Chapter 1

The day before my wedding, I was murdered in my suburban home.

I never saw my killer's face, not even if they were a man or a woman.

They came under the guise of treating the wood in my house, sprayed an unknown powder in my face, and strangled me.

As I blacked out, I saw them head straight for my bedroom and take the key to my safe.

Then I opened my eyes and was thrown back two hours before the killer arrived.

My suspicion fell on my fiancé; this marriage wasn't his choice.

But to my shock, this time I was killed on my way to confront him.

It was the same killer. They ran me over with a car and drove away.

I woke again, this time five hours before the killer would ring my bell.

*****

I jolted awake, my heart pounding in my chest.

The familiar surroundings didn't comfort me at all; if anything, they just made me feel even more uneasy.

This was the third time I'd come back to life.

My eyes instinctively landed on the key to the safe sitting on the table. That was the thing that got me killed.

The first time I got killed, the murderer showed up pretending to be a pest control guy.

I was packing my bags when someone called out for me to open up.

The person called out, "Excuse me, is this Ms. Lane?

"I'm here for pest control."

Something felt off, so I didn't open the door right away.

The person outside seemed to pick up on my caution and rushed to explain.

The person said, "Property management sent us over. Some folks have been complaining about termites lately, so we're here to handle it."

That made me relax, so I opened the door.

The person outside had on a hat and a mask. When he saw me staring, he tugged the brim down even further.

"Come on in. My backyard, ah!" I said.

Before I could finish, he moved fast, slapped his hand over my mouth, and blasted some powder right into my face.

Suddenly, my vision blurred and my head started spinning.

I lost all control over my body and crumpled to the ground.

Then he yanked a thick rope out of his backpack and strangled me until everything went dark.

As I was fading out, he rushed into my bedroom and snatched the key to the safe.

As the door shut behind him, my world went dark.

Next thing I knew, I was awake again, back to the moment before the killer even arrived.

My first reaction was to slip the safe key straight into my pocket.

Mom had given me that safe as a wedding present just yesterday, and she'd warned me over and over, "You're only allowed to open it on your wedding night.

"There's just this one key, so make sure you don't lose it," she'd reminded me.

Thinking about all that, I gripped the key in my hand even tighter.

Whatever was inside that safe had to be something the killer wanted so badly that they were willing to kill for it.

But who was it that wanted me dead?

I forced myself to calm down and started running through the possibilities one by one.

In the end, my gaze settled on Sean Woods, my fiancé.

For starters, he was in on the whole safe thing.

He was standing right next to me when Mom handed me the key and gave me the warning.

And he had a motive; he didn't love me.

Let's be real, this marriage was basically arranged.

But the biggest clue was that the killer smelled just like that familiar sachet.

And Sean's family actually runs a sachet business.

But what really mattered was that he knew exactly where I was.

I bought this villa for myself, and barely anyone knew about it except a select few.

Just thinking about all this sent chills down my spine.

When I glanced up at the house again, cold sweat broke out all over my back.

All I could think of was to get out of here now.

I pulled on my hat, wrapped myself up so no one could recognize me, and headed straight for the parking lot.

The sunlight was stinging my eyes, and my anger was boiling over.

If Sean didn't want to be with me, he could've just said so. Why did he have to kill me?

Thinking about it, I dialed his number and said, "Sean, what the hell are you trying to do?"

Sean sounded totally lost, his voice low and muffled. He answered, "What's going on with you?

"I'm in a meeting right now. Can we talk about this later?"

Just as I was about to lay it all out for him, a sharp screech of brakes tore through the air behind me.

I barely had a second to process what was happening before I was slammed and sent flying.

Blood poured out of me as I crashed to the ground, my body refusing to move an inch.

The person jumped out of the car, came straight over, and reached into my pocket to snatch the safe key.

Once he had the key, he didn't even pause, just turned around and walked off.

My mouth hung open, every breath bubbling with blood.

Blood flooded back into my lungs, and everything started to blur.

The next thing I knew, I was back in my bedroom, lying on my bed.

Memories from before came crashing back like a tidal wave.

I slowly got out of bed and noticed a note on the nightstand that hadn't been there before.

It read: [If you want to break out of this loop of coming back to life, you have to find the real killer.]

My mind went completely blank after reading those words.

That meant Sean wasn't the one who killed me. Everything I'd guessed before was wrong.

As long as I couldn't figure out who the real killer was, I'd just keep getting killed over and over again.

If it wasn't Sean who wanted me dead, then who on earth could have it out for me?