"So, that’s what happened," Lola murmured, propping herself up on one arm against the bed.
After the doctors checked on him, they reassured her that his vitals were stable. As for the code blue, it was Atlas who had pushed the button when he woke up and didn’t see Lola. He wanted to see her as soon as possible, but he couldn’t shout.
Since they left the couple alone, Atlas had been explaining what happened to her. She had heard snippets of it from Allen, but with everything going on, she hadn’t focused on it.
"That guy ca, huh?" she whispered, shaking her head. "He really is weird."
She snapped her eyes at him. "That silver-eyed trash was the one who left the antidote. Oh—actually, it was the little girl."
"Little girl?"
"Mhm. They injected sothing into that paralyzed from the waist down," she huffed, almost as if complaining. "So I didn’t have a choice but to listen to the cardinal’s nonsense. Do you believe the guy lived four lifetis? Living two lives is already too much, but four?"
She let out a short laugh. "I couldn’t help but wonder what in the world the heavens were thinking, giving him four extra lives. Is he half-feline or what? If only I had gotten him good in that chapel, this wouldn’t have happened."
But then again, no one could bla her.
If anything, it was already impressive that she had almost ended the cardinal despite being paralyzed from the waist down. If it were anyone else, they wouldn’t have even co close.
"But good thing that girl left the antidote, and that silver-eyed trash pretended not to see it," she added with a deep exhale. "Otherwise, I don’t know what would’ve happened. After all, when we escaped, I saw people rushing to where I was taken."
Atlas listened, but his mind lingered on her earlier words. "Four lifetis?"
"Mhm." She nodded. "Right, I haven’t explained it to you yet, have I?"
She cleared her throat and shifted away slightly, creating space between them as she recounted all the nonsense the cardinal had spewed. Although Lola didn’t fully believe it, there was no harm in taking it with a grain of salt.
That level of madness had to be fueled by an equal level of insanity.
"Whether I believe him or not... he’s still outrageous," she muttered with a shallow sigh. "Or rather, if it’s true that he lived four lifetis, that just makes him ten tis worse. How could he play with people’s lives like that? No matter what, people are people—with stories of their own, pain, mories, goals... a life."
She pressed her lips into a thin line, frustration creeping in.
For soone who rembered her previous life, Lola hadn’t used that chance to ruin others. If anything, she had used it to live better than before. It was the sa for Penny and Finn. They had gone back as children, but they treated it as a gift—to correct their lives and live on their own terms without trifling with others.
Maybe that was why they survived.
Because at the end of the day, those who rembered their past and used it to hurt others never truly succeeded.
"It’s not just about , or you, or our family," she whispered, thinking of the people affected by this.
Just like those who suffered heavy losses because of Nathalie’s madness—Scarlet was one of them. She had lost her family because of Nathalie. Pika’s boss, who lost his daughter and chose to end his life, was another. They were only a few examples of the many victims of such selfishness.
"If it were true that the first life was the way he said it was, then..." she trailed off, her eyes lowering as she let out a deep breath. "He didn’t just kill people—he also robbed them of the lives and chances they should’ve had."
Although she didn’t dwell on the idea of having so-called supportive parents, Lola didn’t completely dismiss it either. Her reasoning was simple: she had seen Jasmine and Mike dote on lissa. They might have had their own motives, but at one point, Lola was certain they truly loved their daughter.
Lola smacked her lips and lifted her gaze to et his. "It’s crazy, don’t you think? And very cruel—or, to be precise, just pure... evil. Diabolical."
Silence settled between them as they stared at each other. She had told him everything, so he could follow the confusing tiline. Knowing him, she was certain he managed to keep up.
"But you died in all of them—in those three," he pointed out, and she nodded. "The first two, in the Order. And the last one—the one you rembered, the one right before this—was in the hospital."
She nodded. "I was paralyzed after an accident, rember? You took your own life. Penny was executed. Slater blew his head off. And then Hugo... right, Hugo managed to survive. Thanks to Henrik."
She had already told him what happened in that last tiline—what they both already knew. Though she focused on why the cardinal dragged Henrik into this ss. After all, in that previous tiline, Henrik had power, resources, and military strength. With Hugo by his side, he was practically unstoppable.
So the cardinal decided to exterminate the entire secret society. Because he realized that even if he took Atlas down, the other families would grow even greedier over the resources left behind by the Order.
"In the third one, he almost succeeded," Atlas remarked, and she nodded. "He managed to ruin our family before it could take off. He dragged down, but Penny was nosy, so he had to improvise. You and I never saw each other. Penny didn’t et Zoren. Because of that, the only connection we all had beca twisted."
"Correct."
Atlas blinked, staring at her. "If that’s the truth... then who killed you in the first two lifetis?"
"Huh?"
"He told you that you died in the first two tilines. That I lost my mind—that I ended up wiping out the secret society," he repeated, echoing the nightmares that had haunted him. "If the cardinal’s anger was fueled by my actions after your death... then who killed you?"
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