I looked at Elliot and felt my heart fall to my stomach.

He had forgotten that it was my birthday today too.

Celeste and I were born on the same day.

However, our lives were wildly different. She lived at the top of society, while I was like the mud under someone’s boot.

Elliot immediately ordered the bodyguards to apprehend me. He tossed an army knife before me.

His next words were nearly emotionless. “You must bleed even more than Celeste has.”

I looked at him in disbelief.

“Are you nuts, Elliot Wendell?”

I started to struggle violently.

All Elliot did was give me a look before ordering the bodyguards to cut me.

A sharp sting spread across my arm, and warm blood started flowing out.

I gasped from the pain, and tears began to trickle uncontrollably down my face.

Then came another cut, and another.

I did not know how many times they cut me. The pain had gotten so unbearable that I could feel nothing at all, and my vision became blurry.

I looked at Elliot’s unfeeling expression and the delighted smile on Celeste’s face.

Right then, I felt completely hopeless.

“Just a few more cuts…”

Elliot finally spoke again and put an eventual end to the bodyguards’ actions. “Send her to the hospital after this.”

After that, he did not spare me another glance. He swept Celeste up into his arms and walked out.

I lay in a pool of my own blood as consciousness slowly bled out of me.

Before I lost all awareness, I seemed to see that earthquake in my mind again.

This time, Elliot did not protect me. He only stood coldly to one side and watched as boulders landed on me. He was completely unaffected.

‘I’ve paid back all that I owe you, Elliot Wendell,’ I thought to myself.

When I opened my eyes again, my nose stung with the smell of disinfectant in the hospital.

Elliot was sitting by my bed. His eyes lit up when he saw me wake up.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out.

I froze at that.

“I went overboard last night.”

He lowered his gaze and continued with regret in his voice, “I got too angry, and I couldn’t control my emotions. I—”

“What about it?” I interrupted him and calmly asked, “Are you trying to say that you regret it?”

He looked up abruptly and opened his mouth as if to speak, but he only sighed in the end.

“Don’t talk to me like that, Samantha.” Immediately after, his voice turned gentle. “I know you hate me, but Celeste nearly died.”

“Elliot,” I said as I held his gaze, “you don’t need to apologize. Think of it as me repaying what I owe you.”

“What you owe me?” He frowned, and he was clearly confused by what I said.

“That’s right.” A grimace tugged at my lips.

“In the previous timeline, you saved my life during an earthquake. In this timeline, I’ve repaid you. We’re in the clear, you and I.”

After I said this, Elliot stood up, and the chair clattered to the floor behind him.

His lips trembled as his pupils constricted from the shock.

“You… You went back in time too?”