Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1: The Last Phone Call
The last thing I heard before the crash was Ruth's voice on the phone saying, "Celine, the CEO will be mad if you don't finish it tonight."
It was almost midnight. The road was wet from rain. My hands were shaking on the wheel.
I was driving home after a full day plus overtime at Stone Corp. My eyes were closing. I had just finished Ruth's report. Not mine. Ruth's.
Ruth from Marketing had asked me in the afternoon, "You are so sweet, Celine, please help me. You type so fast."
I am shy. I never know how to say no. When people call me sweet, I just nod and look down. When people say I am pretty, I don't believe them. I hide behind my hair. I wear loose sweaters. I like to be invisible.
So I said yes to Ruth. Again.
My chest felt tight from no sleep. The car lights were blurry.
My phone lit up at the red light. A new memo from the company intranet: "From Office of CEO Adrian Stone - Mandatory overtime extended for audit preparation. All staff must comply."
I hated that name.
Adrian Stone. The CEO. Rich. Cold. Scary. Untouchable. The man on the top floor who never smiled, who never said thank you, who walked through Floor 3 like we were furniture. Everyone was scared of him. Everyone went quiet when his elevator opened.
He never knew I existed. Why would he? I was just one of the junior assistants on Floor 3. The quiet girl who does the work. I knew who he was, but he didn't know me.
I hated him because I was dying doing work for his company and he would never know.
The light turned green. I pressed the gas. My eyes closed for one second.
Then the truck.
I died alone in that car crash. Because I was too tired, too shy to say no, and too invisible.
Then I opened my eyes.
The coffee machine was hissing.
I jerked up. My chair screeched. I was breathing hard, my hands on a desk. Not a steering wheel. A desk.
Same old desk. Same cracked keyboard. Same cheap coffee smell. Floor 3. Stone Corp.
Maya from accounting leaned over, worried. "Celine! You okay? You screamed."
I touched my face, my neck, my arms. No blood. No pain. Alive.
I looked at the calendar on my desk. It was my first week. Again.
I came back. I was reborn. Only me. No one else came back.
Maya whispered, "You look pale."
I looked away quickly. I get embarrassed when people stare too long.
"What happened?" I asked, my voice small.
"You fell asleep for two seconds," Maya said. "Ruth was calling you."
Ruth.
At the next desk. Same smile as last night, same voice as on the phone before the crash.
Ruth leaned over with her sweet fake smile. "Celine, you are awake. Sweetie, can you finish my report? The CEO will be mad if we don't finish tonight. You are so kind, you know?"
Same words. Exactly the same words as the night I died.
Last life, I said yes. Because I was shy, because I wanted to be liked, because I was scared of the cold CEO upstairs.
This life, my hands were still shaking, but not from tiredness. From anger.
I looked at Ruth.
"No," I said.
The word was small but the whole floor heard it. Floor 3 is never quiet, but it went quiet.
Ruth blinked. "What?"
"I said no," I said, a little louder, even though my voice shook and my cheeks turned red. "It's your report. Not mine. I have my own work. I leave on time today."
Maya grabbed my sleeve under the desk. "Celine, are you crazy? You know how Mr. Stone is. He is scary. He hates lazy people. He is rich and powerful and he fires people—"
"I know how he is," I said quietly. "Cold. Scary. He doesn't know we exist anyway."
You are not allowed to say that about Adrian Stone. Especially not if you are a junior girl. People expect girls like me — quiet, shy, sweet — to admire the rich CEO. I didn't. I hated him. In my last life and in this life.
He built a company where a girl has to drive home at midnight after doing someone else's work and die in a crash.
Ruth stood up, angry now. "Fine. Don't help. When the CEO asks why audit reports are late, I will tell him you refused."
Audit.
That word. My heart stopped.
The audit is next month. That audit is what killed me last life. Three months of late nights, midnight drives, no sleep. And the company still collapsed after the audit because the numbers were wrong. I saw the mistake last life. In file 3B. No one listened to me because I was just a shy junior assistant.
This time I remember.
I sat back down slowly. My legs were weak.
I thought, if life gave me a second chance, I will not die invisible again because I was too shy to say no.
This time I will choose a different path. I will leave on time. I will not do Ruth's work. I will not work myself to death for a cold CEO who never knew my name.
I am not in love with Adrian Stone. I don't want him to notice me. I hated him before I died and I hate him now.
But this time, I want to live.
My name is Celine. People say I am pretty but I don't really believe it. I am just shy. I try to be kind. I get embarrassed when people compliment me.
I died once in a car crash after saying yes.
This life, I will learn to say no, even if my voice shakes.
And I will never let a man like Adrian Stone, or a girl like Ruth, make me hate my life again.
Outside, the elevator dinged. The top floor elevator.
Everyone on Floor 3 sat straighter.
Adrian Stone walked out. Black suit. Tall. Face like ice. No smile. Two managers followed him, talking fast, scared.
He didn't look at anyone. He walked past my desk. Untouchable. Scary. Rich. The kind of man you don't look at twice if you are shy.
He didn't know I was reborn. He didn't know I died hating his company.
He walked past and didn't see me.
But this time, I saw him clearly. And I was not going to die for him again.
