Chapter 1

After my husband lost his memory, his ex-girlfriend told him I was only the housekeeper.

He believed her and made me move into the storage room.

I was five months pregnant at the time.

From then on, his mother pretended not to hear or see anything, while his ex moved into the master bedroom.

My husband thought I was in the way and told me to stop showing up in front of him.

I gave birth in the storage room, suffered massive blood loss, and didn’t make it until dawn.

When I was reborn, he hadn’t been in that car accident yet.

One day early, I picked up my luggage and walked out the door.

“This time, I’m leaving.”

“Nora, why are you packing a suitcase?”

Ethan had just stepped into the entryway and blocked the door.

I didn’t stop. I stuffed the last two changes of clothes into the side pocket and pulled the zipper all the way shut.

“I’m leaving.”

He looked as if he hadn’t understood me.

“Leaving? Where are you going?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean, it doesn’t matter?” He reached out and grabbed the suitcase handle, frowning slightly. “Why are you making a scene this late at night? Did you and Mom fight again?”

I looked up at him.

I knew this face too well. So well that it was the last face I thought about before I closed my eyes in my previous life.

Why hadn’t he come to see me?

I didn’t answer. I simply pulled his hand off the suitcase handle.

“Move.”

He had said those exact three words in my previous life.

I had been standing outside the storage room with my five-month belly, asking him where I was supposed to go. He had shifted impatiently to the side and left me with those three words.

Now it was my turn to say them.

He froze.

“Nora, what’s wrong with you today?”

“I want a divorce.”

The living room went silent for five seconds.

Then Ethan gave a short, low laugh, as if the idea were ridiculous.

“Divorce? You packed your suitcase first and only now decided to tell me? Is this a divorce, or are you just running away from home?”

“Interpret it however you want.”

“However I want?” He drew a deep breath, clearly trying to hold back his temper. “You’re five months pregnant. Where can you go?”

He said it smoothly, with the tone of someone who cared.

But I could tell what he really meant.

He thought I couldn’t leave.

In my previous life, I hadn’t been able to.

“Nora, enough. Put the suitcase down. Mom made some ribs—”

“Ethan.” I cut him off and looked straight into his eyes. “Tomorrow morning at eleven, don’t take the South Loop Expressway.”

He paused. His expression shifted from helplessness to confusion.

“What?”

“At the third exit, a white delivery van will run a red light. Take another route.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Whether you listen is up to you.”

I pulled my suitcase toward the entryway and changed my shoes. He followed me, his voice softening.

“What’s wrong with you? Why are you saying things like this out of nowhere? Are you feeling sick? I can take you to a doctor if you want.”

I crouched down to tie my shoes, but my stomach got in the way when I bent over.

He didn’t crouch down to help me.

He hadn’t in my previous life, either.

I tied my own shoes, stood up, and opened the door.

“Even if you walk out, at least keep your phone on, okay?”

I didn’t answer.

The hotel was two stops from home, about a fifteen-minute walk. The young woman at the front desk glanced at me dragging a suitcase by myself, then looked at my stomach twice before saying nothing.

When she handed me the key card, my phone vibrated.

It wasn’t Ethan.

It was a message from an unsaved number. The profile picture was a white daisy.

“Big sis Nora~ Ethan called me, and he sounded so anxious. Did you two have a fight? Do you want me to talk to him? You know he always listens to me. We’ve been classmates for years.”

Maya.

In my previous life, Maya had appeared openly only after the accident, standing innocently outside his hospital room.

So she had never really left.

She had simply been crouching in the shadows, waiting.

I took a screenshot of the message, created a new folder, and saved it there.

Then I opened the voice message from Ethan’s mother.

“Dinner’s ready. Where did you run off to? You’re never home anymore.”

I turned my phone to silent and shoved it under my pillow.

The room was dark. A thin line of light slipped through the gap in the curtains.

I rested a hand on my stomach. The baby was quiet and peaceful, neither kicking nor fussing.

“This time,” I whispered to the empty room, “Mommy isn’t going to die in that storage room.”