Reborn To The Day I Chose My Nemesis novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Breakfast With the Living

Diana finds her father alive, asks him to hold off signing Bryson's papers, and palms the capsules Marcy hands her. A courier arrives for the signature and Arthur uncaps his pen.

My father was standing at the stove in his cardigan, burning the eggs.

I stopped in the kitchen doorway, and for a moment I couldn't walk.

He was alive.

He was sixty-one and gray-haired and humming off-key.

One button was missing from his sleeve, exactly as it had been before I was ever a wife.

"There she is," Dad said, without turning around. "The future Mrs. Lasker. Sit down before these go cold."

I crossed the kitchen and put my arms around him from behind, and I held on.

He smelled of coffee and old wool.

"Diana?" He turned and looked at my face. "Sweetheart, you're crying."

"I'm fine. I had a bad dream."

"Wedding nerves." He patted my back with the spatula still in his hand.

"Your mother cried for a week before ours," he said. "Then she married me anyway."

I laughed, and it came out wet.

I sat at the table, and he put a plate of black eggs in front of me.

I ate every bite.

On the counter by the kettle sat the plastic pill organizer with the days of the week on the lids.

I knew every pill in it.

Two for his heart, one for his blood pressure, and a small white one.

Marcy had added that one in October, because a friend at a pharmacy said it would help.

In my first life he had taken them for three months, and then he was gone.

I picked up the organizer and put it in my purse.

"What are you doing?" Dad asked.

"I'm getting your prescriptions refilled myself today. I want to ask your cardiologist about them."

"Marcy does that for me."

"I know," I said. "Let me do it this once."

He raised an eyebrow, then shrugged.

He had never learned how to say no to me.

I put my fork down.

"Dad. Bryson is going to bring you some papers about the foundation's voting shares."

"The tidy-up. He mentioned it." He sipped his coffee. "Said it would simplify things for when you two are married."

"Don't sign them."

His smile went uncertain.

"Diana, Bryson's a good boy. He's been nothing but patient with this family."

"Please. Not before I've read them. Give me one week."

"A week for what?"

I couldn't say that I knew how this ended.

"Because it's my name on the foundation too," I said. "And I'm asking."

He studied me for a long time.

"All right," he said slowly. "One week. But you'll tell me why."

The front door opened.

Nobody knocked.

"It's only me!" Marcy called down the hall.

She came into the kitchen in a cream sweater, her blonde bob swinging.

She held a paper bag from the good bakery on Pine Street and a small amber bottle.

She had her own key.

I had given it to her the summer we turned twenty-two, when she lost hers.

I had never asked for it back.

"Diana, you look pale." She dropped the bag on the table and wrapped me in her arms.

She smelled of vanilla.

"You hardly slept, did you?" she said. "Tonight's the big night."

"I slept fine," I said.

Her arms were warm, and her hair was soft against my cheek.

For ten years she had been the person I called first about everything.

In my last year she had held the cup to my mouth.

I kept my arms at my sides for a second too long, and then I made them hold her back.

"I brought you something for your nerves." She pressed the amber bottle into my hand.

"Magnesium and B vitamins," she said. "Two now and two before dinner. They'll keep you calm."

I read the label.

It was blank, except for the letters W.P. in blue marker.

"Thank you, Marce," I said.

"Open up and I'll watch you take them," she said, laughing. "I know you."

She stood there smiling, with a glass of water already in her other hand.

I shook two capsules onto my palm.

I put them in my mouth and took the water.

I drank, and I tucked the capsules against my cheek with my tongue.

Marcy watched my throat move.

"Good girl," she said.

I thanked her again and went to the sink to rinse the glass.

I spat the capsules into my fist.

Then I slid them into the pocket of my robe.

Behind me, I heard Marcy's soft voice say, "Arthur, give me that organizer, I'll refill it while I'm here."

"Diana's got it," Dad said.

There was a pause.

"Oh," Marcy said. "Does she?"

Her voice stayed light.

I turned around in time to see her smile.

It was the same smile, and it only lasted a moment.

I had never once seen it aimed at me before.

The doorbell rang.

A courier stood on the porch in a gray jacket.

He held a thick envelope with a law office's return address printed on the corner.

"Mr. Pellam?" he said. "Mr. Lasker asked me to wait for your signature."

Dad looked at me.

Then he took the pen from his cardigan pocket and uncapped it.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend