I stared at the muted ceiling, frowning. How come I was still alive? Did I survive after all? My vision had a shower curtain haze, but my brain had enough stimulus to tell me that this wasn’t the hospital.

Was that a dream?

No.

That’s not it.

I jolted up. Blinking through the harsh streaks of sunlight from the blackout curtains a few feet away from my bed, I immediately realized something was wrong.

I was supposed to be dead! And this… this isn’t my room!

Where was I?

My hands found my neck, which was free of injury. Bewildered, I put my foot down. The soft rug cushioned my feet from the wooden flooring and triggered a sudden memory. I had been here before, but surely it couldn't be…

No. That’s not possible.

Am I dreaming? Without hesitation, I pinched my leg, but paused midway when I realized something else.

I was naked!

I was alive and naked!

I grabbed the white sheets and covered my body as I turned my head to my left and right. Sure enough, a wristwatch that I didn’t recognize lay on the bedside table near me. Panic rose inside.

I spotted my heels and clothes and immediately started dressing.

“Bella?”

I spun around, surprised at the voice coming from behind me. It was Cedric, whom I had seen dead what seemed like only moments before.

A ghost? Am I seeing things?

He was wearing gray sweatpants, beads of water still lingered on his upper body.

Ghosts… don’t take baths. Right?

Nothing felt right. Déjà vu filled my head as he walked closer, a towel in his hand. The smell of his aftershave wafted through the air. It was lemon and musk.

“You look pale.”

His voice was low, and there wasn’t a hint of amusement on his face. He looked worried; his brows knotted as he stood in front of me.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

I was not. Not when I still couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. Still, I somehow managed to nod.

“Do you want a bottle of water? Milk? I could cook some breakfast if you want me to,” he offered, looking worried, but I ignored him as I lowered my head. Milk? I stopped drinking milk years before my death.

“Black coffee.” My words came like a whisper. I cleared my throat before speaking again. “Black coffee, please.”

I was relieved when he didn’t ask any questions and just left the room to get me what I requested. This was the Cedric I knew. This was the Cedric I had ruined.

I plonked down on the side of the bed, still shaken. It sounded crazy, but I was sure this was a morning from many years before I died. The morning after the night I slept with Cedric in his parents’ house while they were out of town.

Did I just…

No. That’s impossible!

How could I just go back in time?

I bit my lower lip, then my hand slowly made its way into my leg, pinching it. The pain made me frown. This wasn’t a dream.

Then does this mean I actually traveled back in time?

Five years.

I had come back five years before my demise.

If I got the timeline right, last night Cedric and I drank a lot and we ended up having a one-night stand.

This incident had made me hate him, instead of admitting the truth to myself; that it was me who had wanted him that night, and that I had been just mad enough at Evan to allow myself to realize that Cedric offered things Evan could not. In my old life, I had considered that night my greatest mistake and Cedric my greatest enemy.

My eyes turned fiery. I gulped the tears that threatened to stream down my cheeks.

Yesterday was supposed to be the day that Evan and I would finally register for our marriage, when I could stop being his secret girlfriend. I was already inside the Lin Family’s mansion when he called me, informing me that he had to cancel, that he had an emergency meeting abroad.

He told me not to wait up for him and offered to get me some chocolates once he got back.

Chocolates, my ass.

I could have accepted the flowers and chocolates like I always did. Instead, I got angry and broke up with him. This wasn’t the first nor the second time that he canceled the registration of our marriage. It was the sixth!

This time, my stubborn self broke up with him on the phone while hoping he would beg me to forgive him.

Then I opened a bottle of vodka and started drinking.

That was when Cedric arrived.

He was wearing a dark blue suit and wore a lazy smile on his face as he asked me why I was drinking and listening to an emotional playlist on my phone. As someone who grew up with me, Cedric knew me too well.

I didn’t need to answer him. He immediately knew. It was his older brother, Evan, delaying our wedding again.

It was always Evan.

I remember snorting and asking Cedric to marry me instead. I had expected him to laugh it off. What a crazy suggestion from his brother’s crazy fiancé!

But he didn’t.

My hands massaged my temple as I recalled him approaching me yesterday. Eyebrows lifted, he smiled and asked me if I was sure.

I smiled naively and nodded.

Obviously, the marriage didn’t happen. Instead, we got drunk and ended up in this… mess.

A muscle in my jaw twitched as I ran my manicured fingers through my long brown hair.

If this wasn’t a dream, then it only meant one thing.

I was given a second chance to right the wrongs I made, to change everything.

A tear came rolling down my cheeks. And once the first tear broke free, the rest followed like a waterfall.

“Bella?”

This time, I didn’t move when I heard his voice behind me. I wiped the tears using my hand and said, “We need to talk.”