Inside a private room at A country’s First Citizen’s Hospital, a woman was lying comatose on a queen sized bed. At the side of the bed, a young nurse whom had just finished checking the patient’s numbers was standing aside while watching the sleeping woman’s face in rapture.

The woman was very beautiful. Her skin was clean and white, looking almost translucent under the sunlight that was streaming through the open window. She had a small but prominent nose and as she slept, her red lips were slightly parted and expelled small, captivating breaths.

Suddenly, the door swung open and a woman in a business suit with short cropped brown hair and wearing a pair of large Prada sunglasses entered the room.

“What are you doing?”

The woman’s tone was harsh as she took off her sunglasses to reveal a pair of intense phoenix eyes and glared at the young nurse who instantly deteriorated into a stuttering mess.

“I- I’m sorry, I was just watching… I’m a fan.” The nurse confessed with a face red from embarrassment.

“Thank you for your support, but as you can see she is currently unconscious so it would be appreciated if you would just focus on doing your job.”

“Ah.” The nurse’s face became even redder. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

“Ah!”

Both women instantly turned around to face the source of the sudden gasp and felt their hearts rising at the frown on the beautiful woman’s face and her fingers that were moving at her side.

“Call a doctor… Call a doctor!”

Only when the woman with phoenix eyes shouted for the second time and rushed to the bed side to support the woman who was trying to sit up did the young nurse snap out of her daze.

“Y- yes! I’ll call the doctor. Doctor! Doctor!”

While the young nurse ran out of the room yelling, the woman with phoenix eyes went to the woman on the bed.

“Hey. Hey, hey, no. Don’t try to get up, Izzy. Lie down, lie down.”

She spoke to the woman on the bed like coaxing a child as she carefully combed her fingers through her silky black hair. The woman groaned in pain and slowly opened her misty, golden eyes.

There was a dull ache all through her body and her head was pounding like a drum. When Isabel opened her eyes, everything was out of focus and she even thought she was hallucinating when she saw her ex-manager, Davina Small looming near her side.

“To be seeing you here… Did I die and go to hell?”

“It’s good to see you’ve retained your sense of humor even after that fall. How are you feeling?”

“Like I was hit by a car. Dammit!”

As she tried to move up on the bed, a sharp jolt of pain shot through Isabel and went straight to her head and it also alerted her of something ridiculous. She wasn’t hallucinating.

Rushing into a sitting position despite the pain that ripped through her, Isabel ripped off the sheet covering and stared down at her body that was perfectly fine and her skin that was smooth and white like she hadn’t seen it in years then she turned to the side and slapped Davina across the cheek.

“Ow! What the hell?!”

“Geez, it really stings.” Isabel mumbled with a dazed look as she shook her palm that was still tingling with the sensation of slapping someone.

“It more than stings, it hurts, you stupid bitch!”

Davina cursed and glowered at her but Isabel wasn’t even looking at her as her attention was fixed on the calendar hung on the wall next to the bed that had bold red numbers at the top that read ‘2007’. It was the month of May.

“May, 2007.” Isabel felt as though she had been struck by lightning. “Is this real?”

“Hey, hey, are you alright? You worked really hard to finish ‘My Lord, My Lady’ and you really pushed yourself to the brink of exhaustion this time, so you should relax.”

‘My Lord, My Lady’ was one of the first TV dramas Isabel had stared in and was also one of her most popular and iconic projects that followed her for the rest of her life.

“Davi…”

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Davina Small was the first manager Isabel ever had in her career and also the best friend she had ever made in her life, a friend who truly cared about her. The short couple of years she spent with Davina could be counted as some of the happiest years of her life. However, because of her own stubbornness, blindness and idiocy, she lost that friend for good but now; fate was giving her a second chance.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I’m really glad to have you as a friend.”

Isabel Rogers had been reborn.

A few minutes later, the young nurse returned with a doctor and after checking, it was determined that Isabel was only heavily fatigued but had been very unfortunate that when she collapsed she was at the top of a flight of stairs. However, thankfully, she didn’t have a concussion and there was no damage to her brain or any other part of her body.

“So you collapsed from fatigue. I could’ve sworn it was the shock that punched you out.” Davina teased while poking Isabel’s face with a foil wrapped lollipop which Isabel snatched from her hand with a small laugh.

“Hey, Davi, help me find a good lawyer.” Isabel popped the blue candy on the stick into her mouth and lay down while tossing the crumpled wrapper at Davina who caught it then looked at Isabel weirdly.

“Why a lawyer? Aren’t you going to confront the son-of-a-bitch?”

