Rebirth Into My Second Chance

In the end, I never got to taste Max's barbecue ribs.

Because I fled. My heart was wrestling with itself, torn between fear that Max was truly Maximilian, and the dread that he wasn't. How was I to find the real Maximilian? So, I made up an excuse and left early.

Wandering aimlessly through the streets alone.

When I longed for home, the orphanage had undergone a complete makeover.

When I missed my parents, not even a memorial stone was to be found.

No wonder in my past life, even in death, I was a restless spirit with nowhere to go.

I looked up, hoping to see the moon, but it was obscured by clouds.

After aimlessly wandering for a while, I returned to the base of my apartment building and instinctively looked up at Max's apartment. No lights were on; he sure went to bed early. Stepping out of the elevator, I saw Claude standing at my door, no longer needing a wheelchair after a few days of recovery.

"What are you doing here?"

I immediately pressed the elevator button, ready to jump back in if he tried anything funny.

"Claire, let's talk," he said, moving closer, causing me to step back.

"Claude, what's there to talk about? We have no feelings, no complications between us. We're strangers now."

feelings to? Maximilian? When did

against the elevator doors, his

"I don't know him."

did he take you

indeed Maximilian who had rescued me from the villa that

even if I did know him,

but not him." Claude grabbed my wrist and dragged me to

QUMS

I struggled to free my wrist from his

you only like people with power and despise me?" The Claude I knew had

was the first time

poverty had left him feeling

I feared he might do something drastic, so I

let go with

a

How about I buy you a mansion in

father's hometown, where he once said he'd settle

me into your mistress? A caged pet hidden away in another

for me were nothing but a twisted

let