Chapter 9:Shared Secrets
701 Words
For a moment, the sounds of the café faded into the background.
Selena stared at Lucien, her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
Every single day.
Those three words carried a weight only she could understand.
Her fingers tightened around her coffee cup.
"What do you mean?" she asked carefully.
Lucien held her gaze, his expression unreadable to anyone else. But Selena caught it—the flicker of hesitation, the pain hidden beneath his calm exterior.
The look of someone carrying memories too heavy to bear alone.
He leaned back in his chair, his voice low enough that only she could hear.
"Tell me something first."
Selena didn't answer.
"Did you know Ethan's company would collapse after the leak?" he asked.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Why would you ask that?"
"Because you weren't surprised."
Neither of them blinked.
Neither looked away.
For the first time since her rebirth, Selena felt exposed.
Not threatened.
Seen.
A slow smile tugged at Lucien's lips.
"There it is."
"What?"
"The look."
"What look?"
"The same one I see in the mirror every morning."
A chill ran through her.
The world around them seemed to disappear.
There was no café.
No chatter.
No clinking cups.
Just the two of them.
Two people standing on the edge of an impossible truth.
Selena lowered her voice.
"Who are you, Lucien?"
Something shifted in his expression—relief mixed with sadness.
"Someone who failed you once."
Her breath caught.
A memory flashed through her mind.
The hospital room.
The pain.
The loneliness.
And a figure standing outside the door.
Blurred.
Unclear.
Watching.
She had never known who it was.
Until now.
Lucien reached into his jacket and placed a small silver bracelet on the table.
Selena froze.
It was identical to the one she had worn in her previous life.
The one her mother had given her before she died.
The one she lost on the night everything fell apart.
Her hands trembled.
"How do you have this?"
His eyes softened.
"You left it behind."
Her voice barely rose above a whisper.
"That's impossible."
"It should be."
Silence stretched between them.
Then, finally, Lucien said the words she had been waiting to hear.
"I remember my previous life, Selena."
The air left her lungs.
She wanted to deny it.
To question him.
To demand proof.
But deep down, she had known.
From the moment they met again at the gala.
From the way he looked at her.
From the way he always seemed to know exactly what she needed.
"When?" she asked quietly.
"The same day you woke up in the past."
Her eyes widened.
"You knew?"
"I suspected at first." A faint smile touched his lips. "Then you changed things."
"The gala."
He nodded.
"You ignored Ethan."
"The leaked documents."
Another nod.
"You moved much earlier this time."
Selena looked down at the bracelet in her hand.
She wasn't alone.
The burden she'd carried since waking up—the fear, the anger, the endless memories—wasn't hers alone anymore.
Tears stung her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
Lucien noticed anyway.
He always did.
"You don't have to do this by yourself."
His voice was gentle.
Steady.
Nothing like Ethan's carefully rehearsed concern.
This was real.
For the first time since her rebirth, Selena allowed herself to believe that maybe she could trust someone again.
Slowly, she looked up.
"Tell me everything."
Lucien exhaled, as though he'd been holding his breath for years.
"In my previous life, I loved you."
Selena's heart skipped.
"But I realized it too late."
Outside the café windows, dark clouds gathered over the city.
Neither of them noticed.
Because inside, two lives that had been torn apart were finally beginning to weave together once more.
And neither of them saw the black sedan parked across the street.
Inside, Ethan lowered his phone after taking a photo of Selena and Lucien together.
His jaw tightened.
Beside him, Aria stared at the screen with barely concealed fury.
"Since when were they so close?" she demanded.
Ethan's expression darkened.
"I don't know."
But one thing was certain.
Selena was slipping out of their control.
And they would do whatever it took to pull her back.
- Writer
