Chapter 3

With the survival plan settled, I finally had my hands free to deal with the Hensons.

I thought it over, then called Douglas.

"Dad, I'm heading to the hospital to see Mom now."

"Hold on, don't rush. Lucia got your mom a good-luck charm and left it at the house. Swing by home first and grab it."

"Okay."

In my last life, this was exactly how they lured me back. They already had the whole show staged and waiting for me.

I played along, acting like I knew nothing, and went home. The drive back was ordinary, right up until the moment I was about to leave again.

Downstairs erupted. Screaming, tearing, cries for help, rising over one another.

I walked to the balcony and looked down. Zombies were already loose in the complex, blood and bodies everywhere.

I dialed Douglas, letting my voice shake.

"Dad, there are zombies in the complex. I don't dare go outside."

His voice was strained around the pleasure he was hiding, forcing out anger as he roared at me.

"Your mother is in the hospital and you're joking around with me? If you really don't want to come see her, then I'll pretend I never had such an ungrateful daughter. You don't need some clumsy excuse!"

I took a sip of water to wet my throat, then kept going, keeping the terror in my voice.

"It's true, Dad. There's blood all over the complex, and dead people. I'm so scared. How is it on your end? Are you and Mom and Lucia still safe?"

"Edna Henson, you are a heartless, ungrateful wretch. All those years your mother and I spent raising you, wasted. Now that you're grown, now that your wings are strong, your mother lands in the hospital and you can't even come once!"

"Dad, I really am not lying to you. Why won't you believe me!"

"Enough. I've sent Justin Farley to pick you up. If you still won't come, don't blame me for cutting all ties between us as father and daughter!"

Douglas hung up in a fury, and I sat at home waiting for Justin to come get me.

In my last life Justin did come. They were all in on it together, and they had Justin act out being killed by a zombie right in front of me. When I broke down and told Mom and Dad, he showed up beside them again, untouched, without a scratch.

They'd even set up a livestream, broadcasting every one of my reactions, so that in everyone's eyes I was a woman who'd lost her mind. Then they seized on it to strip me of my status as the Henson heir and cast me out.

Not that it mattered. I was never their real daughter, so throwing me out of the Hensons was only fitting.

It was just that, right before I died, I overheard Douglas on the phone telling someone that I'd already been dealt with.

So being pushed out to serve as a shield against the zombies wasn't his idea alone. Someone had instructed him.

But this time, as long as Justin dared to come, I could make their whole plan fall apart and draw out the person who was really scheming against me.

Not long after, Justin actually pulled up in his car. Looking at that familiar face, something in my chest pulled tight.

In my last life, apart from the Hensons, this man, my fiancé through an arranged business marriage, had been the closest person to me.

But he was one of the accomplices who destroyed me too. His heart only ever held Lucia. Every moment with me had been an act.