Chapter 2

Joy Galloway didn't die.

They fought all night to keep her alive, and they managed it.

Her spine was broken. No feeling below the chest.

The doctors said the rest of her life would be a wheelchair and a bed.

I was in the library working on a paper when I heard.

My roommate held out his phone.

"Paul, that Joy Galloway got hurt. Did you know?"

I nodded. "I saw."

"I heard you were right there when it happened?"

"Yeah."

He paused a moment.

"Why didn't you pull her out of the way?"

I looked up at him.

He walked it back himself. "I'm not saying you had to save her. It's just... you were so close to her."

I gave a short laugh.

"Being close to her means I should have died in her place?"

He had nothing to say to that.

Right.

I was close to her, so I should have saved her?

I was young and strong, so I should have thrown myself in front of the truck?

She ran the red light. She had her head down on her phone. She never heard the horn. She handed her own life over to luck.

Yet in my last life, everyone simply took it for granted that I had to pay the price for her mistake.

As if saving her had been my duty.

As if failing to save her made me guilty.

A week later, the police told me to come to the hospital to give a statement.

I was a witness at the scene.

The accident involved a large truck, the intersection signal, and a pedestrian crossing against the light. The traffic police had to verify each point one by one.

By the time I got there, Joy had just come out of her second surgery.

The room reeked of disinfectant.

She lay in the bed, her face white as paper, a thick blanket over everything from the waist down, tubes running into her everywhere.

Her parents sat beside her, eyes red and swollen. The moment the officer walked in, they shot to their feet.

"Officer, look what's happened to our daughter. You have to get to the bottom of this!"

"She's always been such a good girl. There's no way she'd just run a red light!"

"Someone did this to her!"

The officer on the case frowned.

"We're pulling the surveillance footage now. Responsibility for the accident will be determined through proper procedure."

Camila Galloway opened her mouth to say more.

Right then, Joy's eyes suddenly opened.

At first she stared blankly at the ceiling.

Then her gaze drifted toward the doorway.

When she saw me, she went still.

I was standing.

Standing there on two good legs.

Her eyes went wide.

She looked at me, and the color drained from her face.

Then she started thrashing in the bed.

"Paul!"

She screamed it at the top of her lungs.

"Paul! How can you be standing?"

No one in the room said a word.

Carter Galloway rushed to hold her down. "Joy, stop moving! You'll tear the stitches!"

She didn't hear a word of it.

Both hands beat at the mattress, her eyes bloodshot.

"You were right there next to me!"

"You could have saved me!"

"Why didn't you push me out of the way?!"

The more she said, the wilder she got, and the heart monitor broke into a frantic alarm.

A nurse ran in and pinned her by the shoulders.

But Joy kept her finger locked on me, screaming until her voice cracked.

"He's the reason I'm paralyzed!"

"He did it on purpose!"

"He could have pushed me away like before! Why didn't he take the truck for me!"

The room went silent all at once.

Everyone was staring at her, the officer included.

Joy clearly realized what had slipped out too.

"Like before."

It was such a strange thing to say.

Nothing like this had ever happened between us before.