Five years into our marriage, Clara still didn’t love me. One day, we were arguing in the car, and I didn’t notice the truck speeding towards us. Before she died, she told me, guilt clouding her eyes: “I’m sorry, Fitzgerald. I tried to love you, but I just can’t forget him. We can only be friends, never lovers.” Blood from her forehead dripped onto my face. “Fitzgerald, in our next life, please let him and me be together, okay?” When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn. Given a second chance, I decisively called off our engagement, ready to let her be with my brother. But one question kept nagging at me. My brother, he died at birth. Who exactly did Clara love? “You’re giving up your engagement?” My father looked like he thought he’d misheard me. “You’ve loved her your whole life. When you were a baby, you didn’t reach for the books your mom and I prepared for you, you reached for Clara!” I lowered my gaze. “That was just when I was little…” My dad wasn’t one to force me. He watched me for a moment, then sighed. “Alright, perhaps it’s for the best. After all, you’re not the only boy in the Miller family. Your cousin, they’re still willing to accept it.” “Dad, could we offer it to my cousin?” “You don’t have a younger cousin.” My dad’s eyes widened. “You’re the youngest of your generation.” Huh? I’d always assumed the ‘brother’ Clara mentioned was some distant relative I didn’t know. “However, there is someone younger than you.” My dad sighed again. “But, you know…” I looked down. Yes, besides the brother who died at birth, I had no other siblings. “Dad, I want to choose my own bride. For now, please don’t tell the Jenkins family I’m breaking off the engagement.” With a heavy heart, I left home and headed straight to the cemetery, my mind a mess. My brother was buried there, beside my mother. I first laid flowers for Mom. Then I placed a shaved ice, some jelly, and a bag of chips in front of the smaller tombstone. Staring at the gravestone, which didn’t even have a photo: “Good brother, can you help your big brother find the ‘brother’ Clara talks about, okay?” After spending some time with my brother, I turned to leave. Another Maybach pulled up beside my car. Clara stepped out, a bouquet of flowers in her hand. Our eyes met, and we both froze. So many words rushed to my mind, but I didn’t know where to start. I took a deep breath. I wanted to ask if she was here to see my brother. Then I noticed the carnations in her hand. It suddenly dawned on me that today was also Mother’s Day. “Are you… here to see my aunt?” She scoffed, a sarcastic smile playing on her lips. “Yes, I’m about to marry you, so of course, I have to come and tell her…” She stared at me. “…this good news.” She bit out those last words. My fists clenched, I fought back the sting in my eyes. “Don’t worry. If your loved one were still alive, I would absolutely help you both!” “Fitzgerald Miller!” Aside from my past life, this was the first time she had ever snapped at me. “Don’t talk nonsense.” My eyes red, I looked at her. “I’m serious!” “Fitzgerald Miller.” She brushed past me. “I haven’t even blamed you for taking his place, and you shouldn’t wish death upon him. “He was right, you really have become a cruel person.” I froze. Clara had already walked into the cemetery. I quietly turned and watched her kneel before my mother’s tombstone. That bowed back had once shielded me from the twisted metal of the car. “Mom, I’m getting married. Just wanted to tell you. “It’s to Fitzgerald Miller. “You always said your biggest wish was for me to marry someone I truly loved. “But, I’m going back on that. “I don’t love him. “He’s stubborn and won’t marry anyone but me. I’m afraid he might really hurt himself. “I know you liked Fitzgerald, and I don’t dislike him either, but love isn’t something I can force. “When the right person appears, one look is all it takes. “I’ll see him one last time at the investment summit in two days. This life, this is it.” Clara walked out of the cemetery. I was still standing where I was. “Clara, take me to the summit.” She paused, surprised. “Let me meet my ‘brother.’ I’ll make things clear with him.” I stared into her eyes. “Then, I’ll give you to him.”
Clara didn’t show the surprise I’d imagined. Instead, her face darkened. “You’re treating our engagement like a joke?” She took a step closer to me, looking up. “You were the one who insisted on marrying me, and now the whole world knows I’m marrying you, and you want to back out? What will people think of me?” “But…” “No ‘buts’.” Before getting into her car, she gave me a cold look. “If you really wanted to break it off, you wouldn’t have waited until today.” “I…” She didn’t wait for my explanation. The Maybach quickly disappeared from my sight. She knew me well. Backing out wasn’t my style. But all of that was before. Before I was reborn. Before I knew the fervent love she held for that ‘brother’ of mine. Clara, we were simply not meant to be. I learned that with my life. I truly wanted to help you, to repay your life-saving grace from my past. I sent her a message, begging her to give us both a chance. She didn’t reply. Only her sister relayed a message to me: “She said there will be decades together after the wedding, no need for pointless talk.” I had no choice. But two days later, a Maybach stopped at my door. Her face slowly appeared from behind the lowered window. “Get in.” I didn’t hesitate. It was a grand gala. The moment Clara and I appeared, we commanded everyone’s attention. The news of the two most powerful families in the social circle uniting had already spread far and wide. Clara stiffly accepted everyone’s congratulations. Her smile was tinged with bitterness, yet she never left my side. She was so conflicted. Loyal and passionate to her love, yet she also possessed an intense sense of responsibility towards her status. With everyone knowing she was my fiancée, She wouldn’t just abandon me here and openly seek out another man. And in my previous life, that very sense of responsibility was what I hated most. It allowed me to cling to the illusion that she might still love me. Then, when she used her life to save mine, to fulfill her wish, I vomited blood from the pain. “Clara, you don’t have to stay with me. Go meet whoever you want.” Her gaze was vacant, fixed on something ahead. “I’m going to the restroom.” With that, she left me. And she did indeed go to the restroom. No excuse to meet anyone. I recalled the direction she had been staring at. My gaze followed. A man in a black suit, his back to me, was chatting with some friends. He seemed to sense my gaze. He turned his head. Our eyes met. My breath caught. How could there be someone in this world who looked so much like me!
He froze too, for a moment. He sized me up and down. Then a dismissive, cold smirk touched his lips. He turned and walked away, his back to me. I hurried after him. “Wait! Excuse me, wait!” The man walked faster. “Wait… Ah!” My foot slipped, and I fell heavily to my knees. I tried to get up, but the entire floor was shaking. It wasn’t that I’d lost my footing. It was the building that was shaking! “Why is there a timer here!” “Oh no! It’s a bomb!” I ignored the panic around me because the man was already heading upstairs. “Wait!” I stumbled after him, my feet scrambling on the shaking floor. A creaking sound came from above. Screams erupted around me. “Don’t run! It’s going to fall on you!” “The chandelier’s broken!” But my eyes were fixed on that man. “Wait! I just want to ask you two questions!” “Fitzgerald Miller!” A massive impact threw me sideways. Clara, holding me, rolled several times across the cracking floor. The chandelier shattered exactly where I had been standing, leaving a huge crater in the granite floor. Before I could speak, the violent shaking made Clara’s nerves fray. Without a word, she dragged me out. Once we were outside the building, she collapsed to her knees. I rushed to support her. Blood dripped from her forehead. She lay in my arms, gritting her teeth. “Are you insane?” In that moment, I felt like I was back in my past life. She had knelt over me, her body so frail, yet shielding me from the twisted steel. But even then, she refused to let me touch her. “Clara…” “Fire! Put out the fire! Someone’s still inside!” The screams of survivors interrupted our conversation. Clara’s body stiffened. Ignoring her exhaustion, she pushed me away and stumbled to her feet. She frantically scanned the crowd of people who had escaped, her eyes searching back and forth. Her eyes instantly turned red. Then she turned and sprinted towards the burning building. “Clara Jenkins!” I tried to follow, but security guards held me back tightly. Clara’s figure disappeared into the inferno. I heard my own voice, almost a scream of despair. “Clara!” The crackling of construction materials in the fire threatened to consume my sanity. A security guard tried to reassure me. “We’ll stop Ms. Jenkins. The building is sealed off. She can’t get in.” “Sealed off…” My eyes were red. “Can anyone inside still get out?” “In… this situation, anyone who didn’t get out… they’re likely gone.” My legs gave out. The security guard held me firmly. That meant… that man, too… “Fitzgerald Miller!” Hearing that voice, my eyes lit up. Clara, her face streaked with ash and blood on her forehead, marched towards me. “Clara! You…” SLAP! A stinging slap landed hard on my face. It brutally cut off my “Are you okay?” “It was you, wasn’t it? You deliberately followed me here just to get him killed!” Even after five years of conflict in my previous life, She had never laid a hand on me. Nor had she ever, like now, pushed past so many security guards just to rush at me. I held my face, looking at her like she was a stranger. “How can you possibly think that?” “Hmph, your father works in specialized security. Out of everyone at the conference today, you’re the only one who could get a bomb like that!” My eyes immediately welled up. “What’s more…” She pushed past the security guard, taking sarcastic steps closer to me. “You usually get furious if I so much as speak to another man. How could you suddenly agree to meet him and offer to give up our engagement?” “Clara…” A bitter laugh escaped me. Her eyes were redder than mine. “I was so stupid. I actually thought you would help us. “I even brought you, the murderer, here myself. Ha… haha…” Her laughter grew more bitter. She slapped herself hard across the face. “Now there’s no one else between us. I’m stuck with you for life. Are you happy?” “Clara!” My eyes burned with tears. But she didn’t spare me another glance. She turned. Stumbled away. And walked further and further. Blood trickled from her sleeve, leaving a trail on the ground where she’d walked. That was from when she’d been cut by the chandelier while saving me.
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