Reborn To The Day I Chose My Nemesis novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Door He Never Got Through

"Ask me what it cost," I said slowly. "All right. What did it cost?"

Elias looked at the window and the river behind it.

"Seven men," he said. "Seven men who had done nothing to you yet."

"What does that mean?"

"I know which men helped them, in the first life."

He said it quietly.

"One signed the papers that moved your father's shares. One sold Marcy her capsules. One drove the car that took your chair to the gala."

"And you ruined them."

"I found what each man was hiding, and I used it." He met my eyes. "Every one of them lost his work or his name or his house. Last winter and this spring, before you ever woke."

"Before they'd done any of it."

"They would have."

"You don't know that."

"I watched them do it."

"In a year that doesn't exist anymore!" My voice rose and I let it. "I changed it, Elias. I said no to Bryson. My father's alive. You can't tell me what those men would have done."

His jaw tightened.

"I couldn't take the chance."

"You took it from them."

He didn't answer.

I stood up, and my knees shook, and I hated that they did.

"That isn't the cost I meant to ask about," I said. "What did it cost you?"

For a while he said nothing.

When he did, his voice was lower than I had heard it.

"I came to your door twice, in 2023."

I froze.

"The first time was March, a month after your father's funeral. I stood on your porch with a lawyer's card in my pocket and a story about the foundation's lease." He almost smiled. "I didn't have a reason. I only wanted to see your face."

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