Reborn in Time: Reclaiming My Life

Chapter 4 Laying Out the Path

Ava's POV cont.

I left the spa, determined to confront Rowan and Jane. That is, if they were still here.

I quietly entered the cottage, setting my purse on the small entry table. I was surprised they weren’t in the living or kitchen area, though their shoes were lying haphazardly by the door. I could hear the soft murmur of voices coming from the bedroom area. I moved closer, taking care to be quiet. I didn’t want to interrupt the video conference.

But surprise, surprise indeed. There was no video conference. I highly doubt that had even crossed their minds. Through the partially open bedroom door I could see the bed reflected in the mirror.

The image of my husband, Rowan, and his best friend and business partner/mistress, Jane, naked, wrapped around each other in the afterglow of s*x was burned into my brain. They were talking. Bragging.

Bragging about how they stole the external hard drive that contained the manuscripts of the six books I had completed using the voice to text feature on my laptop. The program I had to use because my sight was gone due to damage to my corneas. They laughed about how Jane had already submitted my manuscripts, the ones they stole, to a publisher who would publish them under Jane’s name.

They laughed about how Rowan had known exactly who I was, and had courted, then married me to get control of my assets. They were gloating about how, while I was in Toronto having eye surgery, Rowan had forged my signature on documents that would see the company I had inherited transferred solely into his name.

Gloating about how he had taken control of my trust accounts by the same methods. Trust accounts containing substantial amounts, which would start paying out on my 30th birthday. Millions of dollars in fact. Luckily, any withdrawals would require a countersignature by Mia. She wasn’t likely to agree to do that. She hated Rowan. With good reason, it seems.

But it was their words about my blindness that cut the deepest. Their cruel laughter as they mocked my blindness. A blindness that had been prolonged for three years due to the lack of proper treatment. Treatment Rowan had delayed and withheld. Laughed about the government subsidies he had received because of my lack of sight.

Blindness that was rectified by the recent corneal transplant. A transplant Mia had arranged for me despite the obstacles Rowan had constantly thrown in the way. I now knew Rowan preferred to have me blind. Made everything so much easier for him to manipulate.

The way he manipulated me into thinking our apartment had been burglarized after he and Jane had stolen my very first completed manuscript, had it altered just enough to make Jane look innocent should the theft ever be discovered. Soon after the ‘burglary’, Jane began talking about this brilliant new book idea that she had been inspired to write. How it had all just ‘come to her’. How she had written the book in weeks.

She had bragged when it was published. Had even read me excerpts from the book. Gloated about the commercial success of the book. Read me excerpts that sounded so much like what I had written that I asked myself if she had read my original manuscript and plagiarized my work. But with the laptop and manuscript missing, I had no proof. Nothing to prove the story was mine.

All those memories. Memories of what had been.

Memories of events that had happened in my previous life. It had not yet happened in the timeline of my reborn life. I could, and I would, make sure they would not happen. Make sure Rowan and Jane failed this time around. In this life, I would wait, I would watch, I would plan. And I would win.

My time had come. My time was now.

“Mia,” I whispered, wanting to keep this conversation private. “Why isn’t Rowan, my dear devoted husband, here with me? What is so important that he couldn’t be here with his wife?”

My words carried disdain for my husband. Feelings that were easy to discern.

Mia, sensing a shift in what had been my previous long-suffering attitude towards my husband, didn’t hesitate to answer.

“He and Jane left two days ago, for a tech conference held in Los Angeles. He told me he would be gone at least four weeks, saying they would be ‘networking’ to grow the company. Honestly, I did not believe him. The two of them were acting really sketchy. So, I checked. Did an internet search. There is no Tech conference.” Her voice had taken on a hard edge.

“They went away together. For a month? While I, his wife, was lying in a hospital bed, in a coma?”

I remembered this happening in my past life, but he had gaslit me into believing in the tech conference and the multitude of meetings that followed. Led me to believe he had made important business connections that would benefit his company. Made me believe the trip was necessary for the growth of his company. It was one of the reasons I agreed to withdraw the divorce petition.

“Mia, is there any way we can find out where they really went? I’m certain he is cheating on me with Jane. I need actual proof. Photos, charges to both our personal and his company credit cards, that sort of thing. I need to know how long this has been going on. I need evidence!”

In this lifetime, his cheating ways would work in my favor. This time I wouldn’t cry and feel sorry for myself. Nope. In this life I would use his absence to my advantage.

“I can hire a PI. There’s a good company here in the city. I can get them on it right away. Does this mean you are continuing to divorce him?” I could hear the repressed excitement in her voice.

"I am. I'm not backing down," 'this time,' I was thinking. "I want proof of their affair in case he tries to withdraw the divorce petition. It was filed before my parents' death, so that should help protect my inheritance."

"It's protected anyway, since you haven't combined it with your joint assets. But knowing Rowan, he will try to claim it. He's a greedy punk. You deserve better."

She had always told me that she didn’t think Rowan was good enough for me. She was right.