Rosalie was running through the deserted alley, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Blood soaked through her clothes, dripping from the gunshot wound in her abdomen and splashing onto the cracked pavement beneath her feet.
Every step felt like agony.
The once-bright city had fallen silent, leaving only the distant sound of traffic and the frantic pounding of her heartbeat in her ears.
She pressed against on the wound with a trembling hand, trying desperately to slow the blood loss.
I can't die here…. not yet.
Just as her knees threatened to give out, a sudden beam of headlights sliced through the darkness from a narrow side street.
A sleek black car sped into the alley and screeched to a halt.
The rear door flew open.
A sharp-looking young woman stepped out first, her presence commanding even in the dim light. Behind her, three men in dark suits quickly followed.
Rosalie's blurred vision could barely make out their faces before her legs finally gave way.
The young woman rushed forward and caught her before she hit the ground.
"Rosalie!"
She cried, wrapping an arm around her trembling body.
"Stay with me. We're taking you to the hospital right now."
The voice was painfully familiar.
Yet the pain clouding Rosalie's thoughts left her unable to place who it belonged to.
The three man quickly helped lift her into the back seat of the car. The woman sat beside her as the driver sped toward the hospital.
Rosalie drifted in and out of consciousness, every jolt of the speeding car sending waves of unbearable pain through her body.
Warm blood continued to seep from the gunshot wound in her stomach.
The young woman immediately pressed a folded piece of cloth firmly against it, trying to stop the bleeding
"It's okay,"
She whispered, her voice trembling despite her effort to stay calm.
"Just hold on a little longer."
Rosalie wanted to ask who she was.
Why her voice felt so heartbreakingly familiar. But the darkness at the edges of her vision kept pulling her under.
By the time they reached the hospital, her body felt cold and unbearably heavy.
The young woman jumped out first and helped the emergency staff transfer Rosalie onto a stretcher.
She ran alongside the moving bed through the brightly lit emergency corridor, panic clear in every breath.
"Rosali, stay awake please..."
She kept saying over and over, gripping the side rail of the stretcher.
"Don't fall asleep. I'm here. I'm right here."
The surgical lights above her were indifferent, cold suns blinding her vision. Every breath felt like dragging broken glass through her lungs.
Thirty-four years, she thought bitterly. She was the 'Queen of Technology,' yet she couldn't even fix her own fate.
As the darkness swirled, his face, Julian's face flashed in her mind. The man she had pushed away to protect, the man who had died because of her mistake.
If I could just go back... I wouldn't hide. I would listen. I would love you properly.
The steady of the heart monitor was slowing down, a countdown to her inevitable end. This is the last sound she heard before she dead.
beep…...beep ….
A surge of warmth hit her, not the icy cold of death. Her eyes snapped open, expecting the white ceiling of the hospital, but she saw... faded yellow wallpaper? The scent of jasmine wafted through a half-open window, a smell she hadn't encountered in a decade.
She sat up, her limbs feeling suspiciously light. No chronic back pain, no exhaustion from years of overwork. Her hands, she stared at them, were small, unscarred, and smooth.
For one dizzy second, tears burned her eyes.
She threw the blanket aside and stumbled toward the wooden desk near the window. There, beside a stack of textbooks, sat the old calendar she remembered from her teenage years.
The date struck her harder than the surgery lights ever could.
Her eyes shifted to the weekly study timetable pinned above the desk, where Final Exam Break was scribbled in her own messy handwriting.
Then she grabbed her old school ID card.
Her mind calculated the number instantly.
Sixteen.
She was sixteen years old again. The summer after her final exam.
This was real.
A laugh escaped her lips, shaky and breathless, quickly chased by tears.
"I'm back," she whispered.
Her reflection in the mirror confirmed it: long black hair spilling over thin shoulders, wide uncertain eyes, the face of the girl she had once been.
A second chance.
A miracle or perhaps a cruel test.
But whatever it was, she would not waste it.
Not this time.
"Rosie! Lunch is ready! Don't spend all your summer break sleeping!"
That voice. Her heart stopped.
Her mother. Who had been gone for five years in her previous life? Tears pricked her eyes before she could even process the logic of it.
This wasn't a dream; it was a miracle.
She stumbled out of the room, her legs trembling.
Sunlight streamed through the tall glass windows of the family villa's dining room, glinting off polished marble floors.
By the time she walked downstairs, she had forced herself to breathe normally. When she saw her mother in the kitchen, vibrant and alive.
The house smelled of fried garlic, warm rice, and tomato soup. Such ordinary scents.
Yet the moment she stepped into the dining room; emotion hit her harder than death itself.
Her mother stood by the table, setting down a plate of stir-fired vegetables.
"Mom,"
Rosalie whispered. She lunged at her, burying her face in her apron, breathing in the scent of home she had mourned for nearly two decades.
"Whoa, what's this? Did you have a nightmare?" her mother laughed, patting her head.
I couldn't tell her that I had lived through a nightmare that lasted eighteen years. I just squeezed her tighter, memorizing the warmth I thought I'd lost forever.
Sitting across from her mother at the lunch table, Rosalie felt an overwhelming warmth spread through her chest.
To be able to share an ordinary meal like this, to see her mother alive, smiling, and fussing over her, felt more precious than anything wealth had ever bought in her previous life.
Every dish on the table was her favorite.
Rosalie moved closer, sitting beside her mother as she carefully placed more food onto her plate.
"Mom, eat more too,"
Rosalie said softly, adding some of the fresh vegetable salad her mother loved most.
"Honestly, just watching you enjoy your food already makes me feel full."
Her mother laughed warmly.
"Rosie, are you in such a good mood today? You're unusually cheerful."
Then her expression softened with concern.
"But you're still too thin. And don't forget your anemia. You need to eat properly."
After a pause, she added casually,
"Oh, and Dr. Julian Thorne will be coming by the next three days. He already picked up your latest test results. He said your condition is improving."
Her mother smiled knowingly.
Hearing that name again clean and untainted by the tragedies of her previous life, made Rosalie's heart ache with a bittersweet hope. Julian Thorne. Her protector, her silent lover, and the man she had inadvertently destroyed.
"He looked genuinely relieved after reading it. Ever since you fainted after your university entrance exams, he's been far more worried than even your father and I."
She lowered her voice teasingly.
"That boy may act calm and reserved, but I can see how he truly cares about you."
"Mom…"
Rosalie giggled.
This is the year it all began. The year before I made every wrong choice. If I had the chance, I'd run to see him right now, he is just the family doctor.
However, in three days' time, Julian will be coming to the house for a routine check-up. I can't wait for that day to arrive. Until then, I just have to keep doing what I can do.