Aunt Cecilia.
My blood turned to ice. My breath hitched as I stared at the na, my fingers trembling as I fumbled to answer the call. She couldn’t be calling . She was... dead. She had died because of .
"I...I thought you were dead," I whispered, barely able to get the words out.
A chorus of shushing erupted around as people in the library turned to glare. I didn’t care. The phone nearly slipped from my grip as tears welled up in my eyes. My aunt’s voice on the other end, strong and clear, made everything inside collapse.
"What? Dead? Where?" Aunt Cecilia asked, her tone full of confusion. She sounded alive. She wasn’t dead. But she should have been.
I beca a sobbing ss, as the mory crashing down on . I didn’t care who was watching, who was whispering for to quiet down. I was drowning in the guilt of it all.
The last ti I’d spoken to my aunt, in my past life, I had ruined everything. It was because of Gabriel. That damn man who twisted everything in my world, and I had let him. I had been so blindly loyal to him, so stupid, that I didn’t see what he was doing. He made cut ties with my family. He made choose him over them.
I closed my eyes, and the mory ca rushing back, clearer than it had been in years.
It was two weeks before Aunt Cecilia died. I was at ho, pregnant, sick from the chemo, weak, and Gabriel was telling that my family didn’t care. He said they didn’t want , that they hated and no one would co to my funeral.
He kept pushing and pushing until I finally believed him. Aunt Cecilia had called , begging to see , to co visit, but I refused. I didn’t even answer the phone that last ti. I shut her out. I shut them all out.
And then Gabriel... He said sothing cruel. He said my aunt was just trying to get sothing from , that she didn’t really care.
That was the last thing I rembered before the news ca. My aunt was in a car accident on her way to see . She had been trying to reach for days, and I had ignored her. I hadn’t even gone to the funeral. Gabriel said it was best not to dwell on the past, and I was too broken to fight him.
I couldn’t breathe. The pain of that mory felt like it was happening all over again, fresh and raw.
"Kiara?" Aunt Cecilia’s voice snapped back to the present. "Are you alright? Dead? Where did you hear that?"
I gasped, trying to pull myself together, but it was like my body was stuck in that awful mont. "I—Aunt Cecilia, I... I thought—"
"Thought what?" she asked, her voice firm, but there was a slight frown I could hear in her tone. "I’ve been trying to reach you. What’s this about being dead? Kiara, you’re not making any sense."
I blinked, and reality slowly clicked back into place. She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t dead yet. I was living in a different ti now. None of that had happened in this life—yet.
I took a deep breath, my sobs quieting, but the tears still streaming down my face. I rembered now. This was around the ti in my past life when Aunt Cecilia had died. It was around now that I had pushed her away. The guilt crushed , and I had to remind myself this was a second chance. That awful future hadn’t happened.
Not yet.
"I’m so sorry, Aunt Cecilia," I whispered, my voice thick with emotion. "I didn’t an to say that."
"Kiara..." her voice softened now, concern replacing the confusion. "What’s going on with you? I called because I heard you’ve been making headlines. Sothing about returning to the Williams family? I wanted to see you before everything gets ssy. Or better still before you father find out I am reaching out to you and cut off my signals agaim."
I froze. The Williams family... I had released the news, the fake story to get Gabriel and Jessica off my back. And here it was, coming back full circle. My aunt must’ve heard it. My heart raced as the gravity of what I had done hit .
This was the sa ti in my past life that everything had started to unravel. My aunt had tried to reach out to , and I had ignored her. But now, I had a chance to fix it. To make things right. This ti, I wouldn’t let Gabriel or anyone else get between and the people who truly cared.
"I missed you, Aunt Cecilia," I whispered, guilt gnawing at my chest. "I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything."
"Kiara..." she began, and I could almost picture her frowning on the other end. "Why didn’t you call earlier? I’ve been trying to reach you for months. You’ve kept yourself locked away, and it’s like we’re strangers now. I thought you didn’t want anything to do with the family anymore."
My heart twisted. "I didn’t... I an, I didn’t know how to reach out. Everything’s been so complicated. I thought... I thought you wouldn’t want to hear from ."
"You clearly said you didn’t want any of us near you," she said, . "Do you know how hard it’s been for ? After your mother passed, I thought you and I would be closer. I thought we’d have each other, but you pushed everyone away."
I bit my lip, fresh tears welling up in my eyes. My mother. Her ashes. Everything they kept from .
"I’m sorry," I repeated, my voice small and broken. "I didn’t an to push you away. I didn’t know what to do."
There was silence on the other end for a mont, then she sighed. "It’s okay, Kiara. We’ll figure it out. I’ll be in Bristol in a few days. Let’s et up. We’ll talk. But don’t shut out again, alright?"
"I won’t," I promised, my voice barely a whisper. "I won’t."
After we hung up, I sat there in the quiet corner of the library, staring blankly at my phone. My hands were shaking. I had been given another chance. Another chance to rectify my mistake.
I clenched my fists.
Gabriel. Jessica. Both of you would pay in the most terrible way possible.
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