Page 23 of Reborn to Love You

The warning in his eyes had her quickly shaking her head. “No, not at all.”

And as she turned away, she heard her husband say, “That’s a good girl.”

Payton nearly stumbled upon hearing this.

“Sweetheart? Did you hear what I just said?”

She forced herself to turn around. “I d-did. And t-thank you.”

It was all she could do not to run.

Good girl.

She barely made it back to the kitchen before she started throwing up.

Get a grip, Payton.

As she wiped her mouth dry, it was then she noticed the heart-shaped marks on her wrist.

Rebirth marks, Payton had come to think of it, only this time...there were just two of them.

“Payton? Do you need help?”

Her husband’s tone made it clear he was close to losing his temper. That was usually enough to get her moving, but not now. Not when it was dawning on her, what those rebirth marks meant.

One only had to watch and read enough fantasy to put one and one together. Or in this case, to subtract.

When Payton was reborn the first time, she had woken up with three marks.

When she was reborn the second time, after falling to her death, it was now down to this.

Two marks left.

Two last chances to make things right.

The thought had Payton’s hands shaking even more badly as she filled the beer bucket with ice before clipping the bottle opener to the bucket handle. As she walked out of the kitchen, she couldn’t help looking at the empty table by the pool, and pain squeezed her heart.

Just like before, all of her coworkers—Leah, Nellie, and the guys—had come here earlier. But they hadn’t stayed for long. They never did. And while none of them ever talked about it...

Of course they all knew the truth, Payton included.

They came here because of her, but they always left because they couldn’t bear seeing her...mistreated.

“Finally! What took you so long?”

Like now.

Even her husband’s friends thought it was fine to treat her like a slave, and it just made her sick, thinking of how she had let this go on for years.

Thankfully, she was all but forgotten as soon as she placed the beer bucket on the table. And even though she was acting without any conscious effort to replicate her movements in her first life, she would realize a moment later that there were things she would always end up doing.

Because as she turned away, her gaze absently went where it was fated to go—

An empty chair at the head of the table.

His chair.

The first time this happened, she remembered thinking it was odd that her husband was missing. And so she had gone looking for him. But now that she knew what she would discover...