"Was it Samantha? What's gotten into that girl?"

Two lifetimes apart, and here he was—alive, breathing, real.

I collapsed into his chest and sobbed.

Dad froze, completely at a loss. "Don't be scared. Tell me what happened."

"I'm fine." I wiped my tears and forced myself to stay calm.

Crashing their little party now would be letting them off too easy.

I wanted them to regret this for the rest of their lives.

When Mom arrived and saw the cuts and bruises covering my body, her expression shifted instantly.

But I just whispered, "I'm okay, Mom. I don't want to go to college here anymore. I want to study abroad—settle overseas with you and Dad."

In my past life, I'd given up an acceptance letter from a prestigious foreign university, all because Samantha had said, "Let's go to college together."

I'd taken the national exam instead.

And look where that got me.

This time, I wasn't going to gamble on her actually keeping my exam admission ticket safe.

This exam? I was done with it.

Back home, I passed out and slept fitfully until the early hours, my dreams filled with flashes of my previous life.

When I woke again, my pillow was soaked with tears.