Chapter 1

Everyone said Charles Sutton loved me down to the bone. They swore he would burn the world for me. But he kept sending me to my death instead.

The first time, his secretary's blood sugar crashed. He rushed her to the hospital. I was thrown to the sharks, and my blood stained the ocean red.

The second time, his secretary woke screaming from a nightmare. He ran to comfort her. Kidnappers stabbed me so many times that my organs spilled across the floor.

Every time I died, he found some new excuse to pull me back from the edge.

He would cup my face and murmur, "Babe, we're together. Isn't that enough? Why would you ever want to leave me?"

After the 99th death, I didn't come back.

This time, he panicked.

*****

I screamed into the darkness. "Charles, where the hell are you?"

The ropes dug into my wrists as I hung from the beam, and fresh welts split open across my back with every crack of the whip. There wasn't a single inch of skin left unbroken.

If Charles didn't come soon, I was going to end up as shark bait.

Then a girl's voice drifted through the phone, soft and sweet. "Is that Mrs. Sutton? I accidentally broke a plate just now, and Mr. Sutton is helping me pick up the pieces."

My heart dropped like a stone.

I looked at the kidnappers, and I stopped fighting. I let them throw me into the sea.

One of them laughed. "Guess Mr. Sutton doesn't give a damn about his wife. Otherwise, why wouldn't he come save her?"

Another one sneered. "She keeps calling herself Mr. Sutton's true love. Everyone knows Ms. Warren is the one he actually cares about."

The third chimed in. "An ugly, washed-up housewife who loves to flatter herself. Mr. Sutton is going to divorce her any day now."

Then I opened my eyes again. Another rebirth. And Charles was kneeling right beside me.

I sat up and slapped him across the face, once, twice, three times, until red handprints bloomed across his cheeks.

But he didn't flinch. There was no anger in his expression. If anything, a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

He reached for my hand and whispered, "It's okay, sweetheart. As long as you don't leave me. Just please stop doing reckless things, and stay. We can make this work."

I clenched my fists. The ghost of the shark's teeth still burned against my skin, and every nerve screamed with the memory of being torn apart.

My voice came out hollow. "Charles, why are you doing this? I don't belong in this world, and you can't make me stay."

He pulled me into his arms and held on as if I might disappear. "It's okay, Sophia. Just stay for me. I'll take care of everything. All of it."

But as he held me close, I caught the scent of an unfamiliar peach body lotion on his skin, and it was cloyingly sweet, just like that girl's voice.

"Who's Emily Warren?" I tossed the question out casually, and Charles froze.

He frowned and shot back, "Who told you that?"

That reaction was all the confirmation I needed. I opened the drawer and pulled out the divorce papers I had prepared long ago.

I set them on the table and said, "Let's get a divorce, Charles. There's no point in torturing each other anymore."

Charles glanced at the papers and let out a short laugh. "You're ready to throw away years of marriage over a name, Sophia? One name, and suddenly none of it means anything to you?"

His voice dropped lower as he added, "And even if I signed, where would you go? You don't exist on paper without me."

*****

He wasn't wrong. When I first arrived in this world, I had nothing. No identity, no records, no one.

Charles was the one who got me documented and registered everything under his name.

All he had to do was save me once, and I could go back.

After my first failed death, Charles dropped to his knees and begged me over and over.

He pleaded, "Stay with me, Sophia. I swear I won't let you down."

He promised, "You won't regret choosing me."

But after countless cycles of dying and coming back, Charles got tired of it.

He started finding excuses not to save me, letting me die at the hands of kidnappers again and again.

The pain of each death burned itself into my soul and never faded.

Charles reached for my hand as if nothing had ever gone wrong between us and said, "Come on, don't be mad. There's a new drink at Starbucks you'd love."

He smiled and added, "My secretary ordered one the other day, and it was pretty good."

Charles reached for my hand like nothing had ever gone wrong between us.

He never drank Starbucks. The few times I had ordered one, he would toss it straight in the trash and say, "Sophia, why do you like drinking cheap stuff like that?"

I pulled my hand free, and Charles froze. I had never pulled away from him before.

His jaw tightened, and he grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the car.

He snapped, "What's with the attitude? I missed a couple calls. My secretary already told you why."

I turned my head toward the window and said nothing.

The GPS chimed in with a sweet, breathy voice. "Mr. Sutton, Emmy Navigation is always here for you."

Charles relaxed a little when he heard it.

He had once recorded my voice and used it for his GPS. Back then, he had smiled and told me, "Babe, you're my good luck charm. As long as I hear your voice, I'll never get into an accident."

Now the charm had changed, and so had he.

Charles seemed to realize I was sitting right there. He cleared his throat and said, "Your voice file got flagged for some policy violation. I'll take you to re-record it another day."

I still didn't say a word. A cold, mechanical voice echoed inside my head. "Host may choose to terminate and exit the world, but the mission will be marked as failed."

I hadn't expected to hear that option so soon.