Chapter 1

The heavy, humid air of a Southern summer morning pressed down on me, the same oppressive weight I remembered from my first life. I woke up with a gasp, my heart pounding against my ribs. It was the day. The day the two proposals arrived.

Outside my window, a mockingbird sang its stolen tune, oblivious to the storm brewing inside our small, worn-down house. My mother, Maria, was already in the kitchen, her voice a sharp, insistent hum.

"Jocelyn! Sabrina! Get out here, now! The Lesters' car is coming up the drive!"

My younger sister, Sabrina, burst into my room without knocking. Her face, usually a picture of calculated charm, was flushed with a frantic, almost manic excitement.

"Jocelyn, you have to listen to me," she said, grabbing my arm. Her grip was surprisingly strong. "You're going to marry Andrew Lester. I'm marrying Brian Hughes."

I stared at her, my mind reeling. This wasn't right. This wasn't how it happened.

In my first life, Sabrina had laughed at the idea of marrying a man in a coma. She and Mom had schemed, pushed, and manipulated until she got the "golden ticket"-a life of ease with the Lester oil fortune, even if the heir was a vegetable. I was left with Brian, the handsome mechanic whose charm hid a monster.

His fists, the broken bones, the fire... the memories were a physical weight, a phantom pain in my legs. I remembered the smell of gasoline and Sabrina' s triumphant smile as the flames licked at the walls. She had killed me because she thought my life of abuse was somehow happier than her gilded cage.

And now, she was here, reborn like me, but her memories were clearly warped. She must only remember the public face of my first marriage-Brian doting on me in town, buying me cheap flowers, the perfect image of a hardworking man in love. She hadn't seen the bruises he covered with long sleeves or the terror in my eyes.

"Sabrina, what are you talking about?" I asked, feigning confusion. "The Lesters are here for you. You're the pretty one, the one Mom always wanted them to see."

"No!" she snapped, her eyes wide and feverish. "I saw it, Jocelyn! I saw how happy you were with Brian! He adored you! He brought you things, he held your hand in public! That's real love, not being a nursemaid to a corpse!"

I had to hide the wave of relief that washed over me. It was so immense it almost made me dizzy. My tormentor, the man who broke me body and soul, was a prize she desperately wanted.

My mother burst in then, her face a mask of confusion. "Sabrina, what is this nonsense? The Lesters are offering a fortune!"

"I don't care about the money, Momma!" Sabrina wailed, turning on the tears. "I want love! I want Brian! Jocelyn can have the rich vegetable, she's quiet, she'll be a good nurse. It's perfect!"

Mom looked from her favored, crying daughter to me, her plain, silent one. Her decision was made before she even spoke. She saw a simple solution that gave her favorite what she wanted.

"Well, Jocelyn," she said, her tone dismissive. "It seems your sister has made her choice. You'll marry Andrew Lester."

I looked at Sabrina's ecstatic face and my mother's impatient one. They thought they were pushing me into a life of quiet misery, a living widowhood.

They had no idea they were saving my life.

"Okay, Momma," I said, my voice deliberately flat. "If that's what Sabrina wants."