Redemption: Second Chance Love

Chapter 03

The scene before Hayden left him horrified. It took him a moment to start running, as his legs seemed to refuse to move.

By the time he got there, people were already gathered around, and within moments, an ambulance arrived. Hayden kept mumbling apologies, but Zoe was non-responsive.

"I’m her husband!" he stammered, trying to get into the ambulance, but Maxton stepped in front of him, blocking him.

Bethany was being attended to by the medical team, as she was in shock. The poor girl had never seen anything of the sort and she was looking straight at Zoe when the woman's body was hit.

Zoe, almost losing consciousness again, saw her life flash before her eyes.

‘I loved him, and he betrayed me like this. Isn't it unfair that the last face I saw was his?’ she thought. ‘If I could have another chance, I wouldn’t love him. I would live well and far away from him! Hayden Javernick, if there is life after death, I never wish to cross paths with you again!’

Hayden was pulled away by Jase, who took him to the hospital, and when they arrived, they were informed that the patient had already arrived without a pulse.

"No… This…" Hayden shook his head from side to side in denial.

Jase went to the front desk and confirmed all of Zoe’s details while Hayden was taken to the morgue.

Looking at his wife, he held her hand.

"Zoe… Zoe. I saw it, I know now…" He wept. "Forgive me, please forgive me! Come back to me!"

Hayden was so distraught that he didn’t even realize when he got home, nor the days that followed. He just stayed in the bedroom, clinging to one of Zoe’s dresses, begging for another chance, talking to himself.

The doctors confirmed that he was mentally unstable and recommended that he be hospitalized, as he refused to eat.

"Please, please... Just one more chance. I promise everything will be different!" he pleaded. "I will love you, Zoe. I will love and take care of you!"

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The shrill sound of the phone alarm made Zoe whimper as she reached out to turn it off.

"Ugh, dang!!" Zoe complained, staying with her eyes closed for another second. But then she quickly opened them and almost jumped out of bed, grabbing her phone. "No way... no way!"

According to the phone, Zoe had gone back a few years, before she met Hayden! She was twenty years old again!

With trembling hands, still in disbelief, Zoe decided to browse the internet to dig deeper. After some time, her mouth hanging open, she blinked a few times.

"I-I..." she smiled, still shocked. “Is it a dream? The afterlife?”

Her phone started ringing, snapping Zoe out of her daze.

WILLARD, was what the screen showed. Zoe’s lips began to tremble.

He was the brother of the man she had loved in her previous life, and staying close to Willard would mean letting Hayden back into her life.

After gathering her courage, Zoe answered the call. This time, she would thrive!

“Zoe! Good morning!” Willard's beautiful voice sounded from the other end. “So, Lara won't be able to go to our tutoring class… Do you mind if the class is just me?”

Willard was a year older and had offered to help the first-year students at the beginning of the course. Zoe, of course, accepted it, after all, Willard was a boy with excellent grades and was very willing to teach.

Now, she wasn't so sure that it was a good idea to accept his help.

“Hmm, maybe it's better if we leave it for another day, when Lara can participate,” Zoe replied. She remembered that, after that class, Willard and she had become closer, until they became best friends. In the end, he died, she was blamed and his brother came after her.

‘And I died!’, Zoe remembered, feeling a chill run down her spine.

“Oh, okay, then,” Willard replied sadly.

“I have to go. Thank you for all your help, Willard! Bye!”

And then, she ended the call, placing the phone close to her chest, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

When she opened her eyes, she took a deep breath.

"I won't let myself fall into the same trap, I won't!" She said, sure of her convictions and stood up. "Hayden Javernick, I hope I never meet you again!"

All Zoe wanted, with this second chance, was not to get revenge on Barbara, or Hayden. No. She just wanted to live her life the best way possible.

Meanwhile, another person was lost in thought, looking at the ceiling while laying down on his bed, at the Javernick Mansion.

Then, his cell phone rang.

WILLARD.

“Hello?” he answered, feeling weird and, when his brother’s voice echoed from the other side, Hayden’s eyes filled with tears. “Will?”

“Yeah! Who else?” Willard asked and snorted, but then, he let out a heavy sigh.

“What is it?” Hayden asked, sitting up on bed. “Why do you sound so sad?”

“Is just that…”, Willard scratched his head. “I met a girl and I think I found the love of my life.”

Hayden frowned. He had a weird dream, where his brother loved a woman and things just went downhill. The thing is, now that he was awake, the details were getting confusing.

“Ok, but shouldn’t you be happy, then?”

“I wish! I mean… I thought we would spend some time together. Alone,” Willard shook his head. “But she couldn’t. And I miss her.”

“What's her name?” Hayden asked. Something inside him was screaming: danger, danger! But he could not understand why.

“Zoe! Oh, my Gosh, Hay, She is the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes on! Hold it, I’ll send you a pic!”

Hayden’s phone vibrated and, with trembling fingers, he opened the message his brother sent him. When the image of a brunette with dark, long hair, sitting on a chair of what seemed to be a library, immersed on the book she had in her hands, Hayden’s breath was caught in his throat. The woman from his dream!

“So, what do you think? Isn’t she gorgeous?” Willard asked and kept talking, but Hayden could not listen. His attention was focused on the woman. He traced her face with the tip of his fingers, as if he could touch her. “Hay, are you there?”

“Ah, yeah… I am,” Hayden answered and sighed. “I got to go, now. Talk to you later.” And he ended the call, leaving Willard stunned.

Closing his eyes, Hayden tried to remember the dream.

“It felt so real,” he said to himself. Fragments of Zoe’s smile, her scent, her laughter. “How is that possible?”

He was four years older than Willard and, therefore, already finished College. Hayden was very smart and started his professional studies earlier than other people normally did, so, at twenty-four years old, he had a Master degree and was working on his doctorate in Business and Management. He chose that course not because his family was in the entrepreneur field, but because he had talent.

“Maybe that dream was a premonition…”, he mumbled and got up, took a quick shower, put on some nice clothes and headed downstairs.

“Going somewhere?” His mother asked, frowning. “Shouldn’t you be relaxing?”

“Ah, yeah. I just…”

“Hayden, you work too much. You promised to take the day off!” She put her hands on her waist.

“I’m not going to work! I’ll visit someone.”

Madisyn Javernick looked at her son and made a face that Hayden knew too well: she didn’t believe his words.

“It is a girl.”

That was enough to make his mother’s eyes shine with hope and, next thing he recorded, she was almost throwing him out of the house.

“Finally! I hope you get married soon! Don’t forget to invite her for dinner!”

Hayden didn’t even have the time to utter a word. He looked ahead and let out a deep breath. It was time to meet Zoe Fleming, the woman who appeared in his dream and, for the first time, made his heart ache with longing.