Davina knew how much Isabel loved her husband. To help Brycen start his business, Isabel gave him all the money her parents had saved for her tuition and didn’t go to college then she worked several jobs back to back to help make ends meet while he was trying to get the company on its feet. It was around that time that Davina met her.

A young girl who just finished high school was working two, sometimes three jobs a day, every day of the week and doing odd jobs on weekends. Even though she was obviously so pretty, why was she wasting her time with all that hard labor?

Davina who was a broker for a minor entertainment company called Sunshine Entertainment, contracted Isabel as a model where she was an instant hit with her pretty face, unique eye color and full proportions.

For the first time in her life, Isabel was making more than 100,000 a month but, that didn’t mean that her workload decreased because in the same way as before, all her money still went toward helping Brycen build his company until a wealthy real-estate agent took notice of the promising young company and made an investment in Brycen. Things got better from there.

“Confront him for what?” Isabel took the lollipop out of her mouth and waved it around. “Davi, how long have we known each other?”

“Almost ten years.”

“Ten years. And even after ten years, you still don’t understand?”

Seeing the bitter look of self-mockery on Isabel’s face, Davina couldn’t help but widen her eyes before blinking them furiously to hold back the tears.

“You’re a fool, Izzy.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Isabel threw a hand over her face and laughed but her voice broke and tears slid down the side of her face. “He never loved me.”

“Hey now.” Davina stood up and climbed onto the bed. “That idiot may be blind but I and countless fans out there still love you, so don’t waste your tears. Okay? Okay?” She pulled Isabel into a hug and rubbed her back soothingly.

“Okay.”

Isabel nodded but still buried her face in Davina’s shirt and continued crying.

After living her last life, if it was one thing that Isabel understood, it was that Brycen had never loved her.

She knew Brycen from the time they were in high school, they lived together, hand to mouth for three years, had children together and were married for six years and the kind of words that Brycen would say to Susan Walker and the way he would look at her, the things he would do for her, Isabel had never known him to be capable of those things.

When she was younger, she used to think that it was because he didn’t love her enough yet; then, as time went by, she slowly came to think that maybe, that was just the way Brycen was, but that day- which would now be yesterday- when she saw him hugging Susan Walker for the first time, kissing her, smiling while teasing her, she was rudely awakened to the fact that Brycen was more than capable of such things, but she just wasn’t the person he wanted.

The past her had thrown a tantrum and refused to believe what was right in front of her eyes and spent years blaming Susan Walker for stealing her husband and destroying her family. She wasted years in jealousy and hatred and let countless opportunities to move on with her life slip by. She reduced her children to pawns in a childish attempt to monopolize Brycen.

She was so blinded by what she thought was love that she didn’t treasure the people that truly loved her. But she knew now that what she felt then wasn’t love but a twisted sense of superiority.

Isabel sacrificed her youth for Brycen. She supported him through college and the initial stages of building his company. The capital for his first few minor projects all came from her earnings and because of that, she believed that Brycen owed her. No, she believed that she owned him.

After everything that she had been through, she didn’t believe that Brycen would have the guts or audacity to leave her and having her own superiority overturned right in front of her face had crushed her pride and fueled her obsession.

All those years of hounding Susan Walker and acting like a rabid wolf for nothing but a bit of crushed pride.

Behind her closed eyes, Isabel recalled the last moments of her previous existence.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

It had already been three years since she last saw her children after Brycen took legal custody and sent them off to boarding school, refusing to let her see them. She wanted to see her children, that was all she wanted so she waited at the company for Brycen to arrive. Even if she had to beg him, she wanted to see her kids. But it wasn’t until noon that he finally showed up.

Beyond her expectation, when Brycen arrived at the company, he wasn’t alone; the twins were with him as well as the pregnant Susan. Like everybody else, she had heard the news about Susan’s pregnancy and if it had been before, she would have definitely hounded the woman but now, she just wanted to see her kids.

The four Jaegers descended from the car. Isabel was standing to the side, waiting for them to come closer. She was itching to reach out and touch her children, they were right in front of her.

It was at that moment that it happened.

Susan suddenly lost strength in her legs and stumbled. Even though Brycen was obviously closer, she stretched out her hand toward Kelvin who was being absentminded with his back toward her.

Isabel didn’t know where she found the speed or strength, but she launched herself forward while letting out a feral scream and grabbed onto Kelvin who had begun to fall, pulling him back from the road. Because of too much momentum, she stumbled forward for a few steps but still managed to stabilize herself, however, in the next moment she felt that she was pushed from behind right in the path of an oncoming car.

As she lay in the street, red filling her vision, the last thing Isabel heard were the wailing voices of her children calling for her.