Remarriage Failed Again Today

That’s right. When I overheard Chase talking to my dream self, I realized that locking Annabelle Linton in the basement was meant to be an indirect way of protecting her.

We arrived in the basement.

Vivian Yates was saying something—words to the effect that her child had been innocent, and that her conscience wouldn’t be able to bear it if they let Annabelle Linton out. She said that now that her child was gone, she didn’t want to live anymore, and if he blamed her, he could just kill her too.

My face suddenly turned pale at the sight of the basement.

Because I’d once had a dream that, in this very place, I had thrown Annabelle Linton against a wall because of Vivian Yates, and she’d died from the impact.

She had been carrying our child...

I rushed forward to intervene, but no one could hear my voice.

My dream self shoved Annabelle Linton into a corner, cursing her for being so vicious, for killing Vivian Yates’s child and still refusing to leave Vivian in peace.

Annabelle Linton tried to explain hysterically, but my dream self put on an indifferent expression, though his eyes betrayed a heavy heartache.

When Annabelle Linton rushed forward a second time, my dream self moved to shove her away again.

But in that split second, I saw Vivian Yates kick several black marbles toward Annabelle Linton’s feet!

THUD!

Annabelle Linton stepped right on them, her foot slipped, and she slammed hard into the wall.

I could almost hear the sound of her skull cracking. A terrifying, bloody hole had opened up on Annabelle Linton’s forehead.

Then, a pool of blood began to spread out from beneath her!

My dream self and I rushed over together. With her last breath, Annabelle Linton managed to say just one thing: "I hate you all..."

She died just like that, her eyes not even closing...

My dream self frantically carried her to the hospital. After the emergency resuscitation efforts... it was no use.

I still clearly remember the exact time the doctor pronounced her dead: 2:27:45...

Annabelle Linton was dead. At the forty-five-second mark, her life came to an end.

She had left this world. Left me. Left me forever...

I watched my dream self, crying, begging the doctors to save her, but they all remained silent.

Then he slumped over her hospital bed, gripping her hand, begging her to wake up, to open her eyes and look at him, just for a moment.

But I knew Annabelle Linton would never wake up again. She was well and truly dead...

’This person is dead. She no longer exists in the world of the living. Your life has nothing to do with her anymore.’

In that moment, a lot of things started to click into place.

I thought about Annabelle Linton’s sudden transformation...

And an incredible thought occurred to me...

’I think Annabelle Linton died and was reborn.’

’Yes, just like in a novel. She died and came back to life... just sent back to a certain point in the past.’

My guess was that we had been married for over three years—I didn’t know for exactly how long—and that Annabelle Linton had gone back in time two years.

Because her transformation had begun six months ago, which would have been two years into our marriage.

’So was she really reborn?’

I didn’t know. I supposed only Annabelle Linton herself knew the truth.

But I didn’t want to know, either. All that mattered was that she was alive.

Nothing was more important than being alive.

’So, in the end, I was the one who accidentally killed Annabelle Linton and our child, wasn’t I...?’

Back in the dream.

Annabelle Linton was taken to the morgue—the place in the hospital where they kept the dead.

My dream self was draped over Annabelle Linton’s body, sobbing his heart out, until he fainted.

After that, he would wake up only to cry again, cry until he fainted again, then wake up and cry some more...