Sour wine. The hum of a minibar.Alexander Sinclair opened his eyes in a hotel suite at the Ashbury Grand, white sheets twisted, a wine glass on its side on the carpet.His head was heavy. His arms would not lift. There was something bitter at the back of his tongue, sharper than the wine.He knew that taste.He knew this room.He turned his head on the pillow. Beside him, asleep on top of the covers in a borrowed cream dress, lay Sophia.Victoria's cousin. His wife's cousin.Light brown hair tied back, a soft tired face, and a small silver hair clip she never took off.They were both naked.But he knew nothing had happened.Two people had been put here.He was twenty-five again, and this was the morning he lost everything.Out in the corridor, footsteps. Many of them.The door swung open.Victoria stood in the doorway, black hair sleek to the shoulders, red lips, and eyes that measured the price of everything.She did not look surprised. She pretended to look surprised.Behind her ca

"What are you doing with your phone?"Victoria stood in the doorway, one hand still on the handle.Alexander slid the phone into his pocket."Calling a cab," he said."I told you. The car is waiting.""Your car," Alexander said. "I'm not riding with you."Behind Victoria, Chloe snorted.Victoria held out her hand. "Give me your phone.""What?" Alexander said."You cheated, so everything of yours is mine now. Including your phone. Give it to me.""We're not legally divorced yet. This thing is still mine.""Shut up. I've already divorced you."Alexander knew this moment too. It had happened in his first life, word for word. He took out the phone and put it in her hand.Victoria dropped it into her handbag without looking at it."Fine," she said. "Take your cab. Our car will follow right behind you. If you dare to run away, I'll sign it without you and let the lawyers drag you there."She turned and walked away. Her heels clicked down the corridor.Sophia let out a breath she had been ho

"What happened?" Victoria said. "Who did this?"She looked at her brother. Derek sat on the step with his head tipped back, blood on his shirt, one eye already swelling shut."Who else?" Margaret cried. "That bastard Alexander! Derek saw the ring on Sophia's hand and only wanted to give it back to her. That was all! And Alexander turned around and said Derek was stealing it. Then he beat him! My poor boy only did what was right!"She cried harder, as if she were the one who had been hit.Victoria did not ask if it was true. She did not care if it was true.She looked at Derek's swollen face the way she looked at a contract. Then the corner of her red mouth lifted."Did anyone see it?""Everyone saw it!" Margaret pointed at the pavement. "That woman over there even filmed it on her phone!""And Max?"Max stood by the car with his hands folded. He had seen the slap. He had not seen the ring.He nodded."Good," Victoria said.Margaret stopped crying. "Good?""A man beats my brother on th

The next morning, Brenda was dressed before the dryers downstairs had even started.She stood at the little mirror by the door in her best coat, putting on lipstick and humming."Beauty salon at ten," she announced. "Then the mall. Then lunch somewhere with real napkins."Alexander had been awake since four, sitting cross-legged on the cold floor of Sophia's room while she slept, drawing spirit energy in through his chest, breath by breath.The thread had grown. One hair thicker. Nothing more.Next to what he used to be, it was pathetic. But it was moving. In his first life, the first step had taken him years. This time it had taken one night.He opened his eyes and rubbed his neck. Every bone in his back hurt."Oh, look who's awake," Brenda called through the open door. "The man who sleeps on my floor.""Mom," Sophia said from the bed. "Stop.""What? I'm being nice. I said good morning."Danny, behind his newspaper at the kitchen table, said nothing. Wisely.Brenda's phone rang. She

The Cavendish house on Elm Ridge was lit up like a ship.Every window glowed. Cars lined the long drive all the way to the gate. Inside, the old stone walls were warm with candlelight, and a crystal chandelier hung over a dining table long enough to seat thirty.Beverly sat at the head of it in a dark green dress, her silver horse-head cane leaning against her chair. Tonight she looked like a queen receiving taxes.One by one, the family came up to lay their gifts before her.Carter went first, Chloe's brother from the main branch. A bottle of cognac older than his father, eighty thousand dollars, he told the whole room twice.Then Chloe, glittering, on the arm of her fiancé, Blake Turner."Grandma, this is from Blake and me." She opened a velvet box. Inside lay a diamond brooch in the shape of a little horse. "To match your cane. One hundred and twenty thousand dollars.""Oh!" Beverly laughed out loud. "Oh, Chloe. You always know what I like."Everyone clapped.Brenda's gift, a cashm