his full lips.

The Jax in my memory was a rebellious teenager with red hair and an earring, his entire being screaming defiance.

Looking at him now, that impossibly handsome face was still just as dazzling.

But the flush of his skin and his hot, ragged breaths told me something was very wrong.

His reaction was sluggish. He had only just realized someone was in the room.

Without looking up, he growled at me to get out.

“Who let you in? Get out!”

But when he turned his head and saw it was me, the words “don’t touch me” died in his throat.

He stumbled to his feet, trying to retreat towards the mini-fridge.

But his legs were too weak, and he crumpled back to the floor.

I grabbed a bottle of ice water, twisted it open, and handed it to him.

“Jax, where’s your phone? I’ll call a doctor for you.”

He tilted his head back and chugged, the water he couldn’t swallow fast enough streaming from the corners of his mouth down his neck.

Then, dazed, he started fumbling at his sweatpants, searching for his phone.

I could see a bulge in his pocket that looked like a phone.

But after what felt like an eternity, he still couldn’t find the opening of the pocket.

He looked up at me, a bewildered expression on his face.

His lips, flushed red, moved, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.

He was taking too long.

I brushed his clumsy hands aside and reached in myself.

The moment my hand slid in, I regretted it.

That was definitely not a phone.

Before I could scream, I heard Jax’s ragged breathing right next to my ear.

The heat of it tickled my skin, and I instinctively turned my head to avoid it.

My eyes met his. They were bloodshot and feverish.

“I’ll… I’ll go get someone for you.”

I scrambled to get up, but he grabbed my hand, pressing it down.

His hand, through the fabric of his pants, was pinning mine in place.

Another pained gasp escaped his lips.

The stimulation seemed to have shocked him into a moment of clarity, and a low, hoarse voice broke the silence.

“Laurie.”

I stared at Jax, his mind clearly clouded, and felt a jolt of shock.

So that’s what he had been muttering all along. My name.

Even in this state, he could still recognize me.

But James… in my past life, why had he mistaken me for someone else?

Or was it that in James’s eyes, I was just someone he could use and discard at will?

The more I thought about it, the more resentment burned inside me.

I took a step forward, leaned down, and tilted Jax’s chin up.

I looked him straight in the eye.

“Say it again. Who am I?”

The moment my fingers touched his skin, I felt a searing heat.

When I tried to pull away, he captured my hand with both of his, pressing it to his cheek and rubbing against it gently.

His gaze drifted from my lips to my eyes, until they locked.

“Laurie. Help me.”