Was Kathrine ever kidnapped?
The question refused to leave Anna’s mind.
She sat curled up on the edge of her bed, her phone lying forgotten beside her, the room dim except for the soft glow of the bedside lamp. Outside, the Bennett mansion was unusually quiet—but inside her head, everything was unbearably loud.
Ethan’s words echoed again and again, each repetition tightening sothing in her chest.
Why were you and Kathrine crying? If you tell what those things are, I’ll tell you where she is.
He hadn’t said much. In fact, he had been careful—too careful. But Anna wasn’t blind. She had seen it in his eyes. That seriousness didn’t co from simple concern. It ca from caution. From realization. From sothing not adding up.
Anna leaned back against the headboard and closed her eyes.
She had spent most of her life in the Bennett mansion. Long dinners, formal conversations, hushed argunts behind closed doors—she had seen it all. And yet, not once had she heard her parents speak of Kathrine being kidnapped.
Not once.
No police stories. No whispered scandals. No relatives lowering their voices when children entered the room.
Nothing. Which made the idea even more unsettling.
Was it before my mother married my dad? she wondered.
That was the only explanation that made sense.
If it had happened before the marriage—before the Bennett na carried weight—then perhaps it had been buried deliberately. Covered up. Forgotten on purpose.
But then another question clawed its way forward, far more disturbing than the first.
If Kathrine was ever kidnapped... how co she doesn’t know about it?
Anna opened her eyes, staring blankly at the ceiling. If it was in this life then maybe she wouldn’t, but how co she never ca across it in her past life.
Children forgot things, yes. Trauma could blur mories. But sothing like a kidnapping? Sothing that had allegedly shaped so many events afterward?
No.
That wasn’t sothing that simply disappeared. Unless it had been taken away.
The thought sent a chill down her spine.
Kathrine wasn’t careless with mories atleast not in this life. If anything, she was painfully aware—overly responsible, overly guilty, as if she had been carrying a burden she couldn’t na since childhood.
Anna had always chalked it up to personality differences. Now she wasn’t so sure.
She hugged her knees to her chest recalling their talks and how in snync Kathrine sounded that ti as if she was guilty of everything she did and how she would always ask for her forgivness.
What if Kathrine’s entire understanding of her own past was built on sothing false?
The idea made Anna’s stomach twist.
"And what if Kathrine is reborn too"
The realization settled in her stomach like a heavy stone, dragging her down as if she were sinking into the depths of a dark ocean.
Nothing felt right anymore.
Not after what Daniel had told her that night—his careful words, his guarded eyes, as if he knew more than he was willing to admit. Not after what Kathrine had muttered in her drunken state, her voice broken and confused, saying things that hadn’t made sense then but refused to be forgotten now.
Anna pressed a hand against her abdon, her breathing shallow.
If her intuition was right—and it rarely failed her—then the unease gnawing at her wasn’t paranoia.
It was recognition.
Pieces that didn’t belong together were suddenly aligning too well.
mories that shouldn’t exist. Gaps that felt deliberate. Fear that didn’t originate from the present but from sowhere far older, far deeper.
Her thoughts spiraled back to herself.
To waking up in this life with knowledge she shouldn’t have had. To the second chance she had been given—one she had sworn to use differently this ti.
Her fingers trembled.
"...Does that an," she whispered into the quiet room, her voice barely audible, "I’m not the only one who got a second chance at life?"
The question hung heavy in the air.
If the answer was yes—if Kathrine, too, had been pulled back from the brink, mories altered, truths buried—then this wasn’t coincidence.
It was design the sa way as her.
"Does that an they too died like ?"
***
Daniel wrapped up his work and returned ho, loosening his tie as fatigue settled into his bones. But the mont his eyes landed on Mariam pacing back and forth like a restless cat, his steps halted.
His brows furrowed.
"Mariam," he called calmly, though unease crept into his chest. "What’s wrong? Why are you pacing like that?"
Mariam froze the instant she realized he was ho. Her face went pale before she sprinted toward him.
"Master—madam, she—"
The mont Anna’s na slipped past her lips, Daniel’s expression changed instantly. The exhaustion vanished, replaced by sharp alertness.
"What happened to Anna?" he demanded, worry lacing his voice despite his attempt to sound composed.
Mariam swallowed hard.
What she said next made him go completely still.
"Ha... ha... you can do this, Anna," Anna panted, hands braced on her knees as sweat trickled down her temples. "Just... don’t faint. Dying in a gym would be way too embarrassing."
She straightened, glaring at the treadmill as if it had personally offended her.
"This thing is not winning," she muttered fiercely. "Absolutely not."
It was her first ti in the gym, and the mont her eyes had fallen on the intimidating rows of equipnt, sothing inside her had snapped. She hadn’t stopped since.
One more setting up.One more lap.One more machine.
Her legs burned. Her lungs scread. Her arms trembled as she grabbed the dumbbells again.
"Last set," she promised herself for the fifth ti. "Okay... last last set."
She lifted.
"Think of it as running from danger," she whispered dramatically. "If you don’t run faster, you die. Very motivating."
She nearly laughed at her own pep talk, then groaned as her muscles protested.
"Why does everyone make this look so easy? Do they sell replacent lungs sowhere?"
Still, she didn’t stop.
She wiped her face with a towel, squared her shoulders, and stepped back onto the treadmill like she was heading into battle.
"I refuse to lose to a machine," she declared. "You hear that? I refuse—"
A deep, amused voice suddenly cut in behind her.
"Should I call an ambulance now," Daniel drawled lazily, eyes sweeping over her flushed face and sweat-soaked hair, "or wait until you officially collapse?"
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