Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Ethan Sterling and I were a resentful married couple. We traded vicious insults, came to blows, and eventually shouted at each other, “Whoever refuses to get divorced is a dog!”
On the road to the courthouse, we cursed each other with every cruel word we could think of.
But when an oil tanker truck came barreling toward us, Ethan wrenched the steering wheel and took the impact on his side.
He gave me an extra 0.01 seconds to live.
When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the summer after my sophomore year of high school.
Ethan was holding a bouquet of flowers, asking me if I wanted to give us a try.
Then, in the next instant, his weary face lifted, dark with dismay.
The moment our eyes met, I knew.
He had come back too.
I found a stack of portraits and sketches of Lillian in Ethan’s safe.
My heart shattered. And I knew he was dead.
Without a word, I charged at him, slapped him twice across the face, and clawed at his cheek.
At first, he only dodged.
Then he lost his temper and shoved me away.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Are you sick?”
I snatched up the drawings and hurled them into his face.
“I’m sick? You’re the one who’s sick! Secretly drawing your wife’s sister? How disgusting can you get?”
As he stared at the sketches scattered across the floor, Ethan’s eyes reddened.
“Claire Bennett, I’ve never met anyone as despicable and vicious as you.”
“You’re just jealous of Lillian. You never mean her any good. But you’ll never measure up to her. You don’t even come close.”
“Why wasn’t it you who died back then?”
I had heard those words too many times.
But every time, they still drove me out of my mind.
I grabbed a wooden stool and charged at him.
“Go to hell!”
That day, we fought all the way to the local police station.
One of the officers asked me gently whether I’d been the victim of domestic abuse.
I gave a cold laugh.
“Who do you think you’re looking down on?”
“This was mutual assault. Mutual. Do you understand?”
My hair was disheveled, and bruises covered my face.
But Ethan was bleeding from a split scalp.
I had won that round completely.
The moment we left the station, we pointed at each other’s faces.
“This marriage has to end.”
“Whoever refuses to get divorced is a dog!”
Who could have guessed we’d die on the way to get divorced?
A second before the oil tanker hit us, I was still calling Ethan Sterling a sick pervert who lurked in dark corners, spying on women and indulging in filthy fantasies.
His face turned thunderous. He spoke through clenched teeth.
“Lillian is the one I love. It’s always been Lillian.”
“If you didn’t look exactly like her, do you honestly think I ever would’ve been with you?”
“Take a good look in the mirror, Claire Bennett. What part of you could ever compare to Lillian?”
Nothing infuriated me more than being compared to Lillian.
Even after she died, I still had to live in her shadow.
Why the hell should I?
Chapter 2
My hand was already reaching for Ethan’s hair.
Fine. Let’s die together!
The next instant, tires shrieked against the road. An oil tanker hurtled toward us, completely out of control.
My mind went blank.
Ethan’s face drained of color. He wrenched the steering wheel around, turning his side of the car toward the oncoming truck.
I stared at him in a daze.
At the man I’d been entangled with for ten years.
We had never known how to get along.
For ten years, the arguments and fights had never stopped.
Why didn’t you separate?
People had asked him. They had asked me, too.
I’d said nothing.
He’d lowered his head and smoked in silence.
Neither of us could give them an answer.
It was just like that day years ago when he’d stood before me looking miserable, a wilted bouquet in his arms, and asked if I wanted to give us a try.
How strange.
Only a few days earlier, he’d rejected my confession. He’d said he didn’t want a relationship and needed to focus on school.
What had changed his mind so quickly?
It wasn’t until much later that I learned the truth.
He had gone to confess his feelings to Lillian, but she had gently turned him down.
Then, heartbroken and humiliated, he’d seen me.
He’d seen the face identical to hers.
And without thinking, he had walked toward me.
He’d made me her substitute.
Whenever he looked at me, he was remembering Lillian.
Ten years.
The bastard deserved to die.
He should’ve died!
Who asked him to trade his life for mine?
All it bought me was another 0.01 seconds.
Just my luck.
Whatever. Death canceled every debt.
All the love and hatred between us could finally disappear like smoke.
I only hoped that when I opened my eyes in my next life—
Fuck!
The moment I opened them, I saw seventeen-year-old Ethan Sterling.
How did I know he was seventeen?
Because he was standing in front of me with that same dead-eyed expression, holding a wilted bouquet of blue delphiniums.
I didn’t like delphiniums.
I liked roses. Red roses. Passionate, romantic, and impossible to ignore.
Ethan had sneered at my taste, calling me hopelessly tacky.
Then he’d asked if I even knew what delphiniums symbolized.
“Don’t they look like tiny swallows dancing through the air? They represent freedom. A life without restraints. Don’t you think that’s beautiful?”
No, I didn’t.
All I knew was that roses meant love.
Lovers were supposed to give each other roses.
Yet not once before that oil tanker killed me had I received a single bouquet.
So I had been reborn at this exact moment.
Wonderful.
My luck had somehow gotten even worse.
But the worst part was when Ethan raised his head.
Our eyes met.
In that instant, we each recognized the look in the other’s eyes.
Ha.
I didn’t even need to think about it.
He had come back, too.
That summer was brutally hot.
Our final year of high school was just around the corner. Some students spent their days rushing from one tutoring center to another, while others had private tutors come to their homes.
Chapter 3
Then there was me. I drifted through every day without a care, leaving before dawn and only dragging myself home when it was almost time for dinner.
Today was no different.
I kicked pebbles along the sidewalk, radiating enough resentment that anyone within twenty feet could probably feel it.
The moment I saw Ethan Sterling, though, my nerves took over.
I liked him.
He was the first boy I had ever fallen for, the sweet, aching crush of first love.
But he had rejected my confession.
With a distant smile, he had told me that he only wanted to focus on school and wasn’t interested in dating.
Humiliated, angry, and heartbroken, I’d run away fighting back tears, swearing that I would never like him again.
Yet when he slowly walked toward me, my heart still pounded wildly, and I couldn’t make myself move.
“Want to give us a try?” he asked.
I nodded over and over without even thinking.
That shameless, spineless, hopelessly lovesick response would remain one of the greatest humiliations of my life.
This time, I gave him a cold laugh and silently raised my middle finger.
Ethan ran his tongue over the inside of his cheek, shoved the flowers into a trash can, and walked away.
Ten minutes later, we met again outside my front door.
Margaret Bennett stood blocking the entrance, her face tight with suspicion as she stared at Ethan.
“Who did you say you’re here to see?”
For once, Ethan looked completely at a loss. He was even stiff and unusually cautious.
“Mrs. Bennett, I’m here to see Lillian. Could you let me talk to her? There’s something I need to say.”
“What do you want with Lillian? Who are you?”
Margaret’s hostility was almost tangible. Her eyes widened, her expression turning vicious.
Ethan seemed taken aback. He opened his mouth, fumbling for an answer.
I clicked my tongue impatiently.
“Didn’t I already tell you I don’t like you? Why did you follow me home?”
“You think Lillian will help you if you go to her?”
“Don’t you know she’s the person I hate most?”
“Come with me!”
Under Margaret’s suspicious stare, I grabbed Ethan and dragged him downstairs.
Ethan Sterling’s face darkened as he wrenched himself free of my grip.
“I know you came back too.”
“I don’t want to keep dragging our old grievances around. If you think I wronged you, then I’m sorry.”
“But Claire, you should understand. Being given a second chance at this point in our lives is a gift from fate.”
“I will protect Lillian no matter what. No one is going to take her away from me—not even she can stop me.”
“I’m not asking you to help me. But don’t get in my way, or I won’t let you off.”
I listened without expression as Ethan spoke with all the devotion and warning he could muster.
When he finally finished, I let out a cold laugh beneath his furious stare.
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Idiot.”
Everyone loved Lillian.
She was brilliant, kind, and everything a person could hope to be.