Rebirth: Love me Again

Chapter 152 The Reason Why

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[LINA]

I never thought of myself as extreme like the rest of my family.

My mother was quiet, reserved even, but her silences could be crushing. She had a way of enforcing her will with a look or a few carefully chosen words that left no room for argument.

My father, on the other hand, was louder about his authority, his expectations weighing down on everyone like a heavy chain. He loved us, I knew that much, but his love felt like a prison at times.

Then there was Cole, my twin. I don't even know where to begin with him. If our parents were storms, he was the hurricane they created.

He carried our father's iron will and mother's sharp cunning, all wrapped in a temper that flared like lightning when provoked. He could be naive in some ways, reckless in others, but that was Cole.

And me? I'd always thought of myself as the normal one. The calm in the chaos. Maybe that's why I loved them all so dearly, even when they tested every ounce of patience I had.

But love isn't always enough, and now, my family was crumbling, the pieces too shattered to put back together.

It started with Cole's death.

I'd thought Dylan, my personal bodyguard, was my heartbreak—the unyielding wall I could never break through, no matter how deeply I cared for him.

But losing Cole . . . That was devastation. That was the beginning of the end.

The blade glinted under the harsh fluorescent light as she pressed harder, drawing a thin line of crimson. Chaos erupted around me, but all I could do was heaved as the world went dark.

The months and years that followed were a blur of grief. My mother, frail and fragile from an accident years ago that had left her unable to bear more children, gave up entirely.

Cole and I had been her world, her reason for living, and with one of us gone, she refused to go on. She died in her sleep, her frail hand clutching a photograph of us.

My father followed soon after, succumbing to the weight of his loss. I wasn't surprised. He'd loved her too much to endure a life without her.

And just like that, I was alone. Your next journey awaits at empire

I wanted to hate Eve, and for a time, I did. But how could I? I'd been there through the years she chased after Cole, through all the times he pushed her away, humiliated her, rejected her.

I couldn't blame her one bit.

None of that mattered now.

One night, as I stared up at the stars, I made a wish. I wished with all my heart to change it, to rewrite the moment when everything fell apart. I would give anything—everything—for just one more chance to save them.

And then the world tilted. My heart raced, my vision blurred, and I collapsed to the ground, the poison coursing through my veins taking hold. My body was failing, and I welcomed the darkness.

But then I heard it.

Footsteps. Urgent, panicked. A voice—familiar, desperate—calling my name.

"Lina! Lina!"

It couldn't be real. He wouldn't come for me, not after all the times he'd rejected me.

But the warmth of his arms around me, the way his voice cracked as he held me close—it felt too real to be a dream.

And then I woke up.