Thud.
Ethan shut the car door and walked around to the other side, sliding into the driver’s seat. He had barely buckled his seatbelt when a sharp, indignant gasp filled the quiet interior.
"Excuse ?" Kathrine demanded, staring at him like he was a complete stranger who had just committed a serious cri. "Who are you, and where are you taking ?"
Ethan froze. Slowly, he turned to look at her.
She was squinting at him, head tilted, brows furrowed in deep concentration. The kind of concentration that usually preceded very bad conclusions.
"You... don’t recognize ?" he asked carefully.
Kathrine narrowed her eyes even more, as if that might help her mory load faster. "Should I?"
Ethan closed his eyes for a brief second and inhaled. Deeply. This was worse than he thought.
"I’m your boyfriend," he said finally, keeping his tone even. "And I’m taking you ho."
Kathrine blinked. Once. Twice.
"...Since when?" she asked.
Ethan turned fully toward her now, giving her a look that clearly said are you serious right now. The look bounced right off her.
She just blinked back at him.
When he didn’t answer imdiately, Kathrine’s eyes widened in alarm. She clutched her chest dramatically. "Oh my God."
Ethan stiffened. "What now?"
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Are you trying to kidnap ?"
"What—no."
"You didn’t deny it fast enough," she accused, inching closer to the door.
Ethan rubbed his face with one hand. "Kathrine, stop. I am not kidnapping you"
"That’s exactly what a kidnapper would say," she shot back.
He stared at her in disbelief. Of all the versions of Kathrine he had known, this one was... uncharted territory.
"You know my na," she added suspiciously. "That’s very concerning."
"You know my na too," Ethan replied flatly.
She squinted at him again. "Do I?"
"Yes."
"Hmm." She leaned back, thinking hard. "You do look familiar. Like soone who judges people silently."
"That would be ," he said dryly.
She pointed at him. "See! That’s manipulation."
Ethan let out a breath that was halfway to a laugh, halfway to surrender. "Kathrine, you yelled at ten minutes ago for letting you drink too much."
Her eyes widened. "I would never do that."
"You did."
"...Wow," she muttered. "Drunk sounds responsible."
Ethan shook his head, a faint smile tugging at his lips despite himself. "Anna rembered . You didn’t."
Kathrine frowned. "That’s rude of my brain."
She looked at him again, softer this ti. "So... you’re really my boyfriend?"
"Yes."
She studied his face like she was trying to solve a puzzle. "Are you a good one?"
Ethan didn’t hesitate. "I try."
She nodded solemnly. "Okay. Then I’ll allow this."
"Allow what?"
"The not-kidnapping," she said firmly. "But if you take a wrong turn, I will scream."
Ethan chuckled despite himself and started the car. "Fair deal."
As they pulled out, he glanced at her once more, shaking his head in quiet disbelief.
Drunk Kathrine wasn’t just different. She was dangerous and at tis cute too.
***
anwhile, inside another car, Daniel rested against the leather seat, one arm securely around Anna as she sat on his lap, her body limp with exhaustion. His fingers moved in slow, soothing circles along her back, grounding, familiar.
"Feeling better?" he asked softly for the third ti.
Anna responded with a low hum, her cheek pressed against his chest.
It wasn’t exactly an answer, but he took it anyway.
Ever since they left the bar, waves of nausea had been rolling through her. Each ti she stiffened, convinced she was about to throw up, only for the feeling to retreat again, leaving her dizzy and miserable. This ti was no different. She swallowed hard, breathing through it.
Daniel sighed quietly and lifted his gaze to the front, giving the driver a subtle nod. "You can drive."
The car eased forward.
"Why is everything spinning?" Anna mumbled, pushing herself upright to look at him. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes glassy, hair slightly disheveled. She looked like she had fought a war with alcohol and lost spectacularly.
Daniel brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "Because you drank like you were personally offended by sobriety."
She frowned at him. "Rude."
"Accurate," he replied calmly.
Anna groaned and dropped her forehead against his shoulder. "I don’t feel good."
"I know," he murmured, tightening his hold just slightly. "I’ve got you."
The car was quiet except for the soft hum of the engine. Daniel’s thoughts drifted back to earlier that evening. He had returned shortly after eting Norma, his instincts already on edge. He hadn’t liked leaving Anna behind, even with his driver watching the sisters from a distance.
When the driver inford him that Kathrine had joined Anna in drinking, Daniel hadn’t wasted a second. He had called Ethan imdiately.
One drunk woman was manageable.
Two were a potential disaster.
Anna shifted again, restless. "Daniel?"
"Yes."
"Promise I didn’t say anything stupid."
Daniel paused.
"...Define stupid."
She lifted her head just enough to glare at him weakly. "That pause was suspicious."
He smiled faintly. "You were honest. Loudly. Dramatically."
"Oh no," she whispered. "Did I cry?"
"A little."
"Did I confess sothing?"
"You always do."
She groaned and buried her face in his chest again. "I hate alcohol."
Daniel chuckled under his breath, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "You say that every ti."
She yawned, her body finally relaxing as exhaustion took over. "Don’t let drink again."
He didn’t answer imdiately, just continued rubbing her back, steady and patient.
"We’ll discuss that tomorrow," he said finally.
Anna smiled sleepily, already half gone. "You’re the worst."
"And yet," Daniel replied softly, holding her closer as the car carried them ho, "you’re still here."
"Because I want to be with you."
The way Anna looked up at him then, eyes soft and pleading like a child seeking reassurance, made sothing in Daniel’s chest ease. He didn’t question her. He didn’t need to. He leaned down and kissed her lips gently, sealing her words with his own quiet promise.
"Sleep," he murmured against her mouth.
Like an obedient child, she sighed and settled back, resting her face against his chest. Within monts, her breathing evened out, the tension in her body slowly lting away as exhaustion claid her.
Anna would rember none of it in the morning.
She would wake up with a headache, fragnts of laughter, maybe a vague sense of embarrassnt, but not the words she had spoken to Kathrine. Not the confessions, the envy, the past-life regrets that had spilled so freely between two drunken sisters.
But Daniel rembered.
As the car moved smoothly through the quiet streets, his hand remained steady on her back, yet his mind was anything but calm. From the other end of the bar earlier that night, while he appeared relaxed, drink in hand, his eyes had never once strayed.
Watching had always been his habit.
Apart from Henry, no one knew Daniel could lip-read. It was a skill he had learned out of necessity, sharpened through years of observing rather than trusting. And tonight, it had betrayed him.
Every word Anna and Kathrine exchanged had been clear to him. Painfully clear.
Things he had never known. Feelings that had existed long before he realized how deeply tangled their lives truly were. The idea that Anna had once believed his love for her was second to soone else. The guilt Kathrine carried. The past-life words that made no sense yet refused to leave his thoughts.
They had spoken of love, of loss, of choices that echoed beyond this life.
And he had heard it all.
Daniel’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly as he stared out the window, the city lights blurring past. Whatever Anna and Kathrine had touched tonight wasn’t just drunken nonsense. It was sothing buried, sothing unfinished.
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