Rebirth Into My Second Chance

I stared blankly into the sky, a chilling question haunting my thoughts: had I just killed my brother?

"It's going to be okay. That wasn't a fatal shot," Max Hilton tried to reassure me, but his words were lost on me. Just then, a helicopter, having just taken off, suddenly nosedived towards the earth, crashing into the hillside ahead with a deafening explosion. It felt as though the shockwave had scattered my soul. "Oh no-" I clasped my ears as my legs gave out beneath me. "Max, did Richard plan on making a suicide pact with Hannah?"

Max didn't reply, his gaze heavy upon the site of the crash. "We need to find them, dead or alive!" he commanded.

The Hilton family's bodyguards revved up the engine, driving towards the smoldering hillside.

As I watched the flames rage, darkness overtook me, and I fainted, overwhelmed by the calamity.

That day, I discovered I was Richard's sister. That day, I had injured my own brother. In that moment, I watched my brother's plane crash.

My agony was silent, a desperate wish that this was all just a nightmare.

Even in unconsciousness, I could sense the frantic efforts around me, people trying to save me.

I didn't get why they were so urgent, but I saw Max, all battered, clutching my hand tightly and urging, "Claire, don't fall asleep."

Life seemed like a fleeting dream.

...

When I awoke, I found myself as nothing but a spirit again.

I drifted through Claude Hart's home, watching him weep over my portrait.

Had I died? And Max?

Then I saw Claude rushing out, falling to his knees in front of mine and Max's gravestones.

Max was dead too?

Then came Kate Goodwin, attempting to console Claude: "Claude, people can't come back from the dead. Stop crying."

"Get lost! You killed Claire! If it hadn't been for your kidnapping, none of this would have happened," Claude pushed Kate away furiously.

Kate had kidnapped me? Was this my spirit revisiting the past?

"But I only meant to scare her, I

never thought she'd die!" Kate sobbed uncontrollably, kneeling at my grave. "I'm so sorry, Claire Floyd,

I never intended to killconte

Claude's face was stern, his gaze towards Kate full of loathing: "Stop pretending. Just stay away from me from now on."

"Claude, it wasn't me. I wanted to save her, but I couldn't find her."

"Who made the call saying she was at the bar?"

"I don't know. I had people looking for her, so when someone said she was there, I believed it and took you there."

"And who claimed her ring?"

"I really don't know. When I went to

see if it was Claire Floyd's, the

detectives said it had just been claimed. Lasked by whom, but they said they couldn't disclose that? But I saw armored cars parked outside the precinct, and then they were gone."

Armored cars?

"Forget it. Just never show your face to me again. Claude moved towards Max's grave. "You were everything aimed for in life. Dying over a

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woman, was it worth it?" His eyes

held a coldness I couldn't decipher.

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Kate shouted after him, "Claire Floyd was a curse! Her own parents disowned her till their death, cursed from birth to bring ruin."

As I yearned to hear more, my spirit felt abruptly pulled away.

Opening my eyes, I saw Max's anxious gaze.

I immediately sprang up to embrace him. "Max, you're alive..."