Chapter 1No Return to the Harbor Anymore

In my last life, I was the reason Derek's first love died.

She took a knife meant for me.

He hated me for it. So he locked me away, and for years, my days and nights were a living hell of his making.

Until my twenty-second birthday. My body and spirit were broken, and I couldn't take it anymore.

I chose to end it. I slit my wrists.

The last thing I saw was Derek’s eyes, red and blazing with something I couldn't name.

"In your next life," he warned, his voice a ragged whisper, "don't love me. And don't you dare get between me and Luna again."

As he wished.

When I woke again, I was back in my senior year classroom. From the athletic field outside, I could hear the roar of the crowd at a basketball game.

Derek pushed open the classroom door and tossed his school jacket into my arms.

"Hold this for me. Luna's coming to watch the game later."

For the first time in my life, I didn't greet him with a heart full of joy.

Derek didn't know it yet.

This time, I would stay far, far away from him.

* * *

The light jacket landed on my desk.

Instinctively, I flexed my wrists.

There was no deep, aching pain.

In my last life, Derek had bound these same wrists to the headboard with one of his silk ties for seven straight days, all because I refused to apologize on the anniversary of Luna's death.

What was I supposed to apologize for?

Luna was my sister. The family's biological daughter. From the moment they found her and brought her home, she had captured everyone's heart.

I admit, I was jealous of her. For a long time, I resented her. I hated how her arrival had stolen my parents, stolen my Derek.

But she was so small and frail. When she first came to us, her face was always pale. She would only whisper my name softly, "Sophie, little sister."

And just like that, my heart softened. Maybe having a sister wouldn't be so bad after all.

My parents told me she had a weak constitution. That I needed to give in to her in everything.

So, when she wanted my room, I gave it to her.

When she wanted my dolls, I gave them to her.

When she liked a beautiful dress I had my eye on, I let her have it.

But when I started middle school, I realized she liked Derek, too.

This time, I refused to yield.

He was my Derek. We had grown up together. I couldn't give him up.

But I never imagined that the one and only time I ever competed with Luna would cost a human life.

And four years of my own life, spent in unending darkness.

...

Luna stepping in front of that knife was so sudden.

She collapsed in a pool of her own blood. Her last words were, "Sophie... I'm giving Derek back to you... Please don't hate me, okay?"

Just then, Derek arrived, rushing to the scene, only to witness that final, damning moment.

Luna had taken the blade for me. She was bleeding profusely. With her blood clotting disorder, she didn't even make it until the ambulance arrived. She died right there.

And her ambiguous last words became the fuel for Derek's undying hatred for me.

That day, my Derek asked me, his face terrifyingly calm, "Sophie, why wasn't it you who died?"

Only later did I learn the truth.

That afternoon, Luna had planned to confess her feelings to Derek. But by a cruel twist of fate, she ran into a gang fight.

In the chaos, she pushed me out of the way.