Chapter 2

I sat there, stunned, for a few seconds. Then I looked down at my hands. They were solid. A red mark pressed into my palm where I had been gripping my suitcase handle.

Outside the plane window, the rain had just stopped.

I had gone back in time to the day three years ago when I came home from studying abroad

Outside the airport exit, the Dunn family's black Bentley waited by the curb.

The driver stepped out and opened the back door. Haley sat inside, looking down at a stack of papers. Her hair fell neatly over her shoulders. She wore the same earrings she had worn at my funeral.

I dragged my suitcase over and blocked the door.

The driver was startled. "Mr. Lipsey?"

Haley looked up.

I met her eyes and said slowly, "Haley, don't cancel the engagement."

Her gaze turned cold.

I swallowed and forced myself to keep going. "If you don't trust me, then just lock me up."

She probably thought I had completely lost it.

She stared at me for two seconds, then asked the driver, "Did they serve him alcohol on the plane?"

The driver shook his head. "No, Ms. Dunn."

"Then he must have stayed abroad too long and left his brain there," she said.

She closed her file and looked straight at me. "Jasper, move."

I stood my ground.

The window was halfway down. She sat less than an arm's length away. She was alive. Her eyes were cold, but I could see the quiet rise and fall of her breathing.

Before this, I had followed her for so long as a ghost. I had seen her cry on those stairs. I had seen her smoke outside the police station. I had seen her stand on that bridge.

And now she was here, clean, sharp, and untouched by exhaustion.

I wanted to pull her into my arms.

But people were everywhere. If I tried, her bodyguards would probably slam me to the ground before I even got close.

I held myself back. "I'm serious," I said.

"You're serious about a lot of things," she replied, her voice edged with mockery. "Last year, you said you'd live abroad forever. Six months ago, you said you'd never marry me.

"Last month, you fought your family to break off the engagement. Jasper, your words don't mean anything."

Her words stung, just as they always did.

Before, I would have snapped back. But now, I heard something else underneath it.

She was upset.

It was not because I was blocking her car. It was because looking at me reminded her of something painful.

I stepped closer and lowered my voice. "Then teach me. How do I make them mean something?"

Haley froze for a second.

A car behind us honked. The driver looked like he was about to cry. "Mr. Lipsey, could we please get in the car? We're blocking the exit."

Haley kept looking at me for a few more seconds. Then she said, "Get in."

I blinked, caught off guard.

She shifted slightly to make space, sounding impatient. "Didn't you say I should lock you up? I have to take you with me first."

My heart pounded as I loaded my luggage and got into the car.

The moment the door shut, the noise outside disappeared.

Haley smelled like cedar, faint and cool. I used to hate that scent. But after I died, it was the only thing I could remember clearly.

"Are you done staring?" she asked, flipping through her papers again.

"No," I said.

Her pen paused for a moment.

I leaned back and told her the truth. "You look good being alive."

The driver nearly swerved off the road.

Haley finally looked at me as if I had gone crazy. "Jasper."

"Yeah?"

"Do they have hospitals where you were?" she asked.

"They do," I said, nodding.

"I'll book you a mental health appointment later."

I couldn't help but laugh.

Rain slid down the window as we drove through the city. I glanced at her and noticed a faint red mark behind her ear. It looked like she had not slept well, as if her hair had been pressed against that spot for too long.

I had never noticed things like that before.

Back then, all I thought about was how my family forced me into this marriage. I thought about how her family had more power than mine. I thought about how cold she sounded when she told me to show up at a party with her.

I thought she was trying to control me.

But I understood now. That tone was just her way of dealing with someone who refused to come home.

Halfway through the drive, Haley's phone rang.

She answered it without looking up. "Speak."

I could not hear the other side, but I saw her frown slightly.

"Keep an eye on them," she said. "And don't let Jasper touch anything from the Lipsey family."

I turned to look at her.

She hung up and calmly flipped to the next page, as if nothing had happened.

I raised an eyebrow. "Do you think I'm going to starve to death in your car?"

She shot me a cold glance. "I think you'll eat something you shouldn't and die on my watch